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In the whole-eggs post I put in here last week, I promised to come back with a more in-depth look at cholesterol, its role in the human body and what people should know about the real causes of heart disease. So, here you go…

Let’s look at cholesterol first. Did you know that there are medical studies from around the world,  demonstrating that having “high” cholesterol levels actually increases longevity? Yes, you read that right!

People with high cholesterol have been found to live longer and healthier lives than people with low cholesterol in several studies. There are multiple references to this phenomenon in Shane Ellison’s controversial book, “The Hidden Truth about Cholesterol Lowering Drugs”, Dr. Uffe Ravnskov’s (MD, PhD) book entitled “The Cholesterol Myths”, as well as Sally Fallon and Mary Enig’s book, “Nourishing Traditions”.

So why are we all being pushed to “lower our cholesterol”? Well, the simple answer is that flawed and decades-old medical studies have been accepted as truth and never fully analyzed for their validity.

A substance called cholesterol was discovered floating around in our blood stream by a team of researchers in the mid 20th century. They also discovered that this substance can attach itself to arterial walls as plaque, which legitimately can cause interruptions to blood flow. Unfortunately, nobody stopped to ask why these deposits were happening, they just decided that ‘too much’ cholesterol in the body led to plaque build up in the arteries…as if this was happening all by itself. Over time, a measurement of 200 was accepted as the definition of too high.

High Cholesterol does NOT cause heart disease!

Inflammation within the body’s blood vessels is what leads to plaque build up in the arteries. Inflammation can be caused by many personal factors such as stress, smoking, viruses, consumption of refined and/or hydrogenated fats, an imbalance of omega-6 fats to omega-3 fats in the diet, excess refined sugars in the diet, etc.

Cholesterol is a healing substance within the body, and responds to arterial inflammation by being deposited in combination with other substances, forming “plaque” as a healing agent on the artery lining. It basically serves to ’shore up’ the weakened areas.

Levels of inflammation in your body can be measured with what’s called a CRP test (c-reactive protein). The accuracy of this test is not absolute, as it can vary depending on the time of day and other factors, but it is a much better indication of heart disease risk than a cholesterol test.

Another important test for heart disease risk is a test for serum homocysteine levels. The next time your doctor wants you to get blood cholesterol tests, request CRP and homocysteine tests instead. He/she should be well aware of the validity of these tests if they are up to date.

If you have significant internal inflammation, this plaque will be deposited regardless of whether you have high or low cholesterol. On the other hand, if you don’t have inflammation, high cholesterol levels just keep circulating without getting deposited on the artery linings. Therefore, it is more important to control inflammation than it is to lower your cholesterol.

Lowering your cholesterol doesn’t attack the root of the problem – what is actually causing the inflammation that leads to heart disease in you. Lowering your cholesterol does nothing except to make the drug companies rich, and possibly leave you with a whole assortment of possible negative side-effects from ’statin’ drugs.

Preventing heart disease is about living a healthy lifestyle. Controlling your inflammation to prevent heart disease is as easy as reducing the stress in your life (try deep breathing exercises, Qigong, yoga, etc.), maintaining a healthy weight, eating a high-antioxidant, highly nutritious unprocessed diet, and avoiding smoking and other causes of heavy free radical production in the body.

I hope this article has given you some helpful info about the real causes of heart disease. If you or anyone you care about is currently taking statins, or if you just want to learn more about cholesterol and the scandal that is revolving currently around statin drugs, please read some of the books mentioned above.

If you’re skeptical of this idea, ask yourself this question… If cholesterol levels make such a difference to heart disease and blockage risks, why does the number of people suffering from heart disease, heart attack and stroke rise by the year in spite of the proliferation of cholesterol-lowering drugs?

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