If your doctor has said, "You have
high cholesterol." you are in some very good
company...including yours truly.
The standard cholesterol test
ordered by physicians measures
total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol
and HDL cholesterol. The LDLs are
off handedly described as the "bad
cholesterol"...but there is much
more to the story.
Robert Superko, MD, director of
research at the Berkeley HeartLab
explains.
�Cholesterol is not the
problem we thought it was. Relying
only on cholesterol levels as a
risk factor for coronary artery
disease may not be wise since 80%
of coronary patients have the same
cholesterol as individuals who do
not develop the disease.�
In fact, God knew what he was doing
when he provided us with
high cholesterol.
Dr. Mary
Enig, a world renowned researcher
of healthy fats and oils relates
the benefits of cholesterol:
"Your body needs cholesterol to
make stress hormones, sex hormones
and is needed for proper function
of serotonin receptors in the
brain. It also plays an important
part in repairing damaged cells
and acts as an antioxidant."
So why all the fuss about the
dangers of high cholesterol?
Dr.
Ravnskov, author of "The
Cholesterol Myth" provides us with
some little known history.
"It all started with the landmark
Framingham Heart Study, which
began following healthy people in
the early 1950s to see who had a
heart attack and who didn't.
"They [public health officials,
cardiologists, etc.] have confused
a statistical association with
causation," he observed. "It's as
if they saw a house burning and
determined that the bigger the
fire, the more fireman are
present, and then concluded that
firemen cause burning houses."
Cholesterol is an innocent
bystander who has been charged
with guilt by association,
convicted and sentenced to a 40
year term of restriction.
Using advanced technology,
scientists are now able to look
deeper into the
high cholesterol
components and analyze "what makes
them tick."
Researchers at the Berkeley Heart
Lab in Berkeley, California have
discovered how to break down the
LDL and HDL cholesterol into sub
fractions according to the size of
their particles. What they found
may surprise you as it did me.
In a nutshell they discovered that
the small dense cholesterol
particles, which they labeled APO
B, when damaged by inflammation
and free radicals, easily enter
the artery walls to create a
plaque.
In contrast large buoyant
particles found in HDL cholesterol flow
freely and actually reverse this
process.
These large buoyant APO A1
particles are known as
"anti-atherogenic", which means
that
they
act like guardian angels to
reverse heart disease!
The pharmaceutical industry does
not look upon this finding as good
news. Their labs are scrambling to
find a new "miracle drug" to sell
you that will increase HDL
cholesterol and lower inflammation
and oxidation.
They don't want you to know
that this can be accomplished
naturally...and without side
effects.
The sale of
cholesterol lowering drugs rings
their cash registers to the tune
of $14 billion dollars per
year.