Is Your Doctor Wrong About Cholesterol?
My wife and I were sitting at the dinner table with some friends. My wife had eggs, steak, beef carpaccio and smoked salmon on her plate. One of the friends asked her “aren’t you worried about cholesterol?” pointing at my wife’s plate. Before my wife could say anything, I replied “no, her plate is not cholesterol, this is cholesterol” pointing back at the friend’s plate who had potatoes, some pasta and bread on hers. The friend shook her head in disbelief and said “What? No, red meat and eggs increase cholesterol, I trust my doctor.” She then proceeded to ask other people to validate her opinion that you should avoid meat and eggs to not increase your cholesterol.
Let’s talk about it. Cholesterol is super important for our body. So important that our body makes 75% of its own cholesterol, only 25% comes from our diet. It is an essential molecule which our bodies cannot live without. We need cholesterol to make hormones, to digest our food, every cell is our body has cholesterol coating, our brain and muscles need it, and we need cholesterol in our skin cells to make vitamin D from sunlight. Any medication designed to lower the production of cholesterol will influence those important functions.
My wife’s friend, who is not at her best health by the way, has been following advice of her doctor to keep her consumption of meat and eggs at very minimum to prevent from high cholesterol, thus a heart disease. YET according to the National Health Institute and National Health Library “To date, extensive research did not show evidence to support a role of dietary cholesterol in the development of cardiovascular disease. As a result, the 2015–2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans removed the recommendations of restricting dietary cholesterol to 300 mg/day.” Perhaps that is why my father-in-law who lives in Prague and who eats primarily sausages, lard, pork belly, smoked pork hock – mind you, all home made – is in great health in his 70s. He also drinks slivovitz (plum brandy) which I love (but that’s another story :). According to many doctors, he should have had many heart attacks or heart disease over the years but, somehow, he’s had none and he is thriving.
So what is really happening with cholesterol? You may have heard about good cholesterol (HDL) and bad cholesterol (LDL). But there is really no good or bad cholesterol. It is one cholesterol. Cholesterol on its own does not mix well in water or blood, so it needs a protein capsule to be transported in our body. These cholesterol shuttles are called lipoproteins. LDL (low density lipoprotein) transports cholesterol from our liver to our blood and cells. HDL (high density lipoprotein) takes the excess cholesterol and brings it back to the liver and it is recirculated. That’s it – one shuttles it out, the other brings in in. It is a circulation we need in our body to live.
Because we have been told that LDL (low-density lipoprotein) is bad cholesterol, many doctors will raise the alarm when they see a higher number of LDL on our blood test and will talk about the need for medication that lowers the production of cholesterol, like statin. Remember, any medication that interferes with the production of cholesterol will have an effect in some way or another on our brain, muscles, hormone production and other functions that we need cholesterol for. High LDL levels simply mean that there is a disbalance in the cholesterol circulation.
The real question is what is causing this disbalance? Our liver is supposed to take in the extra LDL in our blood stream and recirculate it. And when there is no condition, it does so. Therefore, just looking at LDL levels on its own is simply not enough. The real problem happens when LDLs in our blood become damaged and oxidized and therefore, they shrink. They become a type of lipoprotein called small, dense (aka type B) LDLs that are true risk factor for heart disease. Our liver does not accept damaged LDLs and so they keep accumulating in our blood. But what causes the healthy, large and fluffy LDLs to become damaged and oxidized small dense type b LDLs? It is oxidative stress, inflammation and too much sugar in your blood. These conditions are the real problem, the small dense type b LDLs are just an indicator that these conditions are present.
If you are worried about your cholesterol, the next time you do a blood test, do the one which shows LDL PARTICLE SIZE (LDL-P). You want to see how much damaged small dense LDLs you have, not just the overall levels of LDLs (LDL-C) which does not show the whole picture.
