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[OM] Re: [OT] The cholesterol myth, was: Re: List etiquette for replies

Subject: [OM] Re: [OT] The cholesterol myth, was: Re: List etiquette for replies
From: Chuck Norcutt <chucknorcutt@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Fri, 15 Dec 2006 16:43:56 -0500
Read Ravnskov and you will stop worrying about cholesterol and saturated 
fat.  Just don't put the saturated fat around a bunch of chopped potato. 
  Eskimos survive quite well on a diet of fish and meat.  They don't 
consume fiber or eat all their veggies... or fries.  At the same time 
you ought to ask your doc to check the literature for the deleterious 
health effects of very low cholesterol.

I doubt that most doctors or dieticians have ever read about the study 
performed in 1928 on two arctic explorers, Stefansson and Anderson, who 
ate a pure meat and fat diet for one year while under the medical 
supervision and monitoring of the Cornell University Medical College and 
Bellevue Hospital.  On a diet with 75% of calories from saturated fat 
both men lost a bit of weight and reduced their cholesterol slightly. 
Of course, 1928 was a time long before "high" cholesterol was deemed to 
be bad. Original research paper can be seen here:
<http://www.jbc.org/cgi/reprint/87/3/651.pdf>

High fat diets didn't get a bad rap until the study in the 50's by Ancel 
Keys referred to as the "Seven Countries Study".  Keys shows data on fat 
content in the diet vs the incidence of heart disease for seven 
different countries.  The correlation of the data is a statistician's 
dream.  The fit is almost too perfect.  The reason (as you'll learn from 
Ravnskov) is that the study is a fraud.  The data shown is the real data 
but Keys doesn't bother to tell his audience that he actually studied 
data for 21 countries.  The other 14 don't fit his hypothesis very well 
so he conveniently left them out.  When you put the other 14 countries' 
data back in the association of high fat content in the diet with heart 
disease looks more like a shotgun scatter plot.  Bending the stats has 
become much more sophisticated in drug company sponsored research than 
Keys' blatant data manipulation but continues stronger than ever.  But 
it's interesting to know that the granddaddy of all fat/cholesterol/
heart disease studies... the one that started it all... is a pure fraud.

Chuck Norcutt


John Hermanson wrote:
> Thank you so much for taking the time to write this. My doctor is a 
> Cardio-pulmonary specialist and a true believer in the use of vitamins 
> and doesn't always live by the conventional "wisdom" or whatever the AMA 
> may be pushing.  I will question himeabout this next time I see him.
> 
> I was never able to get my cholesterol under 200, no matter how I 
> changed my diet or excercised.  The Quaker Oats commercial shows a man 
> had lowered his count a whole 6 points after a month.  wow.  But then if 
> cholesterol has nothing to do with heart disease, it's all moot.  That 
> would make life easier.
> 
> Vytorin is simvastatin (works in the liver) and Zetia (works in the 
> digestive tract). I had tried Crestor, but after reading up on it, found 
> that most sites referred to it as the most dangerous drug on the market, 
> "do not take this drug" was a common warning.  Extreme shoulder muscle 
> pain stopped my using it.
> 
> I've been supplementing my diet with 200mg of CoQ10 for 4-5 months 
> (specifically directed by my doctor), and that counteracts the fatigue 
> side effects.
> 
> Cutting Burger King and MacDonalds completely out of my diet has helped 
> me to feel generally better in day to day life. I NEVER thought I'd lose 
> that craving.  Last time I had a BK fry (soy batter dipped, fried in the 
> cheapest, highest saturated fat available) it tasted raelly, really bad.
> 
> I will check out Ravnskov's book.
> 
> ___________________________________
> John Hermanson
> Camtech Photo Services, Inc.
> http://www.zuiko.com  |  omtech1 AT verizon.net
> 
> 
> Chuck Norcutt wrote:
> 
>>I hate to say it but, if I were you, I'd be very concerned instead of 
>>elated.  You might want to read a book called "The Cholesterol Myths"
>>by Swedish physician Uffe Ravnskov.  Not a crackpot but a well published 
>>researcher (mostly in the Lancet) who will show you that the emperor has 
>>no clothes.  Furthermore, at levels of total cholesterol of 110 I would 
>>be very concerned that you are setting yourself up for potential health 
>>problems unrelated to heart disease.  Total cholesterol levels below 180 
>>are statistically associated with increasing death rates from many 
>>causes.  In fact, if you're over the age of 65 or 70, the people who 
>>live the longest are the ones with the highest cholesterol levels.  See:
>><http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=retrieve&db=pubmed&list_uids=11502313&dopt=medline>
>>which is just one of many studies which demonstrate this point.  You can 
>>also see that the researchers are extremely timid in their conclusions 
>>lest they be seen as bucking the conventional wisdom.
>>
>>But it really shouldn't be a surprise.  Cholesterol is a critical 
>>building block for the nervous system.  Something else that's critical 
>>throughout your body is Coenzyme Q10 the production of which is also 
>>reduced by statin drugs since it is produced along the same metabolic 
>>pathway as cholsterol.
>>
>>In 1998 I had a triple bypass and was put on Lipitor to bring down my 
>>cholesterol.  I stayed on it for about 7 years but I believe that the 
>>Lipitor (a statin drug just like Vytorin) is responsible for long term 
>>muscle aches throughout much of my body.  I can't prove that but it 
>>caused me to start probing deeply into the statin drug phenomena which 
>>is now like a steamroller pushed by drug industry money.  Unfortunately, 
>>good science seems to be something that has been pushed over by the 
>>steamroller.  See the following paper by Richard Smith, former editor of 
>>the British Medical Journal
>><http://medicine.plosjournals.org/perlserv/?request=get-document&doi=10.1371/journal.pmed.0020138>
>>
> 
> 
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