High Cholesterol Does Not Cause Heart Disease

2024 Author: Jasmine Walkman | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 08:29

Let's start with the fact that "risk factor" and "cause" are not the same thing. The risk factor is a characteristic that is associated with the diagnosis. For example, in women, tall stature is associated with breast cancer. Does this mean that tall stature causes breast cancer? Of course not.

It is important to understand that cholesterol is a major component of our cell membranes, it acts as an antioxidant, helps synthesize vitamin D and is the only source from which our steroid hormones, such as cortisol, estrogen, progesterone and testosterone, are produced. key to reproduction. Therefore, we can say with certainty that without cholesterol there is no way to survive.

Cholesterol is used by our bodies to repair damage to the arteries. Dr. Maria Enig, a researcher, says blaming cholesterol for heart disease is like blaming firefighters for fires. Is it really a good idea to reduce the "firefighters" on our arteries? The key to stopping heart disease is to stop the "fires" in our arteries in the first place by minimizing sugar consumption, minimizing free radical damage, avoiding the consumption of refined and therefore rancid vegetable oils, and reduce constant stress.

Our bodies consider cholesterol to be so vital to our survival that every cell in our body can produce as much cholesterol as it needs. If we do not eat or eat very little cholesterol, our body begins to produce more, and if we eat a lot, the body produces less. In this way, cholesterol levels are maintained regardless of our diet and this is why the rise or fall of cholesterol levels is very difficult to regulate with diet alone.

Dr. Ravnskov, who wrote the book Myths About Cholesterol, is doing research after study to disprove the idea that high cholesterol levels are the cause of heart disease. One study found that about half of people with heart disease have low cholesterol, and half of people without heart disease have high cholesterol.

Most studies have found that in women, high cholesterol is not a risk factor for heart disease - in fact, mortality in women with very low cholesterol is five times higher. A Canadian study that followed 5,000 healthy middle-aged men for 12 years found that high cholesterol was not linked to heart disease.

Another study conducted at the University Hospital of Toronto, which tracked cholesterol levels in 120 men who had heart attacks, found that the number of men with second heart attacks with high and low cholesterol was the same. In Russia, on the other hand, low cholesterol levels are associated with an increase in heart disease. The Japanese are often cited as people who eat very little cholesterol and have very low levels of risk of heart disease.

But Japanese who have moved to the United States and continue to eat traditional Japanese cuisine are twice as likely to suffer from heart disease as those who have eaten both traditional Japanese dishes and fatty American foods. This suggests that something else, such as stress, is the cause of heart disease.

These are just a few of the studies that contradict the idea that cholesterol is the cause of heart disease. Then why is this idea so popular? Perhaps pharmaceutical companies and the food industries benefit greatly from maintaining this belief.

The idea that cholesterol is not the cause of heart disease is against popular belief, but it is not just to create controversy, but to show after the evidence that we are on the wrong track. If before people ate saturated fats and cholesterol in the form of animal fats, eggs and whole milk, and now the consumption of these foods is declining and they are replaced by sugar, vegetable oils and processed foods, now the levels of heart disease have begun to are rising - it is obvious that we are wrongly blaming cholesterol for this. Feel free not to believe this idea, but please also do not deny it completely.