Forget Cholesterol - it's really not relevant
For decades we have been told that we must avoid cholesterol at any cost if we want to stay healthy.
Want to protect your heart and arteries? Then forget cholesterol, it is almost certainly one of the great myths of 20th century medicine.
As a matter of fact, there seem to be certain benefits to high cholesterol that medical authority is very reluctant to tell us about. In his article The Benefits of High Cholesterol,
Uffe Ravnskov says that people with high cholesterol live the longest. "This statement seems so incredible that it takes a long time to clear one's brainwashed mind to fully understand its importance," he continues, adding: "Yet the fact that people with high cholesterol live the longest emerges clearly from many scientific papers."FORGET CHOLESTEROL: It wasn't the bad guy after all
Want to protect your heart and arteries? Then forget cholesterol, it is almost certainly one of the great myths of 20th century medicine.
As Dr Mathias Rath said in an earlier Enews (no. 35), anti-cholesterol drugs have been a great way for the pharmaceuticals to boost an already burgeoning profit line, but they won't do much for your health.
Instead, the evidence is pointing more and more to homocysteine, an amino acid that occurs naturally with the breakdown of protein.
New research from the prestigious Framingham Heart Study has confirmed this once maverick view, first put forward by Dr Kilmer McCully.
Researchers studied the records of 2,491 adults with an average age of 72 who had no previous heart problems-and found that the first heart attack was closely linked to high levels of homocysteine. The link was more evident in women, the researchers found.
A high homocysteine level is a good predictor of a heart attack, the researchers conclude.
Cholesterol-lowering drugs remain the most frequently prescribed class of any drug in the world, so the pharmaceuticals are unlikely to be in the vanguard of any further research.
Not that they really need to. There's plenty of earlier research that supports the Framingham conclusion. Dr McCully took his lead from victims of homocysteinuria, a rare genetic disease where the liver is unable to dispose of homocysteine. As a result, the victim can die from blood clots in the brain, heart and kidneys. The arteries are also abnormal, and tend to harden and lose their elasticity.
Normally homocysteine is converted to methionine, an amino acid found in all proteins. But this complicated process needs vitamin B12 and folic acid. McCully concluded our diets needed to be high in B12 and folic acid (and he added B6 to the list) to ensure a healthy cardiovascular system.
So take your Bs, not anti-cholesterol drugs.
(Source: Journal of the American Medical Association, 2003; 289: 1251-1257).
See also:
THE TRUTH ABOUT CHOLESTEROL
By Dr. James Howenstine, MD. - February 20, 2005
Cholesterol is not really the villain portrayed in the pharmaceutical ads. It is actually a vital substance needed in every cell of the body...The International Network of Cholesterol Skeptics
The Vitamin C Foundation's Statin Drug Alert
Let them eat cake, butter, cream ... For decades the advice has been to cut cholesterol and protect your heart. Now some doctors think it makes no difference
From: healthmyths@safe-mail.net
To download the book, "What You Must Know about Cholesterol-Lowering Drugs", right click on the link below. Then choose to save it on your desktop. After completion of download, you will be able to open it. Then print and read.Shane Ellison M.Sc.
www.healthmyths.net
www.health-fx.netThe Truth About Deadly Cholesterol Lowering Drugs
From June Russell's Health Facts:
Eggs and Cholesterol - Controversy and DeceptionClass Action - Statins Increases Heart Disease By 10% In Women
Hopefully this will settle the question once and for all. The side effects are a sign of toxicity of the drugs and hence should be stopped. Cholesterol in the main is not the cause of heart disease but can be a symptom of heart disease and is often protective. Lowering it in many cases, as shown here, can be more detrimental the leaving it alone!The Lancet
A Commentary in the Lancet by John Abramson, MD, of Harvard Medical School, author of Overdosed America, and James Wright, MD, University of British Columbia, challenges the validity of the U.S. clinical practice guidelines recommending the expanded use of statins by healthy people. The authors argue that recommendations for the expanded use of statins to stave off cardiovascular disease are NOT supported by the evidence.Is High Cholesterol Really Bad?
People with high cholesterol live the longest. This statement seems so incredible that it takes a long time to clear one's brainwashed mind to fully understand its importance. Yet the fact that people with high cholesterol live the longest emerges clearly from many scientific papers. Consider the finding of Dr. Harlan Krumholz of the Department of Cardiovascular Medicine at Yale University, who reported in 1994 that old people with low cholesterol died twice as often from a heart attack as did old people with a high cholesterol. Supporters of the cholesterol campaign consistently ignore his observation, or consider it as a rare exception, produced by chance among a huge number of studies finding the opposite. But it is not an exception; there are now a large number of findings that contradict the lipid hypothesis...Cholesterol Is NOT The Cause of Heart Disease
Importantly, many solid scientific studies have shown a mechanistic, causal effect of elevated insulin and leptin on heart and vascular disease, whereas almost all studies with cholesterol misleadingly only show an association. Association does not imply cause. For instance, something else may be causing lipid abnormalities such as elevated cholesterol and triglycerides, and also causing heart disease. This "something else" is improper insulin and leptin signaling.
posted by Sepp Hasslberger on Tuesday June 3 2003
updated on Friday October 15 2010URL of this article:
http://www.newmediaexplorer.org/sepp/2003/06/03/forget_cholesterol_its_really_not_relevant.htm
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