Have we misjudged Mother Nature’s plan…again?

In my book, Natural Alternatives to Nexium…and Other Acid Blockers, I explain the crucial importance of stomach acid and how drug companies have wrongfully demonized this natural body fluid in their highly successful effort to sell heartburn drugs. It seems a similar thing may have happened with cholesterol.

These are the common assumptions we’ve been taught about cholesterol:

  (1) LDL cholesterol is just plain evil.

  (2) It is the cause of heart disease.

  (3) Lowering LDL by any means is safe and will extend your life.

  (4) HDL cholesterol is always the good guy. More is always better.

It just isn’t that simple.

For the most complete, well-documented understanding of this subject, I recommend these books by Sherry Rogers, MD: Is Your Cardiologist Killing You? and The Cholesterol Hoax. Professionals and those with a keen interest in the more technical aspects of blood fats will enjoy a video of an enlightening lecture by Jay Weinecke, MD a professor at the University of Washington. I extracted some of the material below from it: LINK

Meanwhile, here is some food for thought:

(1) Cholesterol is Evil? Logically, if cholesterol was bad, why would a healthy body routinely make lots of it? Far from being toxic, cholesterol is absolutely essential to life. The body uses cholesterol in our under-appreciated cell membranes where it controls the fluid levels. Cholesterol is also the raw material for creating hormones (like sex hormones); for making vitamin D from sunlight; and for producing bile which helps digest fat and facilitates the uptake of fat-soluble vitamins. The brain contains more cholesterol than any other organ (we are all “fat heads”) and it is quite important for the normal functioning of the nervous system. Cholesterol is even indirectly responsible for calcium balance and it may be an antioxidant. Surprisingly, in men under 60, an abnormally LOW level of LDL (so-called “bad” cholesterol) is actually a greater risk factor for heart disease than a high level.

Most cholesterol is made in the liver. If you eat more in food (e.g. egg yolks), the normal body adjusts and manufactures less. Cholesterol levels naturally rise in men after 50 and in women after menopause. (Is that part of the original plan or have we sabotaged the system?)  Newer “fancy” cholesterol lab tests score 15 different aspects of blood fats rather than just the 4 listed on the average screen. LINK Small dense cholesterol particles may be more worrisome than large fluffy ones. However, there is just not a lot of research to sort out the long term implications of the expanded details and little data to support treatment plans based on the fine-tuned lab work.

(2) Cholesterol causes heart disease? Of heart attack sufferers, only 50% have abnormal cholesterol at the time of the event. For a very long time, 300 was considered a normal total cholesterol reading for a middle aged person. Some experts allege that the goal changed to 200 simply because that number sells more drugs. As a predictor of heart disease in individual persons, the usual cholesterol test may not be much better than flipping a coin. At this LINK a doctor/author summarizes the growing concern. (Triglyceride levels seem to be more useful. High is not good.)

The biggest heart attack risk is plaque—a buildup in the arteries that can restrict blood flow and break off and go on to create real trouble. Yes, there is cholesterol in that plaque but it is not clear why it is there. Also the stuff is made up mostly of calcium and we don’t try to lower our calcium levels. There are just so many moving parts. For example, even the presence of heavy metals in the blood seems to be related to increased plaque. LINK

Elevated cholesterol is indeed associated with heart disease, but, please remember that fire trucks are associated with fires. That doesn’t mean the firemen caused the fire—they are there to extinguish it and as you’ll read below, cholesterol may be similar. Also, sometimes another condition (like an under-functioning thyroid) can cause both high cholesterol and heart disease. Likewise, unhealthful behaviors (like eating Trans fats) can increase both. Even iron deficiency may elevate blood fats. LINK  

There is a strong research case that oxidized (damaged) cholesterol causes harm by creating inflammation in the arteries. [Hang in here a minute through some technical stuff. It does get easier.] Inflammation is found where there is an injury or infection in the body. White blood cells, a part of the immune system, normally collect at those sites of trouble and release harsh chemicals (like bleach) to destroy pathogens such as bacteria. The cells also call in other immune cells to gobble up damaged tissue. You can imagine what happens when those white cells are attracted to inflammation in our arteries and it isn’t pretty. The body, of course, wants to repair the damage caused by the immune attack and creates a patch known as plaque. Cholesterol is an anti-inflammatory repair molecule, so what if it, like the firemen, it is just at the scene of the crime (plaque) because it was trying to help? Given the beneficial roles of cholesterol in (1) above, doesn’t make sense to focus on protecting the cholesterol from damage and reducing the inflammation that starts this damaging chain reaction rather than trying to get rid of cholesterol at all costs?

