Debunking Cholesterol Myths

By Raluca Schachter

Contributing Writer for Wake Up World

When a big, fat lie built around such a sensitive and health threatening issue becomes so widespread that even the authors start to believe it, it is really hard to turn the tide without major consequences.

We live in a time where we have GMO producers who won’t touch their food, but eat only organic instead, vaccine promoters and producers who won’t vaccinate their own kids or themselves, and of course, cholesterol lowering medication producers and promoters who won’t take their statins or give them to their family.

It makes you wonder, doesn’t it?

So what kind of cholesterol “myths” has the population been fed all this time through heavy marketing? Let’s take a look!

Myth #1 : High LDL Causes Atherosclerosis and Heart Disease

An important factor in atherosclerosis and heart disease  has been detected for  oxidized LDL, but this form of LDL shows no correlation with serum levels of native LDL. Rather, individual antioxidant status appears to be a key factor influencing  serum concentrations of oxidized LDL.

Where does oxidized cholesterol come from? It comes from  artificial, partially hydrogenated oils (trans fats), vegetable oils, genetically modified food, a diet high in refined sugars, alcohol and tobacco.  Damaged cholesterol is found in  powdered eggs, in powdered milk  (added to reduced-fat milks to give them body) and in meats and fats that have been heated to high temperatures in frying and other high-temperature processes.

When there is a high level of oxidation present in the body, there also tends to be free radical activity in the tissues.  Your body creates more cholesterol as a response to deal with inflammatory issues within the body.  So cholesterol is not the problem, it is merely the solution your body is using to try and heal itself.  Inflammation in the arterial walls is the real danger, and if left unchecked the swelling can eventually shut off blood flow to the heart or brain, which can cause a heart attack or stroke.  In fact, the  ratio of triglycerides to HDL cholesterol is probably the number one risk  factor for cardiovascular disease.

In the war against the “cholesterol demon”, the high levels of a substance called  homocysteine  are often forgotten. Homocysteine  has been correlated with pathological build up of plaque in the arteries and  the tendency to form clots which is a deadly combination.  Nutrients that lower homocysteine levels are folic acid, vitamins B6 and B12  and choline which are found mostly in animal foods.

So is high serum cholesterol useless? NO! It definitely indicates the presence of a metabolic  imbalance, that there is much  damage in the body that requires repair.

Then what are the real causes of heart attacks and strokes?  They are:

• High triglycerides
• Low HDL cholesterol
• High homocysteine levels
• Dietary deficiency of saturated fats and cholesterol
• Overload of oxidized cholesterol containing foods

Myth #2: “Good” and “Bad” Cholesterol

The two  most abundant lipoproteins in the body are the low-density lipoprotein (LDL) and high-density  lipoprotein (HDL). The main function of LDL is to transport  cholesterol from the liver to tissues that incorporate it into cell  membranes. HDL carries “old ” cholesterol that has been discarded  by cells back to the liver for recycling or excretion.

LDL and HDL are neither “good” or “bad”, they are just cholesterol.

The new fabricated theory which had to  incorporate the “”good – bad cholesterol”  paradigm states that:  LDL cholesterol forms “fatty deposits ” in  arterial walls, which become plaques that grow, rupture, and  stimulate the formation of artery-blocking blood clots. HDL  cholesterol, on the other hand, is the “heart-friendly ” lipoprotein  that counters the action of LDL by removing cholesterol from the  arteries and transporting it back to the liver for safe disposal. This  paradigm is overly simplistic and not supported by the overwhelming scientific, historical and clinical evidence.

Myth #3: Saturated Fat and Cholesterol Rich Foods Are Bad and Raise Your “Bad” Cholesterol

Back in the 1960”²s the average medical doctor totally ignored high cholesterol unless it exceeded 300!

Now, anything above 250 (or even lower than that) is considered a problem, and it is generally recommended  that people should avoid eating too many eggs or too much meat because of the risk of  heart disease from cholesterol intake.

You think that the medical profession suddenly had an epiphany, deciding cholesterol was dangerous? No!  It was the processed food industry who started  the big anti-cholesterol  movement, lead in particular by the seed oil industry!!  Archer Daniels Midland wanted to sell an ocean of soybean oil, and thus lead the charge  against cholesterol in particular and saturated fat in general. Coconut and palm oils were banned from importation, butter consumption dramatically plummeted and everyone “knew” that  margarine was going to save the nation!

Then the Statin drugs were invented, accompanied by a “paradigm shift” in the medical establishment and the war against cholesterol and saturated fat.

Although ignored by the “opinion leaders” in the medical field, studies which confirmed this fallacy continued to be published. Research published in the Journal of the American Medical  Association, 1999; 281(15):1387-94) showed that  there was absolutely no connection between  eating eggs and the risk of heart disease or stroke  in either men or women.

A study done by Gilman, et al and published in the  December 24, 1997 Journal of the American Medical Association found that …

 The more saturated fat you eat, the less likely you are to suffer a stroke.

This study actually was able to quantify the protective effect of saturated fats:

Your risk of stroke decreases by 15% for every 3% increase in your saturated fat intake.

William Castelli, M.D., a former Director of the Framingham Heart Study (the one  that originally supposedly implicated cholesterol as a problem in cardiovascular disease)  notes that:

People with low cholesterol (lower than 200) suffer nearly 40% of all heart attacks.

