Lowering Your Cholesterol May Not Prevent Heart Disease

Are you concerned about preventing heart disease? Are you taking a statin drug (such as Lipitor, Zocor, Crestor) to manage your high cholesterol because you think that will protect you? Have you been experiencing any of these potential side effects of statin drugs: low energy; depression; memory loss; high blood sugar/diabetes; muscle weakness, pain, or fatigue; sexual dysfunction/low libido; or signs of cancer? If so, now is a good time to learn more about the role of cholesterol in the body, the true causes of heart disease, and natural means of preventing it through diet, lifestyle choices, and dietary supplements.

The REAL Important Facts About Preventing Heart Disease
The CDC reports that heart disease is the leading cause of death for people of most ethnicities in the United States. Unfortunately, contrary to the views of many medical experts and scientific evidence that was conveniently ignored for political expediency, conventional medicine, the USDA, and the American Heart Association, continue to follow the same entrenched cholesterol-fat-heart health guidelines established in the 1980s.

Fortunately, to the benefit of a fast-aging America, integrative medical practitioners have been calling for a re-examination of the scientific studies in order to get traditional medical opinion to turn the corner toward a more accurate, updated approach to heart health. In the early 1970s, when my peers viewed good nutrition as secondary to maintaining good health and mocked dietary supplements as ineffective, I regularly chatted with Dr. Stephen Sinatra (board-certified cardiologist, American College of Nutrition fellow, and former Manchester practitioner) to share what I was learning from the scientific literature about clinical nutrition. Dr. Sinatra was just then beginning to explore preventive medicine, but has since become one of this country’s top integrative cardiologists and a leader of this uphill climb. Below are some of the well-substantiated key points from The Great Cholesterol Myth: Why Lowering Your Cholesterol Won’t Prevent Heart Disease – And the Statin-Free Plan That Will, the thoroughly documented, layman-friendly book he recently co-authored with Jonny Bowden, PhD, CNS. I have also added a few of my own points, but much of the information from the book has provided the foundation of my clinical nutrition practice over the past two decades:

Cholesterol: Life can’t go on without it.
Almost every cell, the liver, and brain (accounts for 25% of all cholesterol in the body) manufacture it, and enzymes convert it to vitamin D, steroid hormones [sex hormones (estrogen, progesterone, testosterone), stress hormones (adrenaline, cortisol, norepinephrine)] , and bile salts for fat digestion and detoxification. The membranes surrounding cells and the structures within them consist largely of cholesterol. Only oxidized cholesterol threatens good health because it sticks to arterial walls and causes inflammation, the true cause of heart disease. Otherwise, the body uses non-damaged cholesterol to combat infectious toxins.

Conventional doctors’ outdated focus on lowering LDL (“bad”) cholesterol and raising HDL (“good”) cholesterol is misguided and dangerous. More recent science has shown that there are subtypes of LDL and HDL that do not all have the same impact on heart health:

1. LDL-A – preferred big, fluffy molecules;
2. LDL-B – atherogenic small, hard, dense molecules more likely to become oxidized;
3. HDL-2 – anti-inflammatory, large, buoyant;
4. HDL-3 – poorly understood, potentially pro-inflammatory, small, dense. Moreover, aggressive lowering of LDL does not even reduce arterial calcified plaque

When evaluating a patient’s cardiovascular health, doctors should conduct at least some of these key tests:

1. LDL Particle Size (Optimal: pattern A profile);
2. hs-CRP – (Optimal: .8mg/dL)- an inflammation marker directly associated with overall heart and cardiovascular health;
3. Interleukin – 6 (Optimal: less than 12.0 pg/mL)- a precursor to CRP that provides an earlier warning of inflammation;
4. Serrum Ferritin (Ideal: Women < 80 mg/L – Men < 90 mg/L) – stored iron in the blood is highly prone to oxidation;
5. Lp(a) – a serious risk factor that is difficult to treat; Lp(a) promotes inflammation, blood clot formation, and plaque build-up;
6. Fibrinogen (N 200-400 mg/dL) (FiF/Clauss method) – test determines the stickiness of blood;
7. Homocysteine (Optimal: 7-9 µmol/L) – damages artery wall function, and promotes inflammation and thrombosis;
8. Coronary Calcium Scan (Agatston Test) (Minimal Arterial Calcification < 10; Extensive Calcification > 400)

Diet: Doctors Sinatra and Bowden introduce three important but controversial points about heart-healthy dietary choices. First, science has well-established that, in most humans, there is practically no connection between the cholesterol consumed in food and the amount of cholesterol found in the blood.

Second, stable saturated fat is far less threatening to cardiovascular health than unstable, potentially carcinogenic polyunsaturated fat (vegetable oils). While saturated fat is mildly inflammatory and may contribute to insulin resistance, polyunsaturated fats are far more easily oxidized (especially when re-heated) and thus more readily yield disease-provoking free radicals. Doctors Sinatra and Bowden write that studies have proven: