Cholesterol is innocent?
 

I received an unsolicited publicaton in yesterday's mail from Alternatives for the Health Conscious Individual. Among other claims, Dr. David Williams, the author, states that cholesteral lowering drugs have failed to make a dent in heart attack rates. He says:

"More than 60% of all heart attacks occur in people with normal cholesterol levels"; and the majority of people with high cholesterol never suffer heart attacks."

He says the cholesterol lowering statin drugs deplete Co10Q, which supplies the energy for the heart's pumping action, which can lead to heart failure.

He also says the real culprit is inflammation in the arteries, not cholesterol.

Anyone care to respond?

regards,

Mark

The answer is all of the above and more.

The cholesterol in your blood is manufactured by your liver, it does not pass through your intestinal wall from the food you eat into your blood. So there is a problem with your liver before the problem shows up as high cholesterol readings in your blood. You will not likely find AMA supported information to back this. The food industry will actively refute this.

Read about homocystiene.

Food is grown it does not come from a factory. If you eat your food the way it grows naturally without chemical intervention and processing by man(corporations) you will avoid many problems. Eat your food as close to the way it grew as possible.

Drugs are poison and cannot make you healthy. Only you can make you healthy. The drug industry will actively refute this.

Does he have any real proof? IE, tests performed with proper documentation and scientific methods or is he just spouting stuff that is Junk Science?

John Yudkin, Professior emeritus of nutrition at the University of Lond was quoted in an article in the March 1975 issue of Science Digest coming out in defense of cholesterol as the main cause of heart disease. I don't have the article, only excerpts, but he says the health industry has grabbed onto cholesteral becuase it is one of the easiest factors to measure (meaning the your reading when you get tested) but that there are many other factors. Many people who eat diets high in animal fats have normal cholesteral, and many people with high cholesterol don't get heart disease. He does conclude that the triglyceride level is a much better predictor of heart disease, and that is determined by how much sugar you eat.

I eat lots of red meat. I also eat lots of fish, chicken, and veggies. Don't eat much fruit or bread (I do drink it cut with ethanol!). Rarely eat candy. My cholesterol and triglycerides are both jsut about average. I'm about 15# overweight and don't smoke. If I got off my tired a$$ instead of slouching in front of this computer I could probably lose the 15# pretty quickly.

I don't like to rely on medication for an aliments unless I absolute have to. My doctor has been trying to talk me into taking satin for the last couple years but I refuse to. I think, with proper amount of exercise, along with a sensible diet, cholesterol number is not necessary the cause of heart attack or stroke.

A colleague of mine just had a heart attack few days ago, his blood pressure and cholesterol numbers were all check out. As a matter of fact, he lost over 30 lbs since last Fall. He is still in a drug induced coma after the double bypass. The doctors tried to bring him out of the coma but his condition worsen and they had to put him back in the coma just to keep him alive. No one knows if he can pull through yet.

Well, the previous statin drugs were tested with a 2000 size group while Crestor was tested with a 12000 size group. Also, with Crestor you can take a much lower dose with higher effacacy. However, if you feel that with exercise and a sensible diet you can this, that or the other then perhaps you need to test that theory of yours out. It takes a bloodtest for before your new regimen and after. If before you have so much undesirables, you do a blood test say 6 months later and if you still have that bad stuff then you know your regimen has failed.

My cholesterol count was 298 three years ago, my doctor told me then I had to go on statin. I refused and asked her to let me bring it down naturally and would come back for a check up in 60 days, then we would decide what to do. As promised, I brought my count to 198 in 60 days with exercises and dieting. The regiment I used was harsh and since then I have slack off a bit. The last two years my count is right around 220, and maintain a check up every 6 months, plus annual visit with a cardiologist. I just think all those chemicals you put into your body will have some ill efffects over time. I know they have done tons of researh on Crestor and such. But it is still chemical that is suspressing a certain natural bodily functions.

Where do statin drugs come from? Does it matter?

I'm curious about the psychology of this.

If there was an herbal remedy would that be better or worse than a pharmaceutical? Why?

How old is your friend?

Not sure what you are asking for.

What does pysch go to do with this

Depends on whether it was tested or just listed as a "supplement" because supplements are not tested

49. First heart attack ever. I heard that there are two types of heart attacks - one that you survive, and the other one that you don't. My grandfather died of a massive heart attack, instantly. Never had any problem with his heart or health most of his life. He drank (a shot of cognac with dinner every night) and smoked (the unfilter ones). He died at the age of 92.

High-dose statins helpful, study finds

By Rob Stein

The Washington Post

WASHINGTON — A large study has produced the strongest evidence yet that driving cholesterol down to very low levels offers additional protection against heart attacks and strokes, researchers reported yesterday.

The eagerly awaited study involving more than 10,000 at-risk patients showed that using high doses of powerful cholesterol-lowering drugs called statins to slash levels of so-called bad cholesterol far below current targets can markedly reduce patients' risks.

The study addresses one of the biggest debates in treating the leading cause of death in the United States: How aggressively should doctors and patients use statins to lower levels of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol?

The findings may encourage more doctors to begin using the drugs to reach ultra-low LDL levels in potentially millions of patients and could lead to new official recommendations if the results of two other similar studies reach similar conclusions, experts said.

In the new study, researchers gave 10,001 patients whose arteries were already narrowed by heart disease either the standard dose of the statin Lipitor — 10 milligrams — or a much higher dose of 80 milligrams.

After about five years, patients in both groups saw their cholesterol levels drop and their risk for heart attacks and strokes fall. But those receiving the high dose had their LDL levels plummet the most, hitting about 77 milligrams per deciliter of blood, compared to the standard target of about 100 for the other group.

Those who got the high dose also were 22 percent less likely to suffer a heart attack, stroke or heart failure than the standard-dose group.

"We saw a clear benefit," said John LaRosa of the State University of New York Health Science Center in Brooklyn, who led the study. The results, which are being published in The New England Journal of Medicine, were released yesterday to coincide with a presentation of the data at an American College of Cardiology meeting in Orlando. The study was paid for by Pfizer, which makes Lipitor.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002201379_cholesterol09.html

I have known too many people who worked in research and told me stories of the workplace to put much faith in a study funded by a party that stands to profit from the study. This goes double with a the totally self-serving pharmaceutical industry.

When you hear research you probably think ivory tower, when I hear research I think McDonalds.

Eat your food the way it grew and you will rarely have a cholesterol problem. Water is the only drink, the others are foods.

Food is grown it does not come from a factory. If you eat your food the way it grows naturally without chemical intervention and processing by man(corporations) you will avoid many problems. Eat your food as close to the way it grew as possible.

If you have a pot-belly, fat around the liver, look at a diet like they are selling as a cleansing diet. You probably also have blood lipid problems. http://www.liverdoctor.com/Section4/fattyliver.asp

One example is: www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0646277898
There are others.

This was the first return from Google:http://altmedicine.about.com/cs/dietarytherapy/a/DetoxIndex.htm

While reading about diets you really need to have your bull**** filter on high reject. There is a lot of goofy advice out there.

I looked at that last link a little, about.com, it is mostly BS, search.