The Biggest Lie in Medicine: The Cholesterol Conspiracy

reply to post by The Great Day


Ask your doctor about taking niacin instead of statins.

www.livestrong.com...

reply to post by NavyDoc


Thank you for your input, NavyDoc.

However, why isn't the medical establishment going after the root causes of CAD? According to all that I have read, inflammation is the key factor (albeit not the only factor, but the key one).

Hyperlipidemia appears to be hereditary, of course.....but is there a reason why? Is there something in the lifestyle that causes certain individual's bodies to flood the system with cholesterol?

I'm sure there are some people who need statins. My point is, they want EVERYBODY to be on them, and are demonizing cholesterol unfairly, while ignoring root causes of CAD. I also make the assertion that, by lowering everybody's cholesterol, it is a form of soft kill.

This, to me, is the worst part of western medicine. It's all about alleviating symptoms of disease, while ignoring the actual cause. This is a good way to make money, because there is never a cure.

reply to post by LittleBlackEagle


Agreed. Our health is being assaulted on so many levels, it boggles the mind.

One could go crazy thinking about it. We can control what we eat, but we cannot control what we breathe, or what is in our water supply.

reply to post by Asktheanimals


Hot sauce, or capsaicin, is a natural anti inflammatory, and is good for headaches.Turmeric is supposed to be pretty good too.

reply to post by Kody27


Alternative to lowering cholesterol, if you feel it must be lowered? Niacin and fish oil.

I don't think our bodies were meant to handle much sugar. If you look at sugar in the natural world, the more sweet something is, the harder it is to get to. Case in point: Sugar cane. If you've ever actually handled sugar cane, the sugar is tightly bound up in the hard, stringy matrix of the cane. You can chew on it, but you'll have a cramp in your jaw before you get enough sugar out of it to get a sugar buzz.

Not to mention honey. Try taking some honey comb from a bee's hive. It's an occasional treat, otherwise you could get stung to death.

When they started refining sugar and making it readily available to the general population on a daily basis, we started to have problems.

•In 1700, the average person consumed about 4 pounds of sugar per year.

•In 1800, the average person consumed about 18 pounds of sugar per year.

•In 1900, individual consumption had risen to 90 pounds of sugar per year.

•In 2009, more than 50 percent Americans consume 1/2 pound of sugar per day, which is 180 pounds of sugar per year.

www.wholevegan.com...

If you are basically healthy and don't have blood sugar issues, a little sugar, once in a while, is most likely okay. It's the every day sugar that is bad. It's not just desserts....think of people who go to Starbucks every day and get a super-sweet coffee to go.....or have it at home, and put that sugary Coffee Mate in it, with HFCS. Let's not forget sodas.

180 pounds of sugar per year? Line up 180 pounds of sugar in 1 pound bags on the floor. That's a lot of sweet stuff, and a lot of inflammation-causing sugar for bodies that are not designed to handle it.

Yes cholesterol is much needed and its also a repair mechanism, so, you need to repair the damage. Which came about when they took away the potassium iodide and iodine much needed in the human body and neutred our salt mainly, to kill us. The stuff they sell is hard on us, along with most of their doctored foods.

So fascinating how the medical community does their business, so If I let my doctor get away with it, I will be on statins, two or three different blood pressure medications, anti depressants (because supposedly middle age women need them) and who knows what else.

reply to post by marg6043


Yup. They'll give you as many drugs as you want....as long as you cannot get high on them. Nasty side effects? No problem....there's a pill for that!

reply to post by calendula


Excellent post!

I remember reading somewhere that obese people keep eating because their bodies are malnourished, so they get the "keep chowing down" signal, in the body's desperate attempt to get the proteins, fats and vitamins it needs to work properly.

High cholesterol, to me, seems to be a symptom of disease, not the cause.

But I understand what is going on here, it's called confirmation bias. You can find data to twist and back up whatever it is you believe. I used to be a cholesterol denialist myself, so I do understand it. I did the reading myself and figured out I was being a a freaking idiot.

reply to post by antonia


*Sigh*

High cholesterol is a symptom, not the sole cause. Lowering the acceptable numbers and trying to get otherwise basically healthy people on a high-powered drug like statins is, to me, a form of soft kill.

Your not-so-subtle attempts at insults say more about you, than they do about anybody else. All attempts at having you provide links which actually make sense have failed.

