Category: cholesterol

Don’t Give Up The Fat!

The rate of cardiovascular disease suffered by both rural and urban Chinese males is almost indistinguishable from the rate experienced by American males, while the rates…for both rural and urban Chinese women is significantly higher than those suffered by American females….The notion that the Chinese don’t have disease of the heart…is what we like to call a vampire myth–it simply refuses to die.

–Drs. Michael and Mary Dan Eades

They go on to explain that part of the issue leading to confusion is that heart disease normally manifests as stroke in the Chinese, but as heart attack in Americans. A city-dwelling Chinese man only has half the heart attack risk of his American comrade–but six times the stroke risk. The underlying cause is exactly the same: coronary heart disease.

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Finishing Up Cholesterol

Most people say that it is the intellect which makes a great scientist. They are wrong: it is character.
–Albert Einstein
When I say “finish up” of course I don’t mean that there’s nothing more to say. There’s always more that someone can say. Hence the continued existence of the Internet. And Alex Baldwin.
In the last few posts we talked about what cholesterol is, why you need it, why LDL and total cholesterol levels are not reliable markers for heart health, why HDL and your ratio of HDL to triglycerides is important, and that the real culprit in heart issues is ultimately inflammation.

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Knowledge, Not Numbers #2

…High cholesterol levels are really a symptom, not a cause of cardiovascular disease. Not understanding this fact, a lot of people take medicine to try to lower their LDL cholesterol levels artificially. Attempting to control through medication the enzymes that produce elevated cholesterol is analogous to playing pool with a rope.

–Dr. Doug McGuff

Let’s review.

We’ve already discussed how both LDL and HDL are lipoproteins that carry cholesterol around the body. LDL carries it to areas damaged by inflammation; HDL carries it back out.

When LDL particles are big and fluffy in size, they can easily be carried away by HDL and they are not so susceptible to oxidation, human “rusting,” that damages them and you. Very small LDL, sometimes known as VLDL, is very susceptible to oxidation and cannot be easily carried away by HDL. (Of course all this is very simply put.)

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Knowledge, Not Numbers

A good decision is based on knowledge, not numbers.

–Plato

In the previous post we discussed some important foundational ideas when talking about cholesterol. Today we’ll start going into all this just a bit deeper, starting with what all those numbers mean and why I say that your total cholesterol number is meaningless for you, personally.

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The Earth is Flat and Cholesterol Will Kill You

In scientific subjects, the natural remedy for dogmatism has been found in research.
–Ronald Fisher
One of the most pervasive myths out there is that having high cholesterol will give you heart disease, and that eating cholesterol gives you high cholesterol. Like all good myths, there is a kernel–a small kernel–of truth to this. But in the main I’m just going to tell you right up front right now: this is baloney.

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