Has your doctor used the “you have high cholesterol” line on you yet?
Did hearing these grave words make your hands shake and your face go pale?
Did you immediately call or text your spouse after you left the doctor’s office? Did you drive just a little too fast as you drove to the first pharmacy drive-thru to get your statin prescription filled?
It’s time to end the madness about high cholesterol, because you see, cholesterol isn’t going to kill you and contrary to conventional belief, it’s not going to make you drop dead of a heart attack if you don’t religiously take statin drugs for the rest of your life.
It’s time to start listening to those doctors who are telling us the truth: evaluating heart disease risk is far more complex than a snap evaluation of a single number like total cholesterol.
Furthermore, it’s time to carefully weigh the ample scientific evidence that cholesterol is actually beneficial, not detrimental, to our health! Consider the research of Dr. Harlan Krumholz of the Department of Cardiovascular Medicine at Yale University, consistently ignored by the statin pushing crowd, who reported that old people with low cholesterol died twice as often from a heart attack as did old people with high cholesterol.
Besides the fact that “total cholesterol” is a meaningless number in and of itself, taking statin drugs carries huge health risks such as muscle wasting, significant cognitive impairment and cancer. That’s right, the c-word. In every single study to date conducted on rodents, statins caused cancer. One human trial showed that breast cancer rates of women taking statins were 1500% higher than than of controls (source). In addition, a study showed that women who take statins for 10 or more years increase their risk of breast cancer by nearly 2.5 times (source).
Let’s examine a few other cholesterol myths so the next time you’re sitting in a doctor’s office and the person in the white coat is pushing statins on you, you are armed with evidence supporting your position to just say no.
Natural cholesterol has many benefits in the diet!
Cholesterol Myths #1: People with high cholesterol are more likely to have a heart attack.
It is indeed true that men who are young or middle aged have a slightly greater risk for heart attack if their total cholesterol level is over 300. However, for elderly women and men, high cholesterol is associated with a longer life. In addition, cholesterol levels just below 300 carry no greater risk than very low cholesterol levels. The suggestion by conventional medicine to take statins if cholesterol is over 180 or 200 is completely arbitrary and harmful over the long term.
Cholesterol Myths #2: Cholesterol and saturated fat in foods like butter, egg yolks and liver clog arteries.
This myth has no basis in fact as arterial plaques contain very little cholesterol or saturated fat. 75% of arterial plaque is made up of unsaturated fat, of which 50% is polyunsaturated. Only the remaining 25% is saturated. Moreover, the greater the concentration of polyunsaturated fat in the plaque, the more likely it is to rupture, a primary cause of heart attacks. Chris Kresser L. Ac sums it up well:
the notion that saturated fat “clogs arteries” and causes heart attacks is totally false. It is actually polyunsaturated fat — the so-called “heart-healthy fat — which has those effects.
Cholesterol Myths #3: Eating saturated fat and foods like butter cause cholesterol levels to rise and make people more susceptible to heart attacks.
If this is true, why then have heart attack rates risen as people have avoided saturated fats like butter, meat fats and egg yolks? There is no evidence that saturated fat and cholesterol rich foods contribute to heart disease and doctors that continue to claim this are just plain wrong with at least two major studies confirming this (source).
Cholesterol Myths #4: Cholesterol-lowering drugs save lives.
Statins do not result in any improvement in outcome in recent trials involving thousands of test subjects. Why risk the devastating side effects of statins like cancer and mental decline when they won’t help anyway? (source)
Cholesterol Myths #5: Countries that have a high consumption of animal fats and cholesterol have higher rates of heart disease.
The elephant in the room with this myth are countries like France where butter, cream, and pate are eaten with abandon with no corresponding increase in heart disease (source). According to Dr. John Briffa, top honors graduate of the University College London School of Medicine:
You’ll sometimes hear about the ‘French paradox’, which describes the phenomenon of low heart disease rates in France ‘despite’ a diet rich in saturated fat. Well, it seems that this ‘paradox’ is not limited to France, but is alive and well in several other countries too including the UK, Germany, Austria, Finland, Belgium, Iceland, the Netherlands and Switzerland. In other words, it’s not a paradox at all. It’s only a paradox if one believes saturated fat causes heart disease. The thing is, there’s really no good evidence that it does.
So relax! The next time you’re sitting in the doctor’s office reviewing the results of your latest blood test and the words “high cholesterol” and “statin drugs” are spoken in the same breath, just smile politely and say “no thanks”.
Feel confident in your decision to opt out of the statin madness.
Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist
Sources:
Fat and Cholesterol are Good for You by Uffe Ravnskov, MD, PhD
Ignore the Awkward: How the Cholesterol Myths are Kept Alive by Uffe Ravnskov, MD, PhD
The Cholesterol Myths by Uffe Ravnskov, MD, PhD
The French Paradox is Not a Paradox
How to Increase Your Risk of Heart Disease
Heart Surgeon Speaks Out on What Really Causes Heart Disease
So glad to see this written up so nicely. My doctor tried to put me on drugs b/c it was just a little elevated. Thankfully I had done my research.