If you do not agree with the premise of this thread, why do you keep posting on it? There are some people on ATS who really enjoy arguing just for the heck of it, but do so ineffectively. Insults are the last vestige of a person who is all talk and no substance.

You claim you've done all the reading and research, but again, cannot provide anything which disproves what I said in my OP. If you can come up with something that validates your stance, I welcome it. Until then, have a nice day.

reply to post by lambros56


Thanks for your story. I'm so sorry that you suffered permanent damage from statins.

There is a class action lawsuit against statins currently. As time goes on, I imagine it will become more wide-spread.

www.nolo.com...

crazy thing is I dont care if I live or die!
and you have me looking after my heath now?!?!

LOL. You know, if I die, it's fine. What gets me is that I won't die, but live a life that is full of pain, disease, and misery. I already have rhematoid arthritis, so I have to avoid things which cause inflammation. So, if you're gonna live, gotta avoid the things which bring on the disease, pain and misery.

reply to post by FissionSurplus

This is what we are told, over and over again: High levels of cholesterol clog arteries and lead to heart attacks. Lower the cholesterol, and you won't get a heart attack.

That's not what they say, they say it lowers the risk of a heart attack. Big difference....

and the rest of your post is junk.
Yes, Cholesterol has many important functions in the body, BUT cholesterol is in many foods, and many foods have a ton of cholesterol.
It's about eliminating EXCESS cholesterol, and the foods that have tons of cholesterol. There's no way to completely eliminate cholesterol from your diet....and no one is suggesting that.

Originally posted by FissionSurplus
reply to post by NavyDoc

 

According to all that I have read, inflammation is the key factor (albeit not the only factor, but the key one).

something has to cause the inflammation....so obviously it isn't the cause of it.


This thread is extremely stupid and based on misconceptions about science.

reply to post by rickymouse


Excellent, rickymouse. You get it. High cholesterol is a symptom, and the body's response to injury.

This is a many-faceted issue. I simplified it because my point was that cholesterol was being demonized as THE cause of heart disease, when that is clearly not the case.

Much better to avoid as many injury triggers as possible. As much as it pains me to say it, because I am a sugar junky, sugar is a primary cause of inflammation. Our bodies aren't meant to deal with so much of it, and it's evil franken-twin, high fructose corn syrup. Like all recovered junkies, I have had to give it up all together.

It is amazing to me that we aren't all dropping like flies. Perhaps, thousands of years in the future, we will have evolved to handle more environmental stressors. In the mean time, the hospitals and cancer wards are full. We're living just long enough to pay taxes for a number of years, but not so long that we can collect SS and Medicare at the end.

Originally posted by FissionSurplus
reply to post by Kody27

 

Alternative to lowering cholesterol, if you feel it must be lowered? Niacin and fish oil.

I don't think our bodies were meant to handle much sugar. If you look at sugar in the natural world, the more sweet something is, the harder it is to get to. Case in point: Sugar cane. If you've ever actually handled sugar cane, the sugar is tightly bound up in the hard, stringy matrix of the cane. You can chew on it, but you'll have a cramp in your jaw before you get enough sugar out of it to get a sugar buzz.

Not to mention honey. Try taking some honey comb from a bee's hive. It's an occasional treat, otherwise you could get stung to death.

When they started refining sugar and making it readily available to the general population on a daily basis, we started to have problems.

•In 1700, the average person consumed about 4 pounds of sugar per year.

•In 1800, the average person consumed about 18 pounds of sugar per year.

•In 1900, individual consumption had risen to 90 pounds of sugar per year.

•In 2009, more than 50 percent Americans consume 1/2 pound of sugar per day, which is 180 pounds of sugar per year.

www.wholevegan.com...

If you are basically healthy and don't have blood sugar issues, a little sugar, once in a while, is most likely okay. It's the every day sugar that is bad. It's not just desserts....think of people who go to Starbucks every day and get a super-sweet coffee to go.....or have it at home, and put that sugary Coffee Mate in it, with HFCS. Let's not forget sodas.

180 pounds of sugar per year? Line up 180 pounds of sugar in 1 pound bags on the floor. That's a lot of sweet stuff, and a lot of inflammation-causing sugar for bodies that are not designed to handle it.

