The Benefits of Elevated Cholesterol
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Elevated Cholesterol is Good!
In the United States, and indeed throughout most of the industrial world, we have been brainwashed into believing elevated cholesterol levels are the cause of heart disease, and that cholesterol levels should be as low as possible. But this is a lie.
Cholesterol plays a critical role in a multitude of body processes, and provides a protective and beneficial role in supporting overall good health.
In fact, cholesterol is so important to the body that if you don't eat enough of it, your body will manufacture it. This self regulation factor makes it very difficult to use a low fat diet alone to lower cholesterol.
The less fat you eat, the more cholesterol your body makes. What happens if you forcibly lower your cholesterol?
Gold standard studies have shown that people with the lowest cholesterol levels die at higher rates from all causes.
Cholesterol plays a critical role in a multitude of body processes, and provides a protective and beneficial role in supporting overall good health.
In fact, cholesterol is so important to the body that if you don't eat enough of it, your body will manufacture it. This self regulation factor makes it very difficult to use a low fat diet alone to lower cholesterol.
The less fat you eat, the more cholesterol your body makes. What happens if you forcibly lower your cholesterol?
Gold standard studies have shown that people with the lowest cholesterol levels die at higher rates from all causes.
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The Seven Benefits of Elevated Cholesterol
Elevated cholesterol levels are defined by members of the mainstream medical community as being any number over 200 mg/dl. High cholesterol levels would be any number over 240 mg/dl.
Most doctors will tell you that cholesterol is bad and must be as low as possible. But consider the benefits cholesterol provides:
Cholesterol is so important to your body that it will make it if you don't eat enough. This self regulation makes it very difficult to use a low fat diet alone to lower your cholesterol. The less fat you eat, the more cholesterol your body makes.
Bizarre World of Medicine
Given all the evidence which confirms that cholesterol is protective and necessary for good health, I find it bizarre that the US government and most physicians work very hard to get people to lower their cholesterol levels as much as possible. The message that cholesterol is harmful is embedded deeply in the American psyche, and so the public doesn't question this misguided and harmful agenda.
Make no mistake, the drive to lower cholesterol is big business. Billions of dollars, thousands of jobs, and a multitude of agencies are involved in the overall goal of lowering American cholesterol levels. Huge amounts of money are spent to educate patients on the false benefits of a low fat, low cholesterol diet. Big pharmaceutical companies spend millions on developing and marketing drugs that lower cholesterol, often with injurious or lethal consequences.
For example, statin drugs, which cause serious nerve, muscle and kidney damage by interfering with the melavonate pathway, are being prescribed in mind boggling numbers. Between 2000 and 2005, the total prescriptions for statin drugs nearly doubled, bringing the 2005 yearly total to 174 million!
And there are individual perks for the physicians who participate in the exploding drug market. Pharmaceutical companies pay doctors huge amounts of money to "educate" other doctors about the benefits of drugs. In a story from New York Magazine, one doctor speaks of the addictiveness of the $750 he was paid each time he briefly mentioned a particular drug to colleagues during a lunch break.
That's a great deal of money and effort being spent on a goal that in the end, is extremely harmful to the patient.
And here's the real kicker: the cholesterol cut off level of 200 mg/dl wasn't set by doctors using scientific trials and medical results. In classic American political style, it was chosen by three men trying to get funding from Congress to continue cholesterol trials at the NHLBI. (National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute). The group reasoned that cutoff of 200 mg/dl would provide the largest population for use in future studies.
Elevated cholesterol levels are actually a cause for celebration, not a dire health problem about which you should worry.
If you have elevated cholesterol levels, and have been targeted for statin drug use, please spend some time researching the alternative facts on cholesterol and statins. You may save your own life in the long run.
Most doctors will tell you that cholesterol is bad and must be as low as possible. But consider the benefits cholesterol provides:
- Cholesterol is essential to life. Every cell in your body requires cholesterol to maintain cell wall integrity and separate internal cell processes from the blood stream.
- Cholesterol is also the starting material from which your body makes vitamin D, hormones and bile acids for digestion.
- Cholesterol helps the body fight infections and indeed this may be its most important benefit. Current research has suggested that heart disease and arteriosclerosis may be caused by infectious organisms, and higher levels of cholesterol protect the body from these inflammatory microorganisms.
- Cholesterol acts as a protective substance against stroke and cancer.
- Cholesterol is used by the body to repair injuries to arterial walls.
