Cholesterol and Heart Disease #1 Killer MYTHS You Need To Know!
What Can You do to Prevent This Killer Naturally?
by www.SixWise.com

Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States, accounting for more than one in every four deaths. Each year, 785,000 Americans have a first heart attack, while another 470,000 have a second (or third, etc.), which amounts to one heart attack occurring every 34 seconds, according to CDC statistics.

Most commonly, Americans suffer from a type of heart disease known as coronary artery disease, which involves a hardening of the arteries that provide oxygen and nutrients to your heart. It’s a serious condition, one that can easily turn deadly … but it’s also a condition that can often be prevented.

In fact, while a family history or advancing age are known risk factors that you can’t control, there are multiple heart disease risk factors that are completely within your power to influence. But first it’s important to get to the bottom of the underlying causes, which may be very different from what you’ve been told.

Does High Cholesterol Really Cause Heart Disease?

Cholesterol has been blamed as a leading cause of heart disease by public health agencies, physicians and health “experts” to boot. But is cholesterol, a waxy substance that’s found in every cell in your body, really the villain it’s made out to be?

According to many natural health experts, not even close.

Cholesterol is actually an essential part of your body, used to produce cell membranes, steroid hormones, vitamin D and the bile acids your body needs to digest fat. Your brain needs cholesterol to function properly, as does your immune system, and if a cell becomes damaged, it needs cholesterol in order to be repaired.

So cholesterol is not only beneficial, it is a vital part of your body.

The Lipid Hypothesis May be Flawed

Yet, the “lipid hypothesis,” the one that claims foods high in saturated fats drive up your cholesterol levels, which clog your arteries and lead to heart disease, is widely accepted in conventional medicine. If you dig a little deeper, however, you’ll learn that this theory may be based on entirely flawed science.

In his book The Cholesterol Myths, Uffe Ravnskov, MD, PhD explained that Ancel Keys, who performed the study upon which the Lipid Hypothesis is based, used cherry-picked data to prove his point that countries with the highest intake of animal fat have the highest rates of heart disease.

According to Keys this is what the data showed, but Dr. Ravnskov revealed that the countries used in the study were handpicked, and those that did NOT show that eating a lot of animal fat lead to higher rates of heart disease were left out of the study, leading to entirely skewed, and faulty, data.

High Cholesterol May Not Even be “High”

According to the American Heart Association, your cholesterol levels should be below 200 mg/dl while levels of 200-239 mg/dl are borderline high, and anything over that is considered high. However, according to lipid biochemistry expert Mary Enig, PhD in the Weston A. Price Foundation quarterly magazine:

“Blood cholesterol levels between 200 and 240 mg/dl are normal. These levels have always been normal. In older women, serum cholesterol levels greatly above these numbers are also quite normal, and in fact they have been shown to be associated with longevity.

Since 1984, however, in the United States and other parts of the western world, these normal numbers have been treated as if they were an indication of a disease in progress or a potential for disease in the future.”

Many natural health experts believe in this latter explanation of cholesterol, pointing out that many Americans may be taking statin cholesterol-lowering drugs unnecessarily, believing their cholesterol is dangerously high when it is not.

According to Dr. Joseph Mercola, “ … Total cholesterol level is just about worthless in determining your risk for heart disease, unless it is above 330.”

Cholesterol-Lowering Drugs Often Unnecessary … and Dangerous

Enig continues:

“As a result of some of this misinformation, which was purposefully planted by the leadership of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) in 1984, many hundreds of thousands of people are treated with expensive medications to prevent the development of a non-existent illness.

If the medications were only expensive and not life threatening, their use could no doubt be shrugged off as a harmless snake oil pharmaceutical scam; but, in fact, these are thoroughly dangerous medications for both physical and emotional reasons—for physical reasons because their use can lead to serious untreatable diseases such as liver cancer, and for emotional reasons because their use perpetuates the myth that cholesterol is dangerous and evil.”

Perpetuation of such selective myths unquestionably create and instill Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt (“F.U.D. Factors,” as coined by John Dearlove CEO of SixWise). These are the cornerstones of proven successful corporate marketing and market loyalty referred to by many corporations as repeat customer market retention… which could result in metaphysical dependencies and/or addiction. 

In fact, statin drugs have been linked to serious muscle problems, cognitive problems and peripheral neuropathy, increases in blood glucose levels, tendon problems and an increase in liver enzymes, leading to permanent liver damage.

Statin drugs are also known to block the production of important nutrients in your body, including CoQ10, which is beneficial to heart health and muscle function. If CoQ10 levels become depleted, it can actually cause heart failure.

Further, there are serious question over whether statins actually work to lower heart disease risk. While numbers touted often make it seem like the drugs are beneficial, when examined by a little-known statistic called “number needed to treat” (NNT), the benefit is questionable at best.

For instance, the cholesterol drug Lipitor’s NNT is 100, which means that in order for one person to benefit, 100 people need to be treated with the drug for more than three years. In other words, in a 3.5-year trial, there was one fewer heart attack per 100 people on Lipitor equaling a reported whopping 1%. One person had a benefit, while 99 did not.

The remaining question is what percentage of those taking Lipitor and other cholesterol drugs had side effects, CoQ10 deficiencies, and or heart failure?       

What’s A Better Option for Your Heart?