Considering that the long carbon chain that is the backbone of the cholestrol molecule is based on surcrose, it is not astonishing to find that people with a diet high in refined sugars and processed starches also have a high colesterol.

I agree, evolutionarily, we were not designed to handle that much carbohydrates (suger being one of the most concentrated forms) and this is, in the history of mankind, a rather recent problem.

One other important issue with statins is that in about March of 2013 the FDA added a little caution saying that statins may also cause problems with memory. Seems like a small thing but here's the rub. As mentioned in initial article, cholesterol helps with healing in the brain. Prolonged use of statins lowers this brain healing property of cholesterol and adds to plaque formation. The result is increases in dementia and Alzheimer symptoms. If you have elderly parents with these issues, look and see if they have been on statins. As an anti-aging doctor, I try to discourage statin use. I find a baby asprin, fish oil, vit d , curcumin or resveratrol are probably more heart protective than a medication. I'm not giving anyone medical advice here, but this is what I do for myself. Best indicator of longevity is in the genes. If your parents live till their nineties, you'll have a long ride. Make the best of it. Big Pharma is not here to help, just here to make money.

Originally posted by Asktheanimals
This is definitely the right thread to ask the following question:

What foods should one avoid if inflammation is a problem (spinal cord specifically)?
What foods or supplements are good for reducing it?

This has been my main issue for 5 years now and has resulted in chronic pain and neuropathy. Of course my doctors have no solutions, only drugs. Having no surgical options diet is really the only thing within my control. I'll hit everyone up about brain tumors later, just take one problem at a time here.

Thanks if anyone can help.

Any processed foods, any processed meats (lunch meat, hot dogs, sausages, bacon), coffee (!!! I know!!), meats that are burnt in the cooking process, sugary foods, sugary drinks, fried or baked snacks (they have trans-fats, to be avoided at all costs).

Bascially, shop at the outer edges of the grocery store: Basic, unprocessed meats, some dairy, veggies, fruits. I find that things made with wheat or flour are also inflammation-causing. When I eat them, even whole wheat, my arthritis flares up and I have intense pain in my deformed joints, and some that are trying to deform as I type this.

Because I also have bone problems, I take a wide variety of supplements, with the intent of reducing inflammation, as well as trying to beef up my immune system.

The three supplements I take specifically to combat inflammation are:

Turmeric (sold as TurmericForce)
Zyflamend (a combination of herbs)
Samento (a derivative of cat's claw)

I also take other supplements, which you can U2U me if you want to know what they are.

I have slowed my rheumatoid arthritis to a crawl. It's still happening, but much slower, and I am much more mobile and active because of those. I buy them through Amazon.com. I need no medicine for pain, and I take no immunosupressants. I want my immune system firing on all cylinders, I don't want it told to stand down!

Originally posted by nixie_nox
reply to post by Asktheanimals

 

Hot sauce, or capsaicin, is a natural anti inflammatory, and is good for headaches.Turmeric is supposed to be pretty good too.

Thanks Nixie. I'd forgotten about good old hot peppers.
My grandfather used to eat 2 hot peppers with every meal, breakfast included.
He lived to the age of 94.

reply to post by FissionSurplus

Seems to me that TPTB really don't want us to be healthy, do they? So they lie to us, tell us to use sunscreen, statins, and conveniently forget to warn us that things like sugar, HFCS, white refined flour, etc., are making us all completely inflamed, and ripe for an early demise.

I beg to differ

The government and health care providers do tell us all about how to eat healthy. They do say too much sugar is bad...It's just people don't listen.

reply to post by OperationIraqiFailure


Good post. It's funny how some docs can be such hypocrites. They'll pass out these drugs to patients like candy, but wouldn't have their own family take them. I guess the Hippocratic Oath is a thing of the past. "First, do no harm". Alrighty then. So much for that!

I read somewhere that the famous TV doc, Dr. Oz, pushes immunizations, especially the flu shot, but refuses to have his own family vaccinated.

Even Monsanto, whose bottom line depends on GMOs, doesn't serve GMOs in it's corporate cafeteria.

The hypocrisy is staggering. I guess because we only represent money for these people. Nothing more. The sicker we are, the more money we have to pay them.

awsome thread
sandf

cholestorol r brainfood...
getting rid of it from the peoples' diet is another plank in the dumbing down of america

rumour has it lack of cholestorol is a principle cause of al's hammers disease too boot