Feeding the Irrational
Fear of Cholesterol
News You Can Use
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This web site will prove the most healthy diet for humans is:
70% total fat on a calorie basis
31% saturated fat
7% polyunsaturated fat
25% monounsaturated fat
7% other fats
27% protein
3% carbohydrates (20 gm of which 3 gm or less is fiber).Proof Saturated Fats Are Healthy.
Vegetarian Diet Deficiencies Are a Proven Fact.
Cholesterol, Energy, Healing, Sex and Babies.
Nutrition, Healing, Health, Protein, Fat, Carbohydrate & Cholesterol Science.
Top Ten Nutritional Myths, Distortions and Lies That Will Destroy Your Health.
Top Ten Historical Events That Created Our Current Health & Nutritional Quagmire.
What if bad fat isn't so bad?
No one's ever proved that saturated fat clogs arteries, causes heart disease.By Nina Teicholz
Men's Health
Updated 10:54 a.m. MT, Thurs., Dec. 13, 2007
I admit my surprise when the public school Physical Education department asked my permission to screen our eleven year-old child for elevated cholesterol. Then I thought, you can never be too young to learn the health benefits of the cholesterol lowering drugs. Since the faculty at our local grade school is obviously "cholesterol challenged" and may actually believe that such tests could in some way have value and might benefit sixth grade children, my concern that these tests might inadvertently brainwash them about the "hazards" of cholesterol is probably misplaced. Call me what you will, but I do not believe the public schools should act like marketing arms for pharmaceutical companies.
So what is it about "cholesterol" that strikes such fear into the hearts of men, women and children? In 1998 the American Medical Association (AMA) held a press conference and told doctors that public concern over elevated cholesterol was not warranted, and in the same year, the AMA also warned that common cholesterol lowering drugs (statins) are carcinogenic":
"All members of the two most popular classes of lipid-lowering drugs (the fibrates and the statins) cause cancer in rodents, in some cases at levels of animal exposure close to those prescribed to humans."
Carcinogenicity of lipid-lowering drugs.More recently, one of these drugs, Baycol, was linked to hundreds of deaths and removed from the market by the US Federal Drug Administration (FDA).
Cholesterol Drug Sales Halted - Baycol Pulled From Market After Deaths.Far from being something we or our children should have concern about, much less fear, ordinary cholesterol is a miracle of evolution. Vitamin-like, cholesterol is a very important substance that makes it possible to transport life giving fat soluble substances throughout the body using the water of the blood stream. With it, our bodies make essential hormones and vitamin D (with sunlight). Low cholesterol is a symptom of depression and cancer. It is so important that if cholesterol intake is restricted, our livers make more!
CHOLESTEROL PRIMER
The consensus on cholesterol seems to be the lower, the better, however according to PROTEIN POWER, by Michael and Mary Dan Eades, M.Ds., this is not always the case. Far from being a health destroyer, cholesterol is absolutely essential for life.
"Although most people think of it as being "fat in the blood," only 7 percent of the body’s cholesterol is found there. In fact, cholesterol is not really fat at all; it’s a pearly-colored, waxy, solid alcohol that is soapy to the touch. The bulk of the cholesterol in your body, the other 93 percent, is located in every cell of the body, where its unique waxy, soapy consistency provides the cell membranes with their structural integrity and regulates the flow of nutrients into and waste products out of the cells.
In addition, among its other diverse and essential functions are these: Cholesterol is the building block from which you body makes several important hormones: the adrenal hormones (aldosterone, which helps regulate blood pressure, and hydrocortisone, the body’s natural steroid) and the sex hormones (estrogen and testosterone). If you don’t have enough cholesterol, you won’t make enough sex hormones.
• Cholesterol is the main component of bile acids, which aid in the digestion of foods, particularly fatty foods. Without cholesterol we could not absorb the essential fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E and K from the food we eat.
• Cholesterol is necessary for normal growth and development of the brain and nervous system . Cholesterol coats the nerves and makes the transmission of nerve impulses possible.
• Cholesterol gives skin its ability to shed water.
