Wednesday 6th October 2010
The Cholesterol Myth by Dr M Smith
Today we had an eminent retired consultant Dr M Smith (left also a Probus member) to give us a lecture on the basics of cholesterol, he used a Power Point presentation of his complete exposition, with text, graphs and images (some gory to us delicate Probus members) of the main arteries and sections though a blocked conduit.
The so called basics covered words that us non medical members had never heard of, unless perhaps in scrabble!
Dr Mike Smith highlighted two major studies in this country and America (costing 100 million dollars) and both categorically showed that food consumption of many different types had little impact between the control and regimented groups with the death rate only marginally different, although the sub groups who were smokers or drank alcohol in excess had a higher mortality rate.
To reduce cholesterol, misinformation advises people to eat more cholesterol-free grain products such as of "wholesome" foods: bread, pasta, white rice, crackers, and macaroni, and recommends sugar-laden canned fruit.
The emphasis is to avoid eggs, meat and dairy products. Numerous other publications and newspaper articles support this concept so we are all more or less indoctrinated into believing that low cholesterol diets are beneficial for our health.
Dr Mike Smith digress to show some clear graphs of heart attack deaths in Finland (the highest) , Sweden and Japan (very low do they only eat fish?) to illustrate a researcher ensuring his view were crystal clear, but by including all the data set this was not the case, seems to be familiar in the recent Global Warming case, nothing is new in data manipulation to support the current theory of some research groups!
Natural animal proteins and animal fats can be easily oxidized and broken down as long as they have not been hydrogenated. Fats derived from seeds used in making bread, pasta and "cholesterol-free" foods have been saturated by the hydrogenation process. It is precisely the hydrogenated oils and processed carbohydrates and fats we are advised to eat that cause the high cholesterol levels we are striving to avoid.
Cholesterol is one of many "sterols" in the human body, indeed as Dr Mike explained with a neat diagram that the brain needs cholesterol to separate the brain cells, and with laughter said that this was happening with every Probus member here at this moment in time, well those who were still awake!
Sterols are essential for forming hormones such as testosterone, estrogens and adrenal hormones that control how our body functions. There are many types of sterols. Lack of essential oils for production of these hormones is far more serious than the small amount of cholesterol the body produces from foods containing cholesterol. That’s why people who ignore recommended "cholesterol-free diets" and consume eggs, meat, butter and dairy products continue to enjoy good health.
The lack of essential fats in your diet is more dangerous to your health than cholesterol in your food. A high-carbohydrate, low-fat diet contributes to an overweight problem. It’s not only what we eat, it’s the ratio of fat protein and carbohydrates that counts.
The standard myth of heart and arterial disease, or coronary heart disease, goes something like this: If you have high blood cholesterol, due in part to eating saturated fats, it will deposit on the artery walls forming arterial plaque, perhaps eventually hardening with mineral deposits. Pieces of this deposited material can break off and produce strokes and heart attacks. Plaques can narrow the arteries, restricting blood supply to parts of the body and produce high blood pressure in the process, Dr Mike clarified that many other types of impurities in the blood also causes this to happen especially with smokers.
Myth 1: Foods High in Cholesterol Increase Blood Cholesterol
Foods high in cholesterol are eggs, dairy fats, and meat fat. According to multiple studies there is no real correlation between eating eggs and increased blood cholesterol levels. Cholesterol is a natural and useful substance in the body. It is manufactured in the liver and the body can regulate this production according to dietary intake.
Myth 2: Saturated Fat Creates Arterial Plaque
Blood cholesterol levels are equated in almost everyone as the factor showing how quickly you are heading towards heart disease, through the formation of arterial plaque. The important thing to grasp here is that a test for the blood cholesterol level is not a test for arterial plaque; it is measuring quite a different thing. The assumption by most people that it is cholesterol and saturated fat that forms arterial plaque is just not true.
Myth 3: Polyunsaturated Oils are Beneficial in that they Lower Cholesterol.
In fact polyunsaturated oils have been found to be incorporated into, and consequently weaken, cell membranes when insufficient saturated fats are available to build cells. Cholesterol is then used by the body to strengthen these cells, leading to a lowering of its level in the blood. Many medical trials start with the assumption that lowering LDL blood cholesterol is a good thing; if you make this basic error you naturally come to the conclusion that, for instance, margarine is beneficial whereas butter is not.
Myth 4: Having Low Blood Cholesterol is Healthy.
So what about cholesterol lowering drugs? Well firstly you are removing the toxin mopping ability of the cholesterol, and its ability to repair damage.
Dr Mike Smith related two project in New York, USA and Scotland where great effort was made to reduce the Cholesterol level below the 3 mark, which in both groups produce depression and suicidal tendencies leading to murderous instincts, such that reducing cholesterol levels was very harmful.
Myth 5: Having High Blood Cholesterol is Unhealthy
Contrary to the cholesterol myth is that there is a simple fact that people with naturally high blood cholesterol (HDL) tend to live longer than those with low. For people over 50, having high cholesterol reduces the death rate from every cause apart from heart disease. High cholesterol is also associated with a reduced risk of dementia. For people under the age of 50, high blood cholesterol may be indicative of a problem, but if you recall its role as an antioxidant, and a substance used in repair of the body, you may wonder if this higher level is an attempt to protect the body from such things as damage to the arterial walls.
Why Perpetuate Myths?
The medical profession and pharmaceutical industry are headed in the direction of reducing cholesterol levels at all costs and at this point, much revenue is at stake as vast production lines produce millions of Statin tablets every day!. There would be significant loss of face if they all went back on the myth now. Perhaps lawsuits, recently in a tabloid paper about a group of doctors in the UK who know about the cholesterol myths, but will not speak up for fear of the power of the medical establishment and pharmaceutical industry.
Mike finished his interesting and helpful lecture on this note and then faced a barrage of question from the membership a high proportion being regular subscribers to the Statin regime. Was there a figure for Cholesterol which represented a "good" level for and Mike said that the figure represented no useful medical criteria, apart from the very low figure mentioned earlier, but if the figure was higher, 12.8 reported by one member then he indicated from an earlier graph there was a sub group who were different due to their gene make up, hence understanding and treatment was radically different.
Another question raise the point why the medical profession did not agree or practice the views of our speaker, Mike replied indeed as a doctor and consultant in full time work he did not have the free time to research and read the results of projects published in the top medical journals, indeed he quote his son a practising doctor who was well aware of his views "Dad I have not got time to read the medical journal", so the medics get their potted (bias?) views from the Medical reps who also supply many free samples and edited version that promulgate the pharmaceutical companies views.
It was left to Les Robinson a Chartered Mechanical Engineer to unravel the facts from fiction and thank Mike for his presentation which covered a wide but specialised field in medical country, but Les ably produced a well designed vote of thanks which the membership agreed in our normal fashion.
