SubscribeThe Cholesterol Hype
Originally posted 6-13-2006
We are constantly told that dietary saturated fat and cholesterol intake are the causes of high serum (blood) cholesterol and that high cholesterol is the cause of atherosclerosis and heart disease. Of course, this means that we should subsist on a diet relatively devoid of animal fat and possibly replace some of your protein intake with soy for a “good low fat choice.” You also have to cut down on eggs, eat lots of grains for starch and fiber, and replace that “nutritional devil” saturated fat with some mono- and polyunsaturated fats.
So if we assume that the premise that saturated fats and dietary cholesterol are bad and lots of grains and polyunsaturated fats are good, is the War on Cholesterol justified? Does lowering the level of serum cholesterol reduce the prevalence of heart disease and atherosclerosis? Should we seek to lower cholesterol levels to the lowest level possible? Is there really such a thing as “bad” and “good” cholesterol? Hmmm. What if the establishment has been inadvertently wrong or possibly advertently misleading?
Oops, I guess I gave away the premise right there at the end of the second paragraph. The International Network of Cholesterol Skeptics is a group of doctors and scientists that seeks to set the record straight regarding the role of animal fat and high cholesterol in heart disease. One of these doctors is Uffe Ravnskov, author of The Cholesterol Myths. Dr. Ravnskov makes the point that high cholesterol doesn’t contribute to the hardening of arteries because studies show that people with low cholesterol are just as atherosclerotic as people with high cholesterol.
In fact, it appears that there may be benefits to having high cholesterol levels. Dr. Ravnskov asks us to “consider the finding of Dr. Harlan Krumholz of the Department of Cardiovascular Medicine at Yale University, who reported in 1994 that old people with low cholesterol died twice as often from a heart attack as did old people with a high cholesterol.” In fact, low cholesterol increases one’s risk of all-cause mortality; numerous studies show that high cholesterol protects against infection. Plain and simple, cholesterol is the building block of many structures in the body, including all steroid hormones and cell membranes, and plays a key role in regulating blood sugar, building strong bones and muscles, and repairing tissue damage.
So it appears that high cholesterol isn’t really a risk factor for much of anything. However, high cholesterol may be indicative of a situation that is a risk factor. For instance, high cholesterol is not a risk factor for women or old people, but is for young and middle-aged men. Now that sounds like an odd hypothesis.
To quote this summary of Dr. Ravnskov’s book:
“If we were to believe that a correlation between high cholesterol and heart disease proved that cholesterol causes heart disease, using the data from the major studies used to support this idea, we would have to believe:
-cholesterol causes heart disease in men, but not in women
-cholesterol causes heart disease in Americans, but not in Canadians, and protects against heart disease in Russians
-cholesterol causes heart disease if you are between the ages of 30 and 47, but stops causing heart disease once you turn 48″
Essentially, cholesterol is dangerous, but only if you have a Y chromosome and are a certain age. Logic dictates that it isn�t the high cholesterol levels in these young and middle-aged men that is causing their problems since high cholesterol levels in all other populations are protective. Remember folks, correlation does not prove causation. Basically, high cholesterol could be a symptom of something risky or it may just be an innocent bystander, flexing its protective muscle in your blood system. Dr. Thomas Cowan found that a woman that was a lifetime golfer had high cholesterol. Once put on statins, her cholesterol dropped and she started showing symptoms of toxicity from the pesticides on the golf course, so it looks like the cholesterol was allowing her body to detoxify the large amount of pesticides she was taking in.
Oh and don’t be so concerned about that “bad” LDL either. I’ll leave you with that thought and move onto the role of diet in this farce. So now let’s assume that high cholesterol is something to worry about and look at how we should go about “fixing” that.
Dr. Malcolm Kendrick will tell you that neither dietary cholesterol nor dietary saturated fat intake causes any change in serum cholesterol levels (as he provides further systematic dismantling of the cholesterol hypothesis). To summarize: saturated fat is NEVER turned into cholesterol. The liver makes cholesterol and it doesn’t make cholesterol from fat, saturated or not. In fact, it has been shown that saturated fat is protective against arterial narrowing, while (drumroll!) grains and polyunsaturated fats have been found to be harmful. Now that makes sense! Before the cholesterol can attach to form a plaque, the artery needs to be damaged. High levels of circulating glucose and insulin damage the lining of arteries. And polyunsaturated fats are highly susceptible to oxidation, while saturated fats are nearly impervious, with mono�s falling somewhere in the middle.
Quick primer on oxidation: when it happens to iron it’s called rusting, when it happens to fruit it’s called ripening, when it happens to our bodies it’s called aging. Oxidation is a bad thing, hence why ANTI-oxidants are such a good thing. So cooking should be done with saturated fats such as palm and coconut oils, rather than with polyunsaturated fats like corn and peanut oils, since heat increases oxidation in fats.
Given the multitude of studies showing that cholesterol isn’t a risk factor for heart disease, and may even be beneficial in the protection against other infections, why isn’t it common knowledge? That one’s simple. You don’t have to be the CEO of Pfizer to recognize that statins, the only truly effective way to lower cholesterol, are a multi-billion dollar “wonder drug.” The more diseases that can be pinned on cholesterol, and the more doctors purchased, the more profits the pharmaceutical giants stand to rake in. Late last year, cholesterol was “linked” to Alzheimer�s - chalk up another disease that can be treated with statins. Unfortunately for the cholesterol hypothesis, it appears that insulin resistance (Type II diabetes) is strongly linked to Alzheimer’s, not cholesterol. Don’t worry, Big Pharma won’t let a little thing like truth keep them from pumping millions more Americans full of statins. They will keep pushing for new lower limits of “healthy” cholesterol and doctors in the know will continue to oppose them, to no avail.