Cholesterol becomes oxidized when it is exposed to toxins and/or when you don’t have sufficient antioxidant nutrients like Vitamin E. LINK I recommend a natural vitamin E (not the synthetic dl-alpha form) and one that includes the whole Vitamin E family. That is more like what we’d get in food and the other family members have their own benefits. (I take FamilE by Jarrow.)

(3) Lowering LDL by any means is safe and will extend your life? Statin type cholesterol-lowering drugs (like Liptor and Zocor) may prevent up to one third of heart attacks, but we can’t predict yet who would benefit or exactly why. Nor is it clear that the same or even better protection isn’t available from natural substances that don’t carry the same risks for unwanted effects.

There are at least two reasons that we are almost guaranteed to invite a number of serious side effects with statins. First, these block our production of CoQ10 which is crucial to energy production in the cells and is very important to health. Just by reading the beneficial uses of cholesterol in (1) above, we should expect trouble by their deficiency in the long term if we force cholesterol too low. This is a thoughtful article on the problems. LINK

So, why is so much attention given to the use of drugs to lower cholesterol? Obviously, we would get in big trouble if we believed everything commercials implied about medications because obviously the pharmaceutical companies have a giant financial stake in making us believe that we need their product. Not so obvious is the fact that these same companies market relentlessly and at great expense to your doctor. Since average docs do not have time to conduct much independent research, they are all too often swayed by the claims made by the drug representative. Physicians are also controlled by practice guidelines created by professional associations and regulators that are also under the influence of drug companies.

(4) HDL cholesterol is always the good guy? More is always better? At first blush it does make sense that high levels of so-called “good” cholesterol are great. HDL benefits us by removing excess bad cholesterol from the immune cells. (Immune cells that are filled with cholesterol are “angry” and cause trouble as noted above and are even implicated in Alzheimer’s Disease.) HDL may be anti-inflammatory and have other roles in our immune defense. It also appears to be a delivery mechanism that shuttles needed specialized proteins and fats around the body.

So far so good. HOWEVER, a recent study of a drug to artificially increase HDL had to be stopped early because there was a 25% increase in deaths from heart disease and a 60% increase in all-cause mortality including cancer. LINK Although there was some toxicity from the drug itself, it is also thought that the type of HDL increased by the drug was a bad variation.  Another drug with the same aim seems free of the scary side effects but, so far it hasn’t been shown to reduce cardiovascular risk. Exercise is a normal way to increase our HDL levels because of the other fringe benefits exercise offers.

Jay Heinecke, MD, a Professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of Washington, discovered that HDL, like LDL, can become oxidized and in that form cannot do its job. In fact, damaged HDL can create negative effects.  It would seem that HDL, like LDL, would benefit from increasing antioxidant protection and from reducing toxins like smoking and exposure to heavy metals that cause oxidation.

BOTTOM LINE:

* LDL cholesterol has natural benefits and is most damaging when it becomes oxidized but we don’t test for that.

* HDL is supposed to do us good but can become harmful if damaged and we don’t test for that either.

* Statins have a record of helping some people but we aren’t sure who or even why. The drugs come with serious, even life-threatening potential side effects.

Do you feel that you just followed Bill from the cartoon Family Circus around one of his elaborate dotted line paths?

There is just a lot we don’t know yet. That’s why experts, whom I respect, given the immature science and the potential for serious adverse effects from medication, advise us to first work on our health with natural means before calling in the heavy artillery of drugs. They say to get healthier with better habits of lifestyle, exercise, stress reduction and diet.

Where to start? I’ve observed that while there are lots of problematic lab tests, symptoms and diseases, but there are a very few things that are ultimately the causes and most of them are under our control. Our radio show and my newsletters are full of such tips, but here are a couple of reminders.

Reduce inflammation and oxidation. Don’t smoke. Avoid unnecessary chemicals. Get good dental care.

Eat fewer inflammatory sugars, refined flours, processed foods, smoked and processed meats, Trans fats (from partially hydrogenated oils) and excess omega 6 fats (from corn oil, soy oil, etc.).

Eat more fish, whole grains and vegetables. Take well researched basic supplements like fish oil and antioxidant combinations.

The health of your digestive tract is a factor with most health conditions and the cardiovascular system is no exception. Researchers pooled the results from 13 scientific studies and concluded that probiotics (friendly bacteria) lower high cholesterol. LINK

If you have a family history of cardiovascular problems or in spite of the facts above are still concerned about elevated cholesterol, ask your doctor if you can try a nutritional remedy first. Cardiol (a sponsor of the show for a while) imports a product from Italy is a good example of a combination nutritional approach that is usually effective and supports a lot of different aspects of heart health. (As of the writing of this article, the company offers the first box free for just the cost of shipping. 1-888-809-6424 or LINK.)

We should take a long view and realize we weren’t on this earth in poor health for millennia waiting for some drug company to find a way to lower substances that are normal in our blood. We have to just get back to something closer to the original plan.