I come across many people worried about their cholesterol level, eating only egg whites or low cholesterol products like margarine.
They can’t say exactly why but they’re just sure it will cause a heart attack.
In an eight year long heart study, researchers observed 10,000 people with high cholesterol levels. Half of them received a best-selling statin drug. The other half were simply told to eat a normal diet and get enough exercise.
The results stunned the researchers.
Although the statin drug did indeed lower serum cholesterol, this had no impact whatsoever on death rate, non-fatal heart attacks and fatal arterial disease. In other words, the statin-users had zero advantage over those who received no treatment at all. However, they had just spent eight years taking a costly drug with known side effects – risking liver failure, muscle wasting, even sudden death.
Lowering cholesterol either through drugs or low fat diets does not lower the risk of developing heart disease.
All the major European long-term cholesterol studies have confirmed that a low-fat diet did not reduce cholesterol levels by more than four per cent, in most cases merely one to two per cent.
Your body can make its own anyway, it’s essential for life. Cholesterol levels can naturally increase by 20 per cent in autumn and drop again during winter!
The anti-cholesterol campaigns since the late 1980s have been very misleading, to say the least. A more recent study from Denmark involving 20,000 men and women demonstrated that most heart disease patients have normal cholesterol levels. The bottom line is that cholesterol hasn’t been proved a risk factor for anything.
The recent INTERHEART study found the top nine indicators for a heart attack, and total cholesterol isn’t one!
They have shown ApoB ratios to be the important factor. The other factors include smoking, exercise, diet and obesity, among other preventable lifestyle choices. One of the study physicians commented “mankind is doing a good job of killing itself”.
I think we are all trying but it’s hard with the conflicting information from companies picking what information suits their product.
Don’t be a sheep, do your own research. Educate yourself regarding what you are putting in and doing to your body. Talk to your doc or trainer or health professional and don’t be afraid to ask why? When it comes to your body and health, like it or not, ignore it and it will fade away! Look after it and it will pay you back tenfold!
