Cholesterol Does Not Cause Heart Disease or Any Disease - McEvoy

 

Cholesterol Does Not Cause Heart Disease or Any Disease

Michael McEvoy CNC, CMTA MARCH 31, 2010

Contrary to most people’s understanding, cholesterol is one of the most vitally important substances in the body. Cholesterol has been accused of being the culprit in many diseases, including heart disease. However, without cholesterol the body simply cannot function.

 

Cholesterol is a waxy substance in the blood that is synthesized in the liver as a necessary agent for many significant bodily functions. Cholesterol has two forms: HDL (high density lipo-protein) and LDL (low density lipo-protein). HDL cholesterol is cholesterol that is en-route back to the liver, while LDL cholesterol is cholesterol that is en-route from the liver to the bloodstream to perform its functions. LDL cholesterol is commonly called ”bad” cholesterol because it has been found inside of the arteries of the body and has been pegged as causing heart disease.

 

However as we see in bullet number four below, cholesterol serves as a metabolic nutrient. One of the many functions of cholesterol is to provide repair to damaged tissues such as the arteries. The fact that cholesterol is found in the arteries does not correlate LDL cholesterol as being “bad” or causative in any disease. It indicates, rather that LDL cholesterol is repairing damage to an area of the body.

 

The damage done to the body is linked to several patterns of degenerative processes such as: substance abuse, certain lifestyle choices, and the improper dietary habits. These patterns are causative to disease, cholesterol is not.

 

As Dr. Natasha Cambell McBride states: “Calling LDL cholesterol “bad” and HDL cholesterol “good” is like calling an ambulance travelling from the hospital to the patient a "bad ambulance," and the one travelling from the patient back to the hospital a "good ambulance."*

 

“But the situation has gotten even more ridiculous. The latest thing that our science has "discovered" is that not all LDL-cholesterol is so bad. Most of it is actually good. So, now we are told to call that part of LDL the "good bad cholesterol" and the rest of it the "bad bad cholesterol."

 

It is a fact that lower cholesterol levels correlate with an increased risk of heart attacks and memory loss more than high cholesterol levels. In fact, high cholesterol levels correlate with an increased resistance to infections, memory retention and overall better health.*

 

Another misunderstanding is that cholesterol containing foods will cause your body’s cholesterol levels to elevate. Foods that contain cholesterol, such as eggs, account for only 15-20% of your body’s total cholesterol count. For most people, cholesterol levels will actually decrease when eating cholesterol containing foods and increase when restricting cholesterol containing foods.* Many health professionals who recommend a decrease in red meats because of cholesterol content, often recommend fish. Yet fish contains on average twice as much cholesterol than red meat! Apparently these health professionals are misunderstood.

 

Cholesterol has many vital functions in the body. One of which is to repair damaged tissue such as those that exist in the arteries.

 

Foods containing fats that have been oxidized from overheating may cause LDL cholesterol levels to elevate. But this problem can be resolved by eating the right type and quantity of fat for your individual metabolism, and by heating your fats at lower temperatures, or by not heating them at all. Regardless, the potential inflammation that may be caused by oxidized fats are nothing compared to the potential damage that can be done by the sugar molecule, trans fats (hydrogenated), alcohol and excessive grain and flour intake.

 

Here is a list of the major functions of cholesterol in the body:

 

•Cholesterol is used in all cell membrane integrity. Each and every cell of the body is comprised of cholesterol. Low cholesterol levels may correlate with enhanced cellular degeneration. Cells will literally fall apart in the blood without cholesterol.

 

•Myelin sheath development. The sheath or covering of nerve tissue is comprised of cholesterol and other fatty substances.

 

•Cholesterol is a building block for all hormone development, including the adrenal hormones and the sex hormones. Women who suffer from infertility often have very low cholesterol levels.

 

•Cholesterol is a metabolic nutrient, which repairs damaged tissues. This is why LDL cholesterol levels may rise after surgery, tooth procedures, and injuries.