Eileen,
You have not done your research, this site is not a reliable source. Your doctor earned an undergrad degree, then a 4 year med degree, then a 3-4 year residency, then his or her experience in practice afterword. Why would you trust a individual with no medical experience over you physician?
Here is what I cannot understand. Most, if not all, of the readers of this blog know that cholesterol is good, is not the villain, does not cause heart disease, etc. So why are they having their cholesterol levels checked at all. especially if they know, or suspect, that their doctor will push statins? Put another way, if you are never going to take a statin, eat well, and take care of yourself, who cares? I think the stress of fighting with doctors and worrying about numbers will cause stress and disease. We are all going to die of something, so let us be happy and enjoy life.
Getting bloodwork done for even a completely unrelated reason to cholesterol is going to get you interacting with a doctor who will give you a hard time about cholesterol even if you don’t care. I agree … doctor’s offices are stressful and best to go to a holistic practitioner as much as possible and avoid conventional medicine only in the most dire of emergencies.
The holistic doc i work with still orders cholesterol panels regularly (and she didn’t order the A1C i wanted because she said my numbers were “normal” last time). She began to discuss my 266 or whatever, but i told her as long as the total was under 300 i didn’t care, and she didn’t say anything more. Total cholesterol doesn’t mean much anyway – other numbers are better markers.
Just saying, some docs who present themselves as “holistic” come from different backgrounds. This one is good, but the one i saw before her was upset with me for refusing mammograms and pushed a lot of things i wouldn’t remotely consider healthy or desirable, and yelled at me when i disagreed. Some MDs have jumped on the “holistic” bandwagon without having a clue what that really means.
How did we service 6000 years as the human race without Dr. and drug companies? oh and the FDA and CDC? HAHAHAHAHAHAHA
This was a great article…thank you! Could you also comment on the importance of the HDL/LDL ratio?
yes! i was just going to write the same thing. dr mercola talks about this a lot and it seems important to address.
I had my physical this year and my cholesterol is usually around 280. My doctor basically yelled at me when I refused to take statin drugs. I have refused to take statin for the past 10 years. My doctor was offended and proceeded to tell me that she had been taking statins for 16 years and she was just fine. She asked me where was I getting my information from because I didn’t know what I was talking about.
Thank you for this affirming post. I see a lot of other people are dealing with sheep mentality doctors.
Daryl (and others) – so great to hear about your ‘fight back’ stories – the stories where you have to ‘educate’ your doctors. Kudos!
“Sheep mentality doctors”. LOL that is funny!
I quick taking statins and now take 2000 mg of non-flush niacin and 2000 mg of red yeast rice daily. Both of my integrative medicine doctors recommended these. My cholesterol is 125 and HDL/LDL ratio nearly .40.
Great summary! The mainstream medical establishment really, really frustrates me. My primary doctor told me: “Total Cholesterol is all that matters,” AND when he said I should begin taking a statin (total chol 270 a year ago…) and he said, “Yes?” and I said “No.” He then proceeded to tell me he would no longer provide services for me. Ever hear of a doctor firing their patient? Needless to say, I got a new physician…..
Yes Lon, that is exactly what happened to a relative of mine when she had her sick little boy in for a visit and the doc wanted to give a vaccination. She said that she would rather wait and was still undecided about vaccinations. The doc told her that he would be unable to be her doc if she didn’t comply. Rules, you know… That is just a complete lack of ethics..”First, Do No Harm!” You are blessed not to have that doctor, but with the coming socialized medicine, choices are growing smaller. I choose to stay away from traditional medicine unless there is no other way, and you can bet I am going to research it to death, before I give in.
Hi Sarah,
You got my mind on the heart, obviously, so I am wondering what traditional foods would be good for intermittent mitral valve prolapse? I was going to order some dessicated heart from Dr Ron’s, but are there other things you’d eat for that condition? I’m totally on board with your assessment of cholesterol, and we eat lots of saturated fats, so I assume that will help. I need some advice on this and I trust your opinion. Thanks so much!
I would recommend a consultation with Dr. Tom Cowan MD … he is in San Fran but does phone consults.
Two summers ago I effortlessly lost 10 lbs. by eating all the local cream and grass fed butter I could consume, and interval walking. My cholesterol levels are amazing and the doc just shakes his head when I tell him why.
Yes, this is how my husband and I qualified for “super preferred” life insurance which our agent says he hardly ever writes as the bloodwork never comes in good enough. When he asked us how we did it, I told him he would never believe it (and of course, he didn’t). Too out of the box for most people 🙂