The Great Cholesterol Scam and The Dangers of Statins....Exploring the Actual Causes and Treatments of Heart Disease

www.midwesterndoctor.com/ ^ | June 30, 2024 | Staff

[silverleaf]

Ditto
Part of why I stopped

[HartleyMBaldwin]

bfl

[caver]

Thanks for posting! I’ve been on a statin for about a year. I think I’m going to stop.

[logi_cal869]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

Ya don’t say!

https://freerepublic.com/focus/chat/4266339/posts?page=4#4

[Mr Rogers]

“as exercising and maintaining a healthy body weight vastly lowers cholesterol levels and doing the latter vastly raises it.”

No, it doesn’t. Not getting fat undoubtedly helps the heart and improves health greatly, but that is not related to levels of cholesterol. Nor does lowering cholesterol mean you get healthier.

The sweet spot for lowest rates of total mortality, compared to total cholesterol, is 190-260. As in many biological things, it is a U shaped curve: Too low is bad and so is too high.

As it goes above 260, strokes and heart attacks typically increase significantly. Below 190, cancer rates go up significantly. Between those two, it is pretty flat.

If all you look at is “stroke”, lowering TC below 200 seems like a good idea. That is how that goal was adopted. But dying from cancer isn’t a big improvement!

As for weight changes, reducing my weight from 185 to 150, keeping it there for 6 years using Keto, increased my TC from 190 to 205 (I’m a male in my upper 60s). However, that increase was due to raising my HDL by 15 points, leaving my LDL unchanged.

Most would consider that a good thing, although I had a doctor years ago try to put me on statins because “190 is close to 200 and EVERYONE needs to be on a statin if it hits 200” - which is NOT what the cardiologist guidelines say, but lots of doctors grossly oversimplify things.

FWIW, my Mom’s family were all built like hobbits. Short and very fat. Their cholesterol was a little elevated and the youngest died in his upper 80s.

[GMThrust]

Dr. Mercola published a similar article today, not as lengthy, but along the same lines.

[metmom]

Pharma ping.

A very long and somewhat technical read but fascinating.

[metmom]

Americans have been far too naive for generations now.

Maybe *trusting* would be a better word.

[9YearLurker]

Naivete is what has led to that mistrust, so I’ll go with my original choice of words, thanks.

[Republican Wildcat]

No, it doesn’t. Not getting fat undoubtedly helps the heart and improves health greatly, but that is not related to levels of cholesterol. Nor does lowering cholesterol mean you get healthier.

Really? People who regularly exercise and have healthy body weights don't have lower bad cholesterol and triglyceride levels in their blood than those who do not? Come on now...

[Mr Rogers]

It is true - cholesterol is primarily made by your body. Aerobic exercise has almost no impact on total cholesterol. It may have a small impact on how much LDL and how much HDL but the changes are trivial. Depends on the study one looks at. AI consolidated several and gave me numbers that were trivial.

Having a healthy body weight is associated with eating a healthier diet And that has SOME impact on Total Cholesterol, but within limits. As your cholesterol reduces to a certain point, your body will ramp up production. If you have very high cholesterol, then dieting - which usually reduces sugar intake - will lower it. But only to a point.

So if your TC is 260, diet and losing weight can lower it, maybe to 180. If your TC is already 190-200, losing weight or aerobic exercise doesn't seem to do much.

More to the point, your body NEEDS cholesterol. Which is why it makes it! And while some diseases are helped if you can force it down, others increase. That is why there is a U-shaped curve.

But yes, there are very fat people with normal TC and very lean people with very high TC. "Lean Mass Hyper-Responders" can see extremely high increases in cholesterol while being very lean and very fit.

In my own case, losing 20% of my bodyweight (while greatly increasing my saturated fat intake) increased my HDL and had zero impact on the rest. My TC went from 190 to 205 while my weight went from 185 to 150. The change in TC was due ONLY to increases in my HDL.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-38461-y

[Mr Rogers]

“Bad cholesterol” - what is that? LDL? But LDL looks like it can be good. Or bad. Depending on the type of LDL. Triglycerides? Diet and exercise MAY impact it. Or not. My 20% weight loss and massive change in diet changed my triglycerides a whopping 3 points - from 78 down to 75.

Others see a massive change.

But since some of us do not, it means the equation isn’t that simple.

[gitmo]

I’ve dropped 95+ lbs this year by eliminating bad carbs and increasing protein and fats. I’ll be at my ideal weight before Spring.

My LDL’s are great, but I’ve never been able to get my HDL numbers up.

[Mrs. B.S. Roberts]

Interesting read....long

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

I’m out. I’m dropping Atorvastatin pronto. We’ll see in a month how bad my LDL is. If it’s better or level, Doc can kiss my arse.

[Bigg Red]

mark statin

[CaptainPhilFan]

What a timely article. Thank you. I was recently Dx’d with mild “atherosclerotic calcification” in my aorta and illiac arteries.

Completely random as it came from a CT scan during an emergency hernia episode in June.

My lifestyle should not at all contribute to this condition, or at least not very much. However, I have been under great and near-constant stress for a long time, years, and especially these last 2 years. My cholesterol is at 199, I think.

Trying to get to root cause, one doc thinks a low dose of Rosuvastatin is the ticket.

I don’t want to and am trying to find any other way to lessen the condition and prevent worse. Getting rid of stress would be lovely; learning to cope with bad times might be better.

Thanks for sharing this.

[nutmeg]

.

[Red Badger]

Try the Keto style diets..................

[CaptainPhilFan]

Hey Red, thanks :) I have done Keto in the past a few times and it is effective for some (not significant for me) weight loss. Hubs and I have been trying to get back into at least semi/dirty keto for a while and having lots of trouble.

We do fast daily, and our diet is pretty clean - all 1 ingredient foods, homecooked, carefully curated vitamins and supplements.

I’ve been researching, have found lots of additional info, and this morning (I have to get back to it) found a scholarly article that says the Maillard effect (browning) in cooking creates AGE’s that are what cause plaque build up.

I knew the UK banned crispy fried potatoes a number of years but I was under the impression it was for cancer-causing reasons.

Anyway, thanks much. I’m very glad you’re here sharing all the posts that you do. I’m not much of a thread starter.

Cheers!