- The brain uses cholesterol to build the synaptic connections between brain cells (neurons). In fact, the brain has special glial cells whose only job is to make cholesterol for the neurons, since blood cholesterol can't get across the blood/brain barrier.
- People with high cholesterol levels live the longest. There are multiple studies which support this fact. This is especially true for the elderly.
Cholesterol is so important to your body that it will make it if you don't eat enough. This self regulation makes it very difficult to use a low fat diet alone to lower your cholesterol. The less fat you eat, the more cholesterol your body makes.
Bizarre World of Medicine
Given all the evidence which confirms that cholesterol is protective and necessary for good health, I find it bizarre that the US government and most physicians work very hard to get people to lower their cholesterol levels as much as possible. The message that cholesterol is harmful is embedded deeply in the American psyche, and so the public doesn't question this misguided and harmful agenda.
Make no mistake, the drive to lower cholesterol is big business. Billions of dollars, thousands of jobs, and a multitude of agencies are involved in the overall goal of lowering American cholesterol levels. Huge amounts of money are spent to educate patients on the false benefits of a low fat, low cholesterol diet. Big pharmaceutical companies spend millions on developing and marketing drugs that lower cholesterol, often with injurious or lethal consequences.
For example, statin drugs, which cause serious nerve, muscle and kidney damage by interfering with the melavonate pathway, are being prescribed in mind boggling numbers. Between 2000 and 2005, the total prescriptions for statin drugs nearly doubled, bringing the 2005 yearly total to 174 million!
And there are individual perks for the physicians who participate in the exploding drug market. Pharmaceutical companies pay doctors huge amounts of money to "educate" other doctors about the benefits of drugs. In a story from New York Magazine, one doctor speaks of the addictiveness of the $750 he was paid each time he briefly mentioned a particular drug to colleagues during a lunch break.
That's a great deal of money and effort being spent on a goal that in the end, is extremely harmful to the patient.
And here's the real kicker: the cholesterol cut off level of 200 mg/dl wasn't set by doctors using scientific trials and medical results. In classic American political style, it was chosen by three men trying to get funding from Congress to continue cholesterol trials at the NHLBI. (National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute). The group reasoned that cutoff of 200 mg/dl would provide the largest population for use in future studies.
Elevated cholesterol levels are actually a cause for celebration, not a dire health problem about which you should worry.
If you have elevated cholesterol levels, and have been targeted for statin drug use, please spend some time researching the alternative facts on cholesterol and statins. You may save your own life in the long run.
Further Resources for Reading About The Benefits of Cholesterol
...and the Mythical Link Between Cholesterol and Heart Disease.
Malcolm Kendrick on the Mythical Link between Cholesterol and Heart Disease.
LInks to Other Sites On Cholesterol Related Subjects
- Healthy Eating Politics
- This website provides information on the cholesterol myth that drives most healthy eating guides, and how vibrant health can be achieved by knowing the truth about what constitutes real, nutrient dense food.
- Duane Graveline's Website on Statins
- A critical resource for the truth about statin drugs, cholesterol, and heart disease.
- The International Network of Cholesterol Skeptics
- The International Network of Cholesterol Skeptics (THINCS) is a steadily growing group of scientists, physicians, other academicians and science writers from various countries. Members of this group represent different views about the causation of atherosclerosis and cardiovascular disease. They all oppose the hypothesis that animal fat and high cholesterol play a role. The aim with this website is to inform colleagues and the public that this idea is not supported by scientific evidence; in fact, for many years a huge number of scientific studies have directly contradicted it.
- Myogenic Theory of Heart Disease
- Tom Cowan, M.D. writes:
Briefly, the myogenic theory of MIs states that:
- The coronary obstruction theory does not adequately explain all the observed facts concerning MIs.
- The major etiologic (cause and effect) factor in an MI is a destructive chemical process; specifically, in situations of stress on the myocardial (heart muscle) tissue, often as a result of small vessel disease, the myocardial tissue gets insufficient oxygen and nutrients. This leads to destructive lactic acidosis in the tissue which, if unchecked, leads to death of the myocardial cells. This process is largely unrelated to coronary artery disease.
- The regular use of cardiotonics, primarily low-dose whole digitalis extracts or an extract of another herb called g-strophanthin, prevents this lethal acidosis and therefore prevents and corrects the true cause of this syndrome. The result is substantially lower morbidity and mortality from heart disease.
- The coronary obstruction theory does not adequately explain all the observed facts concerning MIs.
by EllenWyo
Ellen Davis researches nutrition and health issues and shares that information with other health conscious consumers. You can find more alternative information... more »
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