High Cholesterol Support Group
High cholesterol is the presence of high levels of cholesterol in the blood. It is not a disease but a metabolic derangement that can be secondary to many diseases and can contribute to many forms of disease, most notably cardiovascular disease. If you have high cholesterol, join the community to find support and share your experience.
Is LDL really the Villain that the drug companies portray it to be?
Was GOD stupid when he designed our bodies with LDL cholesterol?
Why do the drug companies never talk about the physiological purpose of LDL in the first place?
For that matter, why do the drug companies never talk about the benefits of cholesterol?
Could it be they have something to sell us? Or are they spending billions of dollars on prime time TV advertising out of the goodness of their hearts for mankind?
If lowering LDL cholesterol with statin saves lives and cuts heart attacks by 30-40% as claimed, then why does this decline in death rates NOT show up on the graph line since statins were introduced around 1990?
Bet ya didn't know that. Thats right. Heart attacks began declining around 1968, and have gradually declined since then at a rate of about 1.2% per year. Statins sales skyrocketed in the early 90's and aggressive LDL lowering swept the united states. Still the decline in death rates remained the same. About 1.2% per year. It had no impact whatsoever on the graph line. Zippo, Zero, Nadda!
If LDL is such a risk factor in heart disease, then why do areas of the United states with the highest recorded levels of LDL have the lowest death rates from heart attacks and the best longevity?
Think about it.
Was GOD stupid when he designed our bodies with LDL cholesterol?
Why do the drug companies never talk about the physiological purpose of LDL in the first place?
For that matter, why do the drug companies never talk about the benefits of cholesterol?
Could it be they have something to sell us? Or are they spending billions of dollars on prime time TV advertising out of the goodness of their hearts for mankind?
If lowering LDL cholesterol with statin saves lives and cuts heart attacks by 30-40% as claimed, then why does this decline in death rates NOT show up on the graph line since statins were introduced around 1990?
Bet ya didn't know that. Thats right. Heart attacks began declining around 1968, and have gradually declined since then at a rate of about 1.2% per year. Statins sales skyrocketed in the early 90's and aggressive LDL lowering swept the united states. Still the decline in death rates remained the same. About 1.2% per year. It had no impact whatsoever on the graph line. Zippo, Zero, Nadda!
If LDL is such a risk factor in heart disease, then why do areas of the United states with the highest recorded levels of LDL have the lowest death rates from heart attacks and the best longevity?
Think about it.
Typical rates for HDL > 60, LDL
HDL bigger than 60, LDL less than 100, TRIg less than 100, and Total Cho less than 150 mg/DL are typical blood profile results for CRON diet followers.
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0813/is_n7_v17/ai_9403357/
Great advice from one of the best studies that teaches us about lipid levels and risks of heart attack.
A guy in midlife with a total cholesterol of 240. His LDL is high at 170, but his HDL is high at 62. Not fat by todays standards, but could lose a few inches in the waist. He does have a higher fat diet than the average guy.
Do you see this guy at risk?
Thanks.
Another popular measure of cardiac risk is Triglycerides/HDL ratio. You didn't provide these numbers. The Triglycerides would be an interesting number to add to the equation.
Right now I'd say this person needs to reduce diet overall without reducing fats too much. Low fat diets often cause high triglycerides and lower HDL. With the both the total cholesterol and LDL being high, it's worth worrying about a bit. If this was combined with high triglycerides or high blood pressure, then this person would definitely want to take action on those numbers. High HDL alone isn't enough to compensate for all the other bad numbers.
Also I wanted to mention I agree with you on calorie restriction. I have found that populations that restrict calories have longer life spans.
About the lipid profile outlined above. Sorry I didn't have the triglyceride data. Those figures are the mean cholesterol values found in the greenland Inuit population in 1989. This population has very low rates of coronary artery disease despite their their high LDL cholesterol The researchers credited the marine oils for their advantage in having little to no heart disease.
Primary in the inuit diet is Seal and fish. But its not all good news for this population. They have high mercury levels, bigger waistlines, and their lifespans are about 10 years shorter than western nations.
Still, the world marvels at their near absence of coronary artery disease.
http://www.nature.com/ijo/journal/v27/n12/full/0802434a.html
Table 1 gives data for 1999 - 2001.
Triglycerides for Greenland Inuit population is about 43 mg/dL for both males and females. HDL is 62 as before. (The conversion factor is to multiply by 39 to get mg/dL from mmol/liter).
That's a very low level indicating a low consumption of carbohydrates. TG/HDL works out to 0.179 which is a very good score. No heart attack problems for the average Inuit from Greenland in those years.
From figure 3 you can see that as waist circumference increases, the numbers for HDL and TC get much worse. Looks like the thin Inuit rule!!!
Figure 4 shows that thin Inuit have better blood pressure too, although they are slightly higher than healthy average here.
Heh he, neat population. A fun example.
But the world doesn't pay attention. They would rather have their cake and eat it too! Meanwhile, america gets fatter and fatter.
I have 2 sons. The son who eats lots of meat is tall, lean and muscular.
Looks like his skin was vaccum sealed to his muscles.
My other son does't consume as much meat, but loves cereal. While he consumes low sugar cerals like cheerios and rice chex, he still has a layer of fat on him that his meat eating brother doest have.
Good talking with you Keith.
Take care.