• Cholesterol is a precursor of vitamin D in the skin. When exposed to sunlight, this precursor molecule is converted to active form for use in the body.
• Cholesterol is important for normal growth and repair of tissues since every cell membrane and the organelles (the tiny structures inside the cells that carry out specific functions) within the cells are rich in cholesterol. For this reason newborn animals feed on milk or other cholesterol-rich foods, such as the yolks of eggs, which are there to provide food for the developing bird or chick embryos.
• Cholesterol plays a major role in the transportation of triglycerides — blood fats — through the circulatory system.
A quick review of this list should give you a better idea of what cholesterol does and dispel any notion that it is a destroyer of health to be feared and avoided at all costs. Far from being a serial killer, cholesterol is absolutely essential for good health; without it you would die. Without cholesterol we would lose the strength and stability of our cells, rendering them much less resistant to invasion by infection and malignancy. In fact, a grave sign of serious illness, such as cancer development or crippling arthritis, is a falling cholesterol level."
PROTEIN POWER, Michael R. Eades, M.D., and Mary Dan Eades, M.D., Bantam Books, 1996.DANGERS OF LIPID LOWERING DRUGS
There is little evidence that lowering cholesterol protects human beings from heart disease. In fact, according to the Life Extension Foundation, of those who suffer heart attacks under age 50, more than 50 percent have no recognized risk factors.
According to noted nutrition expert Earl Mindell in his recent book Prescription Alternatives, "A victim of negative press, cholesterol is an essential component of the production of the steroid hormones and in nerve function as well as other essential body processes... First, there is absolutely no evidence anywhere that normal cholesterol floating around in the blood does any harm. In fact, cholesterol is the building block for all your steroid hormones, which includes all the sex hormones and the cortisones. Even slightly low levels of cholesterol are associated with depression, suicide, and lung cancer in older women. . . For most people, eating high cholesterol foods does not raise cholesterol."
Mindell further states: "While a cholesterol-lowering drug will usually do a very good job of lowering your cholesterol, there’s scant, if any, evidence that it will help you live longer or reduce your risk of heart attack unless you are extremely ill or have just suffered from a heart attack. . . There are no studies that show women benefit from these drugs — all the studies showing even marginal benefits have been done on men. Nor are there any studies showing that they reduce heart attacks or death in men aged 65 to 75. Since heart disease takes decades to develop, it’s highly unlikely that cholesterol-lowering drugs will help anyone over the age of 75. That leaves men aged 35 to 55, but even here the evidence of benefit is slim, and the possible side effects are huge. . . If the American public had even a clue of how destructive these drugs are, they wouldn’t touch them except in an emergency. . . Every information sheet on the most commonly prescribed cholesterol-lowering drugs will tell you that they cause cancer in rodents when taken long term in relatively normal doses. It’s also well-known that they can cause severe emotional imbalances in men, along with a wide array of life-threatening side effects. . . The wisest course of action is to avoid these drugs..."
WHY DOES CHOLESTEROL ACCUMULATE IN THE ARTERIES?
Drug company advertising for cholesterol lowering drugs gives the impression that excessive cholesterol in the blood simply deposits on the artery wall, and that lowering cholesterol levels stops that process. We agree with Mindell, Pauling and others that High cholesterol is a symptom of an underlying nutritional deficiency and/or toxicity that damages the arteries, not the cause.
CHOLESTEROL DRUGS - - A DEATH SENTENCE?
Lipid lowering drugs inhibit the formation of cholesterol by the liver, some might say they "damage" the liver. This mechanism also has other unwanted effects. From the Internet: "In 1987, Merck made headlines when it came out with Mevacor (lovastatin), the first cholesterol-lowering statin drug. Statins block enzyme pathways involved in the production of cholesterol, thereby lowering cholesterol levels. But that’s not all these drugs do. The same enzymes that are involved in the production of cholesterol are also required for the production of an essential compound called coenzyme Q10; not surprisingly, lower cholesterol levels in statin users are accompanied by reduced levels of CoQ10.
