Cholesterol: URGENT ACTION NEEDED???

A few years ago in Korea, I received a medical report with huge Korean letters in bright red on the front. My Korean was basic at best. I understood that the main title said URGENT ACTION NEEDED, but I couldn’t understand the written explanation as to why I was deemed to be in great danger if I didn’t take appropriate action.

I panicked. What could possibly be the problem? My health had rocketed in the previous few years after I had changed my diet and started taking all 90 essential nutrients every day. I had been reluctant to take the medical exam because I had become sceptical about allopathic medicine, but my employer required it. I now thought maybe I had been wrong to think that way, and the exam had uncovered some terrible, life-threatening sign of disease.

In my panic, I tried to urgently find a translation for why I was in such imminent danger. I used dictionaries and called Korean friends. Eventually, I found the problem.

My cholesterol was too high.

I breathed a sigh on relief. Was that all? I determined to totally ignore my cholesterol level. Some of you may find my attitude reckless. But I already knew very well that the prevailing medical view of cholesterol was suspect.

I checked all the other results in the report and found they ranged from good to excellent. The only other problem I was warned about was that I was too fat, based on my waist size. I dismissed that on the grounds that my weight to height ratio was good, and as a western woman I was naturally shaped differently to your average Korean woman.

Having overcome the panic and digested the contents of the report, my next emotion was anger. I was furious that they would use enormous read letters to scare the life out of me. (Fear has become a common strategy of the pharmaceutical industry in persuading us to undergo medical procedures.)

We have been told for decades that cholesterol is bad and we have to lower it at all costs, even if it means taking drugs with serious side effects. Several years ago, a beloved member of my family was put on a low-cholesterol diet and that seemed to mark the beginning of a serious deterioration in health over the next few years.

One of the first doctors I heard giving an alternative view of cholesterol was Dr Joel Wallach. In the short video Dr Joel Wallach Dead Doctors Don’t Lie Cholesterol Heart Disease (see below), Dr Wallach uses humour to get his message across.

He maintains that elevated cholesterol levels do not cause disease, but rather may be a warning system pointing to other health issues.

As for cardiovascular disease, he points out that Eskimos who live above the Arctic Circle eat a traditional diet of 98% red meat and blubber (from whales, walruses, seals, bears etc.) and their cholesterol levels range from 250 to 350, yet ‘they’re legendary for not getting cardiovascular disease until they come down to the lower 48 and eat like us. Then when they get cardiovascular disease, they go back home to die above the Arctic Circle. They start eating whale blubber again, and it [the cardiovascular disease] goes away.’

In the video Lowering Cholesterol is Dangerous – Beware of These Side Effects (see below), Dr Peter Osborne states that high cholesterol doesn’t cause disease and the belief that it does is one of the biggest, most perpetuated myths in medicine today. Furthermore, recent studies have shown that ‘bad cholesterol’ (LDL) ‘. . . actually does not increase your risk of heart disease and that lowering it with statins actually does.’ He goes on to detail the side effects of statins and the harm they do to your health.

I often encourage people to improve their diet for the sake of their health. When I say that, many people assume that I’m talking about lowering cholesterol and salt. I’m not. I’m talking about getting off processed ‘food’ and getting on to real food.

The cholesterol myth is just one example of the wrong way we have been taught to think about health. It is time to realise the pharmaceutical industry is incredibly powerful and has a vested interest in persuading us to spend our lives taking their drugs.

Through lifestyle changes, you can find a better to maintain good health.