DAVE MONTGOMERY, MD: Triglycerides are the fats that swim around in our body. We use those fats in normal amounts for fuel, for energy. We also use them to make hormones and to build cells.

SINCE 1959, when Albrink and Man 1 suggested that elevated serum triglyceride levels might be related to the pathogenesis of ischemic heart disease, several investigators 2–6 have measured the ...