What do most people do when they are told their cholesterol is high? They go on a low-fat diet, which is usually high on carbs, and they go on medication, completely missing to deal with the cause. You should treat the cause, not the symptoms. Avoid sugar and limit carbs in your diet to decrease inflammation and insulin resistance that cause the disbalance in cholesterol circulation.
If you would like to dig deeper on this topic, here is a great 28-minute video from Dr. Sten Ekberg “Your Doctor Is Wrong About Cholesterol”
Let’s talk about it. Cholesterol is super important for our body. So important that our body makes 75% of its own cholesterol, only 25% comes from our diet. It is an essential molecule which our bodies cannot live without. We need cholesterol to make hormones, to digest our food, every cell is our body has cholesterol coating, our brain and muscles need it, and we need cholesterol in our skin cells to make vitamin D from sunlight. Any medication designed to lower the production of cholesterol will influence those important functions.
My wife’s friend, who is not at her best health by the way, has been following advice of her doctor to keep her consumption of meat and eggs at very minimum to prevent from high cholesterol, thus a heart disease. YET according to the National Health Institute and National Health Library “To date, extensive research did not show evidence to support a role of dietary cholesterol in the development of cardiovascular disease. As a result, the 2015–2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans removed the recommendations of restricting dietary cholesterol to 300 mg/day.” Perhaps that is why my father-in-law who lives in Prague and who eats primarily sausages, lard, pork belly, smoked pork hock – mind you, all home made – is in great health in his 70s. He also drinks slivovitz (plum brandy) which I love (but that’s another story :). According to many doctors, he should have had many heart attacks or heart disease over the years but, somehow, he’s had none and he is thriving.
So what is really happening with cholesterol? You may have heard about good cholesterol (HDL) and bad cholesterol (LDL). But there is really no good or bad cholesterol. It is one cholesterol. Cholesterol on its own does not mix well in water or blood, so it needs a protein capsule to be transported in our body. These cholesterol shuttles are called lipoproteins. LDL (low density lipoprotein) transports cholesterol from our liver to our blood and cells. HDL (high density lipoprotein) takes the excess cholesterol and brings it back to the liver and it is recirculated. That’s it – one shuttles it out, the other brings in in. It is a circulation we need in our body to live.
Because we have been told that LDL (low-density lipoprotein) is bad cholesterol, many doctors will raise the alarm when they see a higher number of LDL on our blood test and will talk about the need for medication that lowers the production of cholesterol, like statin. Remember, any medication that interferes with the production of cholesterol will have an effect in some way or another on our brain, muscles, hormone production and other functions that we need cholesterol for. High LDL levels simply mean that there is a disbalance in the cholesterol circulation.
The real question is what is causing this disbalance? Our liver is supposed to take in the extra LDL in our blood stream and recirculate it. And when there is no condition, it does so. Therefore, just looking at LDL levels on its own is simply not enough. The real problem happens when LDLs in our blood become damaged and oxidized and therefore, they shrink. They become a type of lipoprotein called small, dense (aka type B) LDLs that are true risk factor for heart disease. Our liver does not accept damaged LDLs and so they keep accumulating in our blood. But what causes the healthy, large and fluffy LDLs to become damaged and oxidized small dense type b LDLs? It is oxidative stress, inflammation and too much sugar in your blood. These conditions are the real problem, the small dense type b LDLs are just an indicator that these conditions are present.
If you are worried about your cholesterol, the next time you do a blood test, do the one which shows LDL PARTICLE SIZE (LDL-P). You want to see how much damaged small dense LDLs you have, not just the overall levels of LDLs (LDL-C) which does not show the whole picture.
What do most people do when they are told their cholesterol is high? They go on a low-fat diet, which is usually high on carbs, and they go on medication, completely missing to deal with the cause. You should treat the cause, not the symptoms. Avoid sugar and limit carbs in your diet to decrease inflammation and insulin resistance that cause the disbalance in cholesterol circulation.
If you would like to dig deeper on this topic, here is a great 28-minute video from Dr. Sten Ekberg “Your Doctor Is Wrong About Cholesterol”
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