Is High Cholesterol Really Bad

My doctor recommended that I take anti-cholesterol drug because my blood test showed high cholesterol levels in total cholesterol and the bad LDL-C which read 5.9 and 3.8 mmol/L respectively. Ideally they should be <5.2 and <2.6 respectively. Is high cholesterol really bad? I told my doctor I wanted another test in 6 months’ time before taking the drug; a weak but convenient excuse to prolong or procrastinate obeying my doctor’s advice. Frankly I am very afraid to die. So I should take immediate heed of my doctor’s advice to take the ant-cholesterol prescription. Then why am I so foolish to procrastinate? I have good reasons because there have been strong proof that high cholesterol does not directly cause heart diseases. Another axiom on taking medication is this : "Never take a pill that has more side effects than you have symptoms". Anti-cholesterol drugs are found to have many bad side effects.

As if it knew of my predicament, the local Sunday newspaper featured an article on the same subject, “Is High Cholesterol Really Bad?” This article was written by a very eminent local specialist physician in my country. I shall provide the link at the end of this article. My article here is a layman-summary of what he wrote about the cholesterol debate. I shall not quote the references for the facts as you can read them from the link at the end of this article. This specialist physician then concluded by cautioning doctors to re-examine their current opinion about the correlation between cholesterol and heart diseases because it is not positively proven even in researches which were more often flawed.

Do you know, one in three persons above 40 is on anti-cholesterol drugs? I should have been in this statistic should I not be deferring my doctor’s order. This is how rampant that people are immediately slotted into this category once their cholesterol rises above the acceptable level. All these years, doctors have been fed with “research” data that high cholesterol is bad and it is imperative on them to prescribe anti-cholesterol drugs to reduce cholesterol so that the risk of health problems, especially heart diseases, will be reduced.

There seems to be hidden agendas of “big pharmas” to only release “research” data confirming the bad effects of cholesterol on human health, especially heart diseases. Everyone knows the reasons, or more specifically the only reason. However, with new regulations on the “big pharmas” requiring them to also reveal research results that are not in their favor, new lights have been shed on the actual status of cholesterol.

New reports have surfaced which revealed many doubts on the supposed benefits of lowering cholesterol levels particularly the use of statin drugs. Statin drugs are effective in reducing cholesterol levels. The question is whether cholesterol is the culprit causing heart diseases. New findings revealed that many patients with border-line cholesterol levels also ended up with serious artery blockages, while others with high levels of cholesterol did not have serious diseases.

Let us have a look at some new findings about correlations between cholesterol and heart diseases and deaths. Some studies showed that high cholesterol prevents deaths from other causes including cancer. One study on 14 European countries plus Australian aborigines did not show any correlation between cholesterol and heart diseases. One country, Lithuania with average cholesterol level at 6 mmol/L had the highest heart diseases, while Switzerland with the highest average cholesterol level at 6.5 had the third lowest heart disease cases. France with the average cholesterol level at 5.7 had the lowest heart disease problem. Another surprise finding was that the Australian aborigines had the lowest cholesterol reading at 4.9, but their heart disease rate was almost double that of Lithuania.

We must also take note that most studies only concentrated on specific population, and more often than not, data from different population locations were mixed together for analyses, making the research conclusions questionable.

LDL stands for low-density lipoprotein. Instead of getting too technical, let’s just accept that the current belief is that LDL cholesterol is bad for the body, and is a high-risk factor for cardiovascular diseases. Surprisingly, so far, there is actually no available study to prove that lowering LDL-C to the desired level can definitely reduce the risk of having heart problems. Another study on 100 heart attack victims showed that their cholesterol levels were similar to those of the controlled group. This means that LDL cholesterol level is not a good predictor of heart attacks. A better predictor is actually the hsCRP (high-sensitivity C-reactive protein), which is a marker for inflammation. Inflammation is a serious health problem. I have written an article on inflammation.

Another better predictor for coronary artery disease is the TG/HDL-C ratio. TG or triglyceride is found to be linked to heart diseases and strokes.

A study conducted in Norway showed that cholesterol-risk profiles for men and women were very different. On the contrary, women were found to benefit from higher cholesterol levels. This means that if a woman is prescribed cholesterol-reduction drugs, she will suffer the reverse effect of increased risk of heart related problems.

The information provided in this article is sourced from the internet, from friends and contacts, and from personal experience. The main source is from HERE. As I cautioned in many of my articles, not every remedy will work on everyone. So is conventional medical treatment. It very much depends on the constituents of the person and the conditions peculiar to that person. Whatever the reasons, this article does not claim the information provided is totally accurate and reliable. The purpose of this article is merely to inform visitors that there are alternative cures for all ailments.

You are therefore advised to consult your registered medical physicians as a matter of due diligence.

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