A new campaign at the IMW
I have a few questions for you.
1- Do you know what substance the body makes that gets converted into Vitamin D?
2- Do you know what substance the body makes gets converted into hormones such as estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, DHEA and Cortisol?
3- Do you know what substance the body makes turns into bile acids that help you with digestion and absorption of food?
4- Do you know what substance the body makes that acts like an insulation barrier around your nerve cells?
5- Do you know what substance your body makes that is a necessary component of all of the cells of your body?
6- Do you know what substance your body makes that works very closely with your immune system?
If not I’ll give you a hint.
Yep, good ole cholesterol!
Here is a biochemical pathway. You do not need to be a scientist or a biochemist. Just read the words starting at cholesterol and follow the arrows as to where cholesterol goes.
Pretty cool isn’t it?
Maybe, just maybe we should stop dissing cholesterol and instead, perhaps, just perhaps…..
Ha Ha Ha.
I doubt you were expecting that.
Before anyone gets mad this is NOT a political statement. This is purely a play on words.
Cholesterol has got a bad rap. 50-ish years ago a few scientists wanted to make a point and decided to warn the US government and the world about the evils of cholesterol.
Problem was that their point was incorrect and not scientifically valid. But a bigger problem was and is that the world believed them and an entire pharmaceutical, educational and food industry focused on decreasing cholesterol was born. Now, even though the science of cholesterol is changing, it’s hard to convince a whole establishment of healthcare professionals who have forever demonized cholesterol to do an about face.
Let me bring up an example of a question/concern I almost always hear.
“Hey doc you asked me to switch my diet to a lower carbohydrate higher natural protein/fat diet. I have done that. I’ve lost weight. I have more energy. My blood pressure is normal and I am weaning off my BP meds. I feel great. But my LDL cholesterol went up. Am I gonna die or have a heart attack?”
My answer with a big smile is:
Nope.
LDL is NOT an individual causative risk factor for heart disease. A better marker of risk is your Triglyceride to HDL ratio. With less than 1 being optimal and less than 1.5 being good.
When you lower your dietary carbs while increasing your natural proteins and fat what often occurs is your triglycerides drop, your hdl rises and your LDL can go up or down. But your triglyceride to hdl ratio that best determines risk almost always improves.
Below is a review article discussing just this concept.
You really really need to read it.
I mean really really really.
Statin therapy is not warranted for a person with high LDL-cholesterol on a low-carbohydrate diet
Well, did you read it?
There are other potential issues with cholesterol lowering statin drugs. Many books have been written about them so I won’t discuss them here. But here are a few other links that further discusses cholesterol, statins and risk.
Not so recent news but still being mostly ignored by mainstream.
Statins stimulate atherosclerosis and heart failure: pharmacological mechanisms
Some medical journals are just starting to publish both sides of the cholesterol-statin debate.
The two articles below are from the same journal.
Now a pro statin article from same journal
Publishing pro and con allows open scientific discussion/debate and allows others the ability to develop a deeper informed consent if they decide a treatment is warranted.
Here is one more article from a researcher with a different theory on cholesterol and heart disease.
He believes high cholesterol is a compensatory response to your environment, whether that’s diet, nutrition, hormones, stress, infection….
So what is the new campaign at the IMW?
It is to make you think about your health.
It is to allow you more informed consent in how you make decisions regarding your health.
Now for some more food porn.
Caution- this is not meant for vegetarians.
Beautiful grill marks I must say.
The perfect color and juices flowing….
Sorry, back to reality.
I will end with something totally unrelated just because I found it very funny.
I have no idea why I wrote so many substacks this week but I hope you enjoyed.
Have a nice weekend everyone!
To Good Health!
Here is the other side of metabolic dysfunction. We need to keep moving throughout our lives….
https://www.instagram.com/reel/ChAUsLzJDPW/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
Bacon is our friend