Coenzyme Q10 — also called ubiquinone, which means "occurring everywhere" — plays an important role in the manufacture of ATP, the fuel that runs cellular processes. Though it is present in every cell in your body, it is especially concentrated in the very active cells of your heart. Depriving the heart of CoQ10 is like removing a spark plug from your engine — it just won’t work. Low levels of CoQ10 are implicated in virtually all cardiovascular diseases, including angina, hypertension, cardiomyopathy and congestive heart failure.
In 1990, Merck drug manufacturer sought and received a patent for Mevacor and other statin drugs formulated with up to 1,000 mg of coenzyme Q10 to prevent or alleviate cardiomyopathy, a serious condition that can cause congestive heart failure. However, Merck has not brought these combination products to market, nor has this drug company educated physicians on the important of supplementing CoQ10 to offset the dangers of these drugs to the heart. Because they hold the patent, other drug companies are prevented from coming out with a statin/CoQ10 product.
If you’re taking a statin drug (Zocor, Provacol, etc.), don’t wait for your doctor to warn you of the substantial risks. Consider this fact: in the last 15 years (roughly the time that statins have been on the market), the incidence of congestive heart failure has tripled. If you want to avoid becoming a statistic, it is imperative that you take 200 mg of coenzyme Q10 daily."
LOW CHOLESTEROL LINKED TO STROKE
In July 2001 at the age of 68, Rev. George H. Malkmus suffered what he describes as a hemorrhagic stroke. He should have known that his low-fat, low-cholesterol vegetarian diet commonly results in dangerously low blood cholesterol which makes one prone to hemorrhagic stroke. Quoting Voyajer on the LowCarber.org message board:
"This type of stroke is very rare. It is called intraparenchymal hemorrhage where the brain starts bleeding internally. It is only found in Asian countries where they don't eat enough meat and animal products and especially where they don't eat saturated fat which is the only thing that protects against it."
Rev. George H. Malkmus is another sick vegetarian. His protein-deficient, vegetarian diet had weakened his blood vessels so severely that he had a hemorrhagic stroke. Now his brain is the vegetable. He is crippled, sick and brain damaged. He certainly deserves his wretched condition because he has caused many people to damage their health the way he did his own.
Asian type diets increased risk of intraparenchymal hemorrhage.
He tried to take some herbs for a while to bring down the high blood pressure which followed his stroke, but none of them had any effect. Thus he had to resort to using prescription blood pressure medication. He has discontinued giving seminars on his barley green vegetarian diet. Stroke and high blood pressure - YIKES.
Lp(a) THE REALLY BAD CHOLESTEROL
Much evidence is accumulating that so-called "bad" (LDL) cholesterol is no more dangerous than calcium. However, there is a component of cholesterol, a lipid that used to be grouped with LDL, that does signal danger when it is elevated. Linus Pauling and Matthias Rath singled out lipoprotein(a) or Lp(a), as the significant risk factor in heart disease. Under their theory, Lp(a) acts as a surrogate for chronic low vitamin C. Unfortunately, lipid lowering drugs do not lower Lp(a). A recent Oxford meta analysis (Sep 2000) found that people with elevated Lp(a) are 70% more likely to suffer a heart attack or stroke.
Lipoprotein Ups Heart Attack Risk.The Vitamin C Foundation has been investigating reports that high amounts of vitamin C, lysine and proline will lower elevated levels of Lp(a) in the blood after several months.
CHOLESTEROL SCREENING IN KIDS IS MADNESS
With this information in mind, I volunteered to address the Junior High School student body so that the students might hear another point of view. I even offered to show the student body Linus Pauling’s Video on Heart Disease: A Unified Theory. Our children should realize that not everyone agrees that elevated cholesterol is to be feared or the cause of heart problems. So far there has been no response to my offer.