An interesting study was done by Leddy, et al and published in 1997 in Medicine  and Science in Sports and Exercise, Volume 29, where participants were  elite male and female endurance athletes, placed alternately on a high fat diet and then a low fat diet.  The results showed that the  athletes on the low fat diet experienced a measurable decline in athletic performance. Most interesting,  however, was the fact that  the subjects on the low fat diet actually suffered a  significant  drop in HDL cholesterol,  along with higher triglycerides  (both of  which are significant cardiovascular disease risk factors).

Corn oil, soy  oil, safflower oil, canola oil, peanut oil, or any of the rest of the vegetable oils (except  olive, coconut oil, or palm oil) will accelerate the aging process in general, create  catabolic damage throughout the body, and will specifically cause the oxidative damage  in the blood vessel walls and in the heart that precipitates a cardiovascular crisis.

Myth #4: Statins Are Safe

The first real danger from statins is  liver damage. Statin drugs work by blocking the enzyme HMG CoA reductase so that the liver can no longer synthesize its own cholesterol. They interfere with normal liver metabolism, inhibit the liver’s  production of many substances essential for health, and damage the liver in the process.

That is why it is generally recommended that once beginning statin drugs, the patient should have his liver enzymes checked every six months.

Our liver produces 2000 milligrams of cholesterol every day. You think it’s  trying to destroy us with cardiovascular disease? No.  Cholesterol is an absolutely essential  substance, with many critical functions in the body. We couldn’t survive without it.

The second danger from taking Statin drugs is  musculoskeletal pain  that can be severe,  and is very frequently misdiagnosed.  Since most doctors are not aware that this is a common side effect of the statins,  people that suffer this side effect are often given diagnoses of tendinitis, tendinosis,  tenosynovitis, tendinopothy, bursitis, rotator cuff syndrome, and so forth.

There are many cases reported in the literature of patients undergoing surgery for  musculoskeletal pathologies that did not really exist.  A number of statin patients have experienced kidney failure and even death; others have  had such severe muscular pain and weakness that they are eventually unable to stand or  breath on their own.

Statins  deplete Co-Q10 levels  in the body.  Without Co-Q₁₀, the cell’s mitochondria are inhibited from producing energy, leading to muscle pain and weakness. The heart is especially susceptible because it uses so much energy.

Manufacturers of  statin  drugs have also recognized the fact that  statins  depress the immune system, an effect that can lead to cancer and infectious disease, recommending  statin  use for inflammatory arthritis and as an immune suppressor for transplant patients.

Importance Of Cholesterol: A Summary

As perfectly summarized by Guy Schenker and Ronald Grisanti, it is ridiculously wrong to believe that cholesterol is a harmful substance which needs to be “destroyed”, if you think about the many vital, physiological functions it plays in the body:

• ™Your brain is made of cholesterol
• ™Your nerves are made of cholesterol
• ™Your body uses cholesterol to make all your important sex hormones and adrenal hormones
• Mother’s milk provides over 50% of its calories as fat, most of it saturated and provides the highest level of cholesterol than any other food!
• Without cholesterol to help your digestion, you couldn’t absorb any of your fat soluble vitamins like vitamin A and vitamin E
• ™Every single cell in your body is surrounded by a membrane containing cholesterol, and without that cholesterol membrane, no cell in your body could function
• Cholesterol is so important that your liver produces 2000 milligrams of cholesterol every day
• ™When following a low cholesterol diet, your liver makes up the difference by producing more cholesterol just to be sure you have enough. (Then, statins, of course “lower it”… and pour more gasoline on the burning fire!)
• ™High cholesterol in the blood doesn’t come from eating foods high in cholesterol; it comes from a metabolism that is not efficient at handling the cholesterol you need.

Resources:

Colpo, Anthoni. LDL Cholesterol:   “Bad ” Cholesterol, or Bad Science?

Guy Schenker D.C. and Ronald Grisanti D.C., D.A.B.C.O., M.S. –  The Cholesterol Farce

Kendrick, Malcolm MD. – The Great Cholesterol Con

Lundell, Dwight, MD.  The Cholesterol Lie Exposed

Taubes, Gary.  The Soft Science of Dietary Fat

Sally Fallon and Mary G. Enig, PhD. Dangers of Statin Drugs: What You Haven’t Been Told About Popular Cholesterol-Lowering Medicines

Recommended articles by Raluca Schachter:

• Vitamin D Supplementation: This is Why It Can Be Wrong
• Hypothyroidism or Hashimoto’s? What You Need to Know and Why It Matters
• Understanding Cannabis Oil
• 6 Steps to Solve Your Blood Sugar Problems Permanently
• Antibiotic Resistant Infections: The Dangers… and How You Can Avoid Them
• What Really Happens When You Take Antibiotics?
• Understanding Inflammation and How to Eliminate It Naturally 
• Listen to Your Body. Correct Food Ratios. Reverse Disease.
• Cholesterol Myths Debunked
• Follow The Money In “Sick-Care”: What’s Behind The Drugs And Needles?
• What Happens In Your Body When You Suffer From Thyroid Disease?

About the author:

Raluca Schachter is a dedicated Clinical Nutritionist / Natural Health Practitioner a.k.a “The Health Detective”. Raluca was able to naturally reverse chronic health conditions she was struggling with most of her life, and now uses her knowledge to help as many people as possible do the same. Her health programs and diet plans offer a very unique and comprehensive approach to health, where individual nutritional and biochemical requirements are firstly met using specific nutrients and foods that each metabolism thrives on. Raluca offers her services to international clientele and her practice is fully online based. You can connect with Raluca at www.metabolicenergy.net and https://www.facebook.com/raluca.schachter.metabolicenergy