The part that I find exceptionally ironic is that when most people take their car to the mechanic, a $500 repair raises eyebrows. “Hey, is this guy taking me to the cleaners?” A doctor tells them they have high cholesterol and are going to be taking statins for the rest of their life. “Oh, ok.” And statins are going to cost upwards of $1000 per year. So people are more than willing to take drugs that can cause birth defects, pancreatic disorders, Coenzyme Q10 depletion (extremely ironic considering CoQ10 is necessary for proper heart function), and a whole host of other known issues, yet they question a guy that wants to put new brakes on their car. Even better, statins cause depression in many people. How’s that for a double-whammy for the pharmaceutical companies? They can put you on lifetime statins and lifetime depression meds.
So putting it all together, it appears that neither saturated fat intake nor cholesterol intake have a measurable effect on serum cholesterol. Further, it appears that serum cholesterol may have the opposite effect of what we’re told. That is, high cholesterol seems to be protective rather than detrimental. So if you go to the doctor and he tells you that you have “high cholesterol,” rest assured that you’re probably ok. Or at the very least, it isn’t the cholesterol that you need to be worried about, it’s whatever underlying issue your body is trying to protect itself against by producing cholesterol. Eat a diet rich in fruits and vegetables, full-fat grassfed meats, and wild-caught fish, and low in polyunsaturated fats and grains. And don’t take statins.
Other Links:
Much more reading courtesy of Cholesterol and Health.com
Cholesterol levels not linked to cardiovascular disease
Potential side effects of statins
More on carbohydrates and atherosclerotic progression
Lack of scientific evidence for saturated fat connection to cholesterol
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Filed in Medicine & Pharmaceuticals 4 Comments so far
Colin Chambers on 20 May 2008 at 6:40 am #
Hi there. I like the alternative view you present. I think it helps to question the status quo. One thing though.
You critiqued the idea that saturated fat is bad. That’s fascinating and I’d like to know more. You didn’t mention how much saturated fat though or how much fat in total. Saturated fat and transfat’s are highlighted simply because there’s too much in people’s diets. I don’t feel that saturated is inherently bad. I do get the point that too much of it is bad. Like anything else.
Also, the logic I use, is that saturated fats and trans-fats (hydrogenated fats, http://colchambers.blogspot.com/2008/04/why-are-trans-fats-so-bad.html) are solid at room temperature where as poly and mono saturated are more liquid. So if they’re like this outside the body then they’ll be thicker inside the body and more likely to make it clot.
So I’m glad you’ve pointed out some benefits of saturated fats because it’s easy to forget that each nutrient has a role play. I just wanted to point out that balance is more important and that’s what I take from you article.
Interesting article though. Good work
Scott Kustes on 21 May 2008 at 9:41 am #
Colin, one thing you have to remember is that the internal temperature of the human body is almost 100 degrees. Coconut oil melts at about 75. Saturated fat isn’t prone to the rancidity that polyunsaturated fats are. Trans fats are just bad news all around though.
Cheers
Scott
Colin Chambers on 22 May 2008 at 8:06 am #
you’re right and it does play on my mind that some of the arguments used to explain the progression of atherosclerosis don’t add up when you think about them. I take your point. I don’t know how thick these fats are when they’re inside the body. I also expect that in time we’ll be told how certain saturated fats actually have crucial benefits or couple with certain nutrients to benefit us.
I feel the major problem is like to be eating too much for the lifestyle you’re living. One of the main changes in the western diet has been an increase in the size of meat and fatty potatoe serving and the reduction of the vetgetable and fruit serving etc etc so the simple fix is to correct this trend in your own diet.
That’s what i take from what you say or from what I know any way. I don’t like to worry about my diet every time I eat so it’s much easier to just know I shouldn’t eat toomuch or too little of something and to have some idea of what too much and too little of something is.
There we go. End of rant. Good article though. That it provokes comment means it’s enriching.
Pulkit Jain on 07 Aug 2008 at 4:53 pm #
Hi,
I was just surfing the net and came across to your blog. Although u have tried to make your point clear, but it has left me confused. Whom to trust.
As a commoner, who are without medical knowledge, we tend to approach to medicos for our smallest problems. A commoner puts his best trust on them as they see them as who saves life and thus almost putting one medico parallel to ‘GOD’.
But all these contradicting reports, seems to be pushed by vested commercial reports has left me in dilemma abouth whether to believe allopathic system of medicine at all.
And for me, all the contribution of allopathy is just limited to the discovery of Anti-Biotics and none has been discovered since 1966 if I am not wrong. Only one or two salts has been added to make them more potent. And for the rest of drugs…many has many side effects. Like the ones you have told about statins. And our Pharma Cos are in a win-win situation because they have medicines for those side effects also. So first they give you side effects and then they charge you again to treat those side effects and this chain goes on….till you are finished.
Well my motto is not to criticize Allopathy or to promote any other form of medicines, as each one has its own advantages and disadvantages. I am here to criticize the apathy of Docs who are putting greatest risk on the existence of humanity in whole.
I have found one way of living though….I eat just what I want to…I do what I want to….relying on natural things as much as possible. I dont care about what the evil effect they would have on me. I am just keeping things simple….not relying on any particular thing…perhaps this is balancing the whole universe for me ;). And balance is important in life.