Doctor Andy’s Alternative Thoughts

Many people out there feel that Cholesterol is a bad thing.  Or, that is what drug companies want you to believe.

Many people know that there is a lot of press out there as well as advertising on the everyone’s cholesterol levels and where they should be and if it is high, take Lipitor, Crestor, or some other form of a statin drug because if you have high cholesterol, you are going to have a heart attack!  This is not true!

First off, lets start with a biochemistry lesson on what cholesterol is and what it does NATURALLY in the body.  Cholesterol is produced in the liver and is the basis for various hormones including testosterone in men and progesterone in women.  Your body will produce less cholesterol when it is ingested through natural forms such as red meats.  Your body needs cholesterol to preform functions normally in the body.  Common sense tells you, when you don’t have enough of a certain thing whether it is a hormone, glucose, nutrient in the body, it will not function correctly.

I had the privilege of working for a more experienced Doctor when I first got out of Graduate School.  This very topic came up and he mentioned to me that when he first started practicing 30 years ago, Cholesterol wasn’t even on the radar and Heart Disease was a small problem compared to what it is today.  Numbers he said, were anywhere from 300-400, which compared to today’s number as some sources say it should be around 100 to be normal.

Now, what is interesting, when you are lacking cholesterol, you actually start to tax the liver because since this is a vital part of everyone’s biochemistry, you need it and your body will replace what it is not getting from your diet.  When you drop your levels so dangerously low in particular LDL’s, your body, from a lack of hormones creates new problems, such as Erectile Dysfunction in men and a decreased libido in women.

From a business perspective, think about drug companies and look at how they can profit from the ever plummeting Cholesterol level number.  Every time it drops 10 points, think about the millions of new customers that can be prescribed these drugs.  Also, by pushing this lower number standard, they are creating new customers for ED, and women needing hormone replacement therapy.  A pretty vicious cycle if you ask me.

I am sure you want to ask, “well Cholesterol causes heart attacks and I don’t want to risk that!” This is not necessarily true.  There was a study by the name The Framingham study that was a 40 year, 5000+ participants where they had two groups, one eating a high fat diet, and the other low fat diet.  They found the high fat group had little or no cardiovascular disease and normal cholesterol levels, whereas the low fat group increased levels of cardiovascular disease and death as well as higher cholesterol levels. What is a real precursor to Cardiovascular disease and Heart Attacks is an amino acid Homocysteine.  Elevated levels of Homocysteine have been shown to be a more direct relationship to CV disease than cholesterol.

So, cholesterol is not bad for you like everyone thinks.  It is good for you where it won’t tax your liver, make you go impotent, or decrease your sex drive.  Cholesterol is only bad for you when it is in excess, but isn’t that the truth about anything we put in our bodies?