 

•Cholesterol is necessary for the production of bile and bile acids. The body is not able to digest and assimilate fats without bile and bile acids. Bile is required for the absorption of vitamins A, D, K and E, all of which are vital, fat-soluble nutrients.

 

•Cholesterol is necessary to properly utilize Vitamin D. This is particularly true for the conversion of Vitamin D from sunlight. Cholesterol under the skin allows for this.

 

•Cholesterol is an anti-oxidant and scavenges free radicals. Cholesterol is required for immune system health. Being an anti-oxidant, cholesterol helps to fight infection.

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Read the complete article here.

Dr. Malcolm Kendrick M.D. looks at Cholesterol

In Dr Graveline's Newsletter dated May 12, 2009 There is an eye opening article titled "Dr. Malcolm Kendrick M.D. looks at Cholesterol". I have read a number of articles by Dr Kendrick published at The International Network of Cholesterol Skeptics (THINCS). They are definately suggested reading. I am going to quote some parts of Dr Kendrick's article but I really recommend you read the full article here.

Quotes from "Dr. Malcolm Kendrick M.D. looks at Cholesterol".

re: Facts that are not true.

• So, the soon to be Professor, Hugh Tunstall-Pedoe looked at the French, and their diet, and came to the conclusion that the French were protected against heart disease by their high consumption of garlic, red-wine and lightly cooked vegetables (full of anti-oxidants, don't you know). Very soon after this, it became a ‘fact' that these three factors were protective against heart disease.
  One slight problem is that there never was, and still is not, the slightest evidence that any of these three factors provides any protection. I write this in the certain knowledge that many of you are absolutely convinced that garlic, red-wine and anti-oxidants truly are protective, and that many studies have proved it. To which I would say..... ‘show me the studies'.
• I have since discovered that the entire field of heart disease research is packed full of facts that do not (when you start looking properly) exist. Female sex hormones protect against heart disease. For many years this 'fact' was just known to be true. One slight problem. There never was any evidence to support it. Unlike most ‘facts' in heart disease, it was spectacularly disproved.
• To give another example of facts that aren't true. Namely, that saturated fat intake raises cholesterol levels. The Framingham study, the longest lasting, most respected study into the causes of heart disease (started in 1948) reported that ‘In Framingham, Massachusetts, the more saturated fat one ate, the more cholesterol one ate, the more calories one ate, the lower people's serum cholesterol.' Dr William Castelli - director of the Framingham study at the time - 1992.
• a major eight year long interventional study on fifty thousand women (the Woman's Health Intervention) found that a 25% reduction in saturated fat intake had no effect on LDL ‘bad cholesterol' levels, or heart disease rates.
• The cholesterol hypothesis is, perhaps, the greatest ever example of a medical hypothesis that has become too powerful to die. Too many vested interests are intertwined with it. World famous experts would look incredibly stupid if the hypothesis were to be accepted to be wrong.
• here is another quote from the Framingham study on the impact of cholesterol levels themselves. There is a direct association between falling cholesterol levels over the first 14 years of the study and mortality over the following 18 years. 11% overall and 14% CVD death rate increase per 1mg/dl per year drop in cholesterol levels In short, once your cholesterol level starts to fall, you are much more likely to die from heart disease. A 150% increase in relative risk for every 10 % fall, approximately.
• Add this to another very big study of the elderly, published in the Lancet: Our data accord with previous findings of increased mortality in elderly people with low serum cholesterol levels, and show that long term persistence of low cholesterol concentration actually increases the risk of death. Thus, the earlier that patients start to have lower cholesterol concentrations the greater the risk of death.
• Even though the ‘experts' have been made aware of it many times, they care not that this particular emperor has no clothes. Or, to be more accurate, they cannot and will not allow themselves to accept that it might be true. For to accept this would be far too humiliating for the great and the good.

Thank You Dr. Malcolm Kendrick

Again, I highly recommend you read the complete article along with other essays.