Something for you to read.
The Hidden Truth about Cholesterol
by Mike Geary, Certified Nutrition Specialist, Certified Personal Trainer
We all know that heart disease is one of the leading killers of people around the
world, particularly highest in countries such as the US and Australia.
However, did you know that there are several medical studies worldwide that
clearly show that higher cholesterol levels in the body actually increases
longevity instead of decreasing it? Yes, you heard that right! People with high
cholesterol have been statistically shown to live longer and healthier than people
with low cholesterol in several studies. There are multiple references for this
phenomenon in Shane Ellisonʹs controversial book, The Hidden Truth about
Cholesterol Lowering Drugs, Dr. Uffe Ravnskovʹs (MD, PhD) book entitled The
Cholesterol Myths, as well as Sally Fallon and Mary Enigʹs book, Nourishing
Traditions.
So why in the world are the pharmaceutical and medical industry pushing for
practically everyone on the planet to ʺlower their cholesterolʺ? Well, the first, and
more innocent answer, is flawed medical studies from decades ago that have
been accepted as fact and never fully analyzed for their validity. Another answer
is that this practice of recommending that half of the damn planet takes a
cholesterol lowering medication (currently, statins), regardless of whether they
truly have any real risk for heart disease, creates insane multi-squillion dollar
profits for the drug companies!
As a perfectly absurd example of how doctors have been wrongly influenced by
the drug companies... a couple years ago, I was a perfectly healthy 28 yr old, in
great shape, exercising daily, eating a balanced healthy diet full of antioxidants
and quality nutrition, no smoking, and with no real risk factors for heart disease,
and just because my cholesterol level has been consistently measured over 200
for my entire life, my doctor recommended I consider using a statin drug.
Consider how outlandish this scenario is! The drug companies have hypnotized
doctors into prescribing unnecessary prescription drugs to healthy young people
with perfectly normal cholesterol levels that just happen to be over this arbitrary
number of 200 that theyʹve come up with. Luckily, I refused to be a guinea pig
and fork over my hard earned duckets for potentially dangerous drugs, and
decided to start researching this whole cholesterol and heart disease connection
myself. Consider also that my father, who is now 60 years old, has had
cholesterol levels slightly over 200 his entire life also (just like me), yet he is
perfectly healthy at his ripe age of 60.
As time goes on and scientists continue to learn more about heart disease, it has
become quite clear over the recent years that inflammation within the body
(NOT cholesterol levels) is what causes plaque build up in the arteries and
eventual heart disease. Inflammation can be caused by many personal factors
such as stress, smoking, viruses, consumption of refined and/or hydrogenated
fats (man-made trans fats), an imbalance of omega-6 polyunsaturated fats to
omega-3 polyunsaturated fats in the diet, excess refined sugars in the diet, etc.
Hereʹs a quick and dirty of how it works in general. Cholesterol is a healing
substance within the body (among many other important functions), and
responds to arterial inflammation by getting deposited in combination with other
substances, forming ʺplaqueʺ as a healing agent on the artery lining.
Levels of inflammation in your body can be measured with whatʹs called a CRP
test (c-reactive protein). The accuracy of this test still has room for improvement,
as it can vary depending on the time of day and other factors, but it is a much
better indication of heart disease risk than a cholesterol test (which is practically
useless for determining heart disease risk).
Another more important test than cholesterol levels for heart disease risk is a test
for serum homocysteine levels. The next time your doctor wants you to get blood
cholesterol tests, request CRP and homocysteine tests instead. He/she should be
well aware of the validity of these tests if they are up to date.
Basically, if you have significant internal inflammation, this plaque will be
deposited as a healing agent regardless of whether you have high or low
cholesterol. On the other hand, if you donʹt have inflammation, high cholesterol
levels just keep circulating without getting deposited on the artery linings.
Therefore, it is more important to control inflammation rather than trying to
lower your cholesterol.
Lowering your cholesterol doesnʹt attack the root of the problem (what is
actually causing the inflammation in you). Lowering your cholesterol does
nothing except to make the drug companies rich, and possibly leave you with a
whole assortment of possible negative side-effects.
The good news is that preventing heart disease is about living a healthy lifestyle,
not about throwing down a drug pill everyday. Controlling your inflammation
to prevent heart disease is as easy as reducing the stress in your life (try deep
breathing exercises, Qigong, yoga, etc.), maintaining a healthy weight, eating a
high-antioxidant, highly nutritious unprocessed diet (as recommended in my
Truth about Six Pack Abs program), and avoiding smoking and other causes of
heavy free radical production in the body.
I hope this article has given you some helpful info about the real causes of heart
disease and not the propaganda that has been shoved down your throat for
years, based on flawed medical studies from 40-50 years ago, making drug
companies filthy rich.
If you or anyone you care about is currently taking statins, or if you just want to
learn more about cholesterol and the scandal that is revolving currently around
statin drugs, please see The Cholesterol Myths.
On a related topic, were you aware that there is also quite a controversy these
days in the health industry over the fact that saturated fat is not necessarily bad
for you, and can actually be downright good for you in some cases? I posted this
article a few months ago, but thought I would mention this article again - The
Truth about Saturated Fats