Owen Fonorow
Fax: 630-416-1309
fonorow@foxvalley.net
http://www.vitaminCfoundation.org
http://www.PaulingTherapy.com
http://www.bolenreport.comAnthropological Research Reveals Human Dietary Requirements for Optimal Health
by H. Leon Abrams, Jr., MA, EDS"Michael DeBakey, world renowned heart surgeon from Houston, who has devoted extensive research into the cholesterol coronary disease theory, states that out of every ten people in the United States who have atherosclerotic heart disease, only three or four of these ten have high cholesterol levels; this is approximately the identical rate of elevated cholesterol found in the general population. (10) His comment: “If you say cholesterol is the cause, how do you explain the other 60 percent to 70 percent with heart disease who don’t have a high cholesterol?” In 1964 DeBakey made an analysis of cholesterol levels from usual hospital laboratory testing of 1,700 patients with atherosclerotic disease and found there was no positive or definitive relationship or correlation between serum cholesterol levels and the extent or nature of atherosclerotic disease."
The International Network of Cholesterol Skeptics.
The Cholesterol Myth by Thomas J. Moore ( pdf file ).
The Cholesterol Myths by Uffe Ravnskov, MD, PhD.
Dr. Robert C. Atkins - Meaningful Tests: Blood Lipids
Triglyceride, LDL and HDL Cholesterol Concentrations on Coronary Heart Disease Risk
Low-Density-Lipoprotein Subclasses and Response to a Low-Fat Diet in Healthy Men
Reference Books and Online Support Groups:
Good Calories, Bad Calories by Gary Taubes
This is a must read book. Gary Taubes is an award- winning scientist who has specialized in exposing misleading, incorrect, or fraudulent science. His seven- year research in every science connected with the impact of nutrition on health shows us that almost everything we believe about the nature of a healthy diet is wrong. For decades we have been taught that fat is bad for us, carbohydrates are better, and that the key to a healthy weight is eating less and exercising more. Yet with more and more people acting on the advice, we have seen unprecedented epidemics of obesity and diabetes.
Taubes argues persuasively that the problem lies in refined carbohydrates (white flour, sugar, easily digested starches) via their dramatic effect on insulin -- the hormone that regulates fat accumulation -- and that the key to good health is the kind of calories we take in, not the number. There are good and bad calories. Taubes traces how the common assumption that carbohydrates are fattening was abandoned in the 1960s when fat and cholesterol were blamed for heart disease and then -- wrongly -- were seen as the causes of a host of other maladies, including cancer. He shows us how these unproven hypotheses were emphatically embraced by authorities in nutrition, public health, and clinical medicine in spite of how well-conceived clinical trials have consistently refuted them. He also documents the dietary trials of carbohydrate-restriction which consistently show that the fewer carbohydrates we consume the leaner we will be.
With precise references to the most significant existing clinical studies, he convinces us that there is no compelling scientific evidence demonstrating that saturated fat and cholesterol cause heart disease; that salt causes high blood pressure; and that fiber is a necessary part of a healthy diet. Based on the evidence that does exist, he leads us to conclude that the only healthy way to lose weight and remain lean is to eat fewer carbohydrates or to change the type of carbohydrates we do eat and, for some of us, perhaps to eat virtually none at all.
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MEDICAL DISCLAIMER: All information is intended for your general knowledge only and is not a substitute for medical advice or treatment for specific medical conditions. You should seek prompt medical care for any specific health issues and consult your physician before starting a new fitness or nutrition regimen. The information contained in this online site and email is presented in summary form only and intended to provide broad consumer understanding and knowledge of dietary supplements. The information should not be considered complete and should not be used in place of a visit, call, consultation, or advice of your physician or other health care provider. We do not recommend the self-management of health problems. Information obtained by using our services is not exhaustive and does not cover all diseases, ailments, physical conditions, or their treatment. Should you have any health care related questions, please call or see your physician or other health care provider promptly. You should never disregard medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have read here. We strongly suggest you select a physician who is knowledgeable and supportive of the low-carbohydrate diet. Many of the physicians listed on this page have health clinics.
Drugs and Doctors May be the Leading Cause of Death in U.S.
Why Most Published Research Findings Are False.
Pharmaceutical firms are inventing diseases to sell more drugs.
The following sites have excellent information on a good diet for healing and health preservation.
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