Return to the Treating Disease with Alternative Medicine index.
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The Risks of LOW Cholesterol... Part 3
This is the 3rd and final installment exposing the dangers of low cholesterol. Prepare to be amazed...
- People with low cholesterol are more likely to be depressed. Duke University psychologist, Edward Suarez did a study of 121 healthy young women. He measured cholesterol levels and also had each take a standardized assessment measuring depression and anxiety. Those with cholesterol below 160 mg/dl scored markedly higher in the likelihood for developing depression and anxiety. Other studies showed this same tendency in men.
- Despite the success of cholesterol lowering drugs, the death rate from heart disease remains unchanged over the last 75 years. There is no statistical evidence supporting the connection between lower cholesterol and reduced mortality from heart disease.
- Your body produces 3 to 4 times the amount of cholesterol than you eat. This is why lowering dietary cholesterol intake doesn't lower blood cholesterol more than just a few points. And, since cholesterol is not highly correlated with heart disease, the attempt to lower by restricting healthy foods makes little sense.
- Cholesterol lowering drugs have been shown to cause cancer in laboratory rats. Do you feel like being a experimental subject? How would you feel if you found out that years down the line you've only created a much worse problem for yourself while you enriched the pharmaceutical companies?
- There is no evidence that too much animal fat and dietary cholesterol promotes atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries) or heart attacks. More than 20 studies show that people who've had a heart attack haven't eaten more fat than other people. In addition, atherosclerosis at autopsy is unrelated to diet.
- Heart disease is not a 'statin deficiency'. Some people, particularly those of northern European descent, naturally have higher levels of cholesterol. This may be genetic based on the foods their ancestors had available. People like Dr. William Campbell Douglass, M.D. hold the opinion that for such people any cholesterol reading under 300 mg/dl should be considered healthy.
Well, there you have it. The next time you see an advertisement for some cholesterol-lowering drug, I hope you keep in mind the actual evidence about whether these things are important.
If you do have health concerns related to heart disease, please review the many articles on my web site related to dietary intake and the value of eating whole fresh and natural foods. You're likely to live a much longer, healthier life if you do.
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