High Cholesterol Is Not the Cause of Heart Disease
February is almost upon us, and that means American Heart Health Month. The prevailing wisdom about heart health makes my heart heavy. It's distressing that despite recent headlines to the contrary over the last few years, most Americans, and more disturbingly, most American doctors, continue to fasely believe that high cholesterol causes heart disease.
This is a dangerous misconception, because the truth of the matter is that, on the whole, cholesterol is actually good for us, and the real cause of heart disease -- inflammation -- is being ignored. In other words, we've falsely accused cholesterol of the crime of heart disease when the real perpetrator, inflammation, is literally getting away with murder.
The good news is more and more people are catching on. It's additionally encouraging to see doctors, especially heart doctors, who admit they were wrong about thinking high cholesterol causes heart disease. Unfortunately, that misconception has been so thoroughly drummed into our collective conscious that it is going to take a long time to reverse.
There is extensive literature and scientific studies that disprove the high cholesterol/heart disease hypothesis. After all, that is what it always was: a hypothesis.
The latest science tells us what really causes heart disease is inflammation. Inflammation is caused by eating too much sugar, too many refined carbohydrates like white bread, and too many Omega-6 fats, such as soybean oil.
Sadly, the misinformation about saturated fat leading to high cholesterol and therefore causing heart disease, led to the low-fat craze of the 90s and beyond. That craze consisted of replacing saturated fat in our diet with sugar, refined carbohydrates and Omega-6 fats (vegetable oils).
As a result, heart disease increased, along with obesity and cancer.
Many doctors, such as cardiovascular surgeon Stephen Sinatra, could not ignore what they were seeing with their own eyes. Many of their heart patients had low cholesterol. Many also had high cholesterol. This led to the undeniable conclusion that cholesterol levels generally do not factor into heart disease risk. It had to be something else that was causing it.
They discovered it was inflammation. Dr. Sinatra details his "conversion" from blaming cholesterol to blaming inflammation for heart disease in his excellent book, The Great Cholesterol Myth.
Other doctors who understand that saturated fat does not lead to heart disease include Dr. Dwight Lundell, Dr. Eric Westman, Dr. Aseem Malhotra, Dr. Joseph Mercola, Dr. Mark Hyman and many, many others.
In fact, they will tell you that saturated fat is actually good for you. For instance, saturated fat raises your HDL cholesterol, the so-called "good" cholesterol, which all doctors agree is healthy, more effectively than anything else.
Coconut oil is a saturated fat and is widely considered one of the most beneficial substances we can consume. It has even helped people with Alzheimer's regain cognitive functions. For more on this, check out the book, What If There Was A Cure For Alzheimer's And No One Knew? by Dr. Mary Newport, a Florida neonatologist, whose husband experienced remarkable improvement with coconut oil.
Coconut oil is also a natural antimicrobial, useful in preventing infections like the cold and flu.
Fat is essential for our brains. It helps us have beautiful hair, skin, and nails. Fats make and properly regulate hormones, which are essential for every aspect of life and are particularly important for those who are trying to conceive a child.
Fat makes us feel full so we don't overeat and crave carbohydates. Fats are essential to healthy cells in every part of our body, because the cell membrane is made of fat.
Not only is saturated fat good for us, such as coconut oil, butter and animal fat (but make sure the animal is grass-fed in the case of beef, or pasture-raised in the case of poultry and free of antibiotics and steroids) but other types of fat are essential.
These include Omega-3 fats, which are in fish oil. Most people are deficient in Omega-3s, which is why a fish oil supplement is so important. Try to take a supplement that lists the amount of EPH and DHA on the label, and make sure to take about one gram of DHA per day.
Omega-3s can also be found in walnuts and flaxseed, and as mentioned above, grass-fed beef. Fish, however, is the best source. Aside from fish oil, other natural sources include salmon, tuna and sardines.
Other healthy fats include avocados and olive oil. Many physicians who understand the importance of healthy fats recommend a daily intake of coconut oil, olive oil, and fish oil as well as daily servings of walnuts and avocados.
Try it and see how satisfied you feel. You will notice your cravings for sugar and starches disappear.
Obviously, if high cholesterol does not cause heart disease, this means that millions of people taking statins (cholesterol-lowering medications) don't need them. Since an estimated one-quarter of the American population takes statins, getting off them would be a death blow to the pharmaceutical industry, which operates in conjunction with the medical establishment.
However, the side-effects of statins, such as leg cramps and brain fog are often minimized, when they can in fact, be quite debilitating.
The bottom line is, listen to the latest science and the growing number of physicians who are big enough to admit they were taught wrong, they believed wrong, and they advised wrong, when they espoused the notion that high cholesterol causes heart disease.
Pay attention to the increasingly expanding pool of medical experts who say the real cause of heart disease is inflammation. That means instead of cutting out saturated fats such as steak and eggs, eliminate the real culprits: sugar, refined carbohydrates, and vegetable oils.
And oh, by the way, no surprise here...you can find those inflammatory ingredients in most processed foods. So the simple solution is to eat whole, natural foods that you make at home.
Admittedly, while it is a simple solution, it is more time-consuming than eating packaged foods, fast foods, and most restaurant foods. But it's worth it in the long run.