So if cholesterol is not a major factor, and statin drugs may be dangerous and ineffective, then what IS the best solution to prevent heart disease?

A healthy lifestyle!

Healthy Diet …

For starters, your heart is very much tied to your diet, along with the rest of your body. By now most of you probably know that a diet rich in fruits and vegetables and low in unhealthy fats, like trans fats, will help protect your heart. But what you may not know is just how damaging seemingly innocuous foods like white bread, rice, pizza and other processed foods can be.

In reality, women who eat more carbohydrate-rich food like white bread and rice are more than twice as likely to develop heart disease than women who eat less of these items, according to Italian researchers.

These high-glycemic index carbs turn quickly into sugar in your body, which leads to unhealthy spikes in blood sugar. This is the same mechanism that, in time, can also lead to the development of type 2 diabetes, which a new study also found can double your risk of developing blood vessel diseases or suffering from a heart attack or stroke.

So if you want to keep your heart healthy, one of the best choices you can make is to replace processed foods in your diet with fresh, whole foods, and ideally raw foods, including healthy recipes like those found in the wonderful “Alive in 5:” Raw Gourmet Meals in Five Minutes recipe book.

Along with a diet that focuses on fresh, raw foods, you’ll also want to be sure you’re consuming plenty of omega-3 fats. The omega-3s found in fish and fish oils cut the risk of blood clots and thus lessen the chance of a heart attack.
 
Other supplements that may help to support heart health include the following regimen from Standard Process, which are available only through qualified health care practitioners:

• Cardio-Plus: Contains multiple vitamins, including B, C, and E, and naturally occurring Coenzyme Q10 to support the cardiovascular system.

• Cataplex B: Cataplex B contains different components of the B complex that are stimulatory to the metabolic, cardiovascular, and central and peripheral nervous systems.

• Organically Bound Minerals: Contains 60 mg of naturally occurring alkaline ash minerals that, together, bring the body back in balance.

• Calcium Lactate: Calcium is essential for various body functions beyond bone mineralization, including muscle contraction, nerve conduction, maintenance and function of cell membranes and membrane permeability, blood coagulation, and the proper functioning of many enzyme systems.

Exercise …

Next, you will want to exercise regularly, aiming for 30 minutes of exercise each day to reap the benefits. Ideally, include a range of activities in your routine, including aerobics, strength training and flexibility work like the stretches in the excellent Stretching Toward a Healthier Life DVD.

If you’re looking for an exercise program you can do right from your own home, we highly recommend adding SheaNetics® from MySheaNetics.com, a new East-meets-West exercise and lifestyle practice that can help anyone make positive mind-body changes that are lasting.

SheaNetics® is an innovative self-styled exercise and lifestyle program combining Yoga, Pilates, Tai Chi, Martial Arts, Gyrokinesis® and much more -- with the Five Living Principles of Well-Being -- an inspiring guide to making healthy choices with benefits that are ongoing.

Stress Relief …

Finally, out of control stress levels can contribute to heart attacks and strokes.

You can reduce your stress levels by practicing relaxation techniques such as listening to calming music or trying Tai Chi, yoga or the excellent combination of movements from MySheaNetics.com.

To keep stress levels at bay, the staff at SixWise also LOVES Staying Healthy in a Stressful World CD, the highly praised CD by Dr. Peter Reznik, one of the most respected mind/body integrative therapists of our time. The program will actually help you to embark on a practice for transforming your stress into life-enhancing experiences.

The Inflammation Connection

By eating healthy, exercising and managing stress in your life, you’ll lower your heart disease risk substantially, in part because you will also reduce your body’s level of inflammation. Chronic inflammation is a leading cause of many diseases, both physical and neurological, including heart disease.

Making excess cholesterol is actually your body’s response to inflammation, so if you have high cholesterol you probably have high inflammation levels too.

Many doctors these days are looking to more natural methods to lower cholesterol for their patients by determining WHY the body is making more cholesterol. Determining the cause of the inflammation, which often is due to poor diet and the consumption of processed foods or lack of live healthy raw foods, and taking steps to address it not only reduces cholesterol to naturally healthy levels, it also reduces your risk of heart disease.

SixWise Says ...

It’s true, “Pfizer has made a chewable version of Lipitor for children with high cholesterol” and according to Late Night With Jimmy Fallon “… you can find it at CVS in the OH MY GOD, WHAT IS HAPPENING TO US AISLE!”

Pfizer announced European Union Approval of its new Children’s’ Chewable form of Lipitor ... soon said to be 50 percent cheaper when a generic version of Lipitor becomes available in a month ... The European Union has approved the new chewable form of cholesterol blockbuster Lipitor for children 10 and up … !

We at SixWise would again simply suggest … If you eliminate the cause of a disease … then there is no need for a cure. And progressively no resulting need for Sick-Care when one’s good health becomes “the victor… vs. victim!”

Be well, stay well!

Recommended Reading

Statin Drugs Should be Handed Out With Fast Food Meals, Scientists Say

Heart Health: Nutrition Vs. Drugs and Surgery

Sources

CDC.gov Heart Disease Facts

WestonAPrice.org Cholesterol and Heart Disease: A Phony Issue

WestonAPrice.org The Cholesterol Myths by Uffe Ravnskov

WestonAPrice.org Cholesterol: Friend or Foe?

Mercola.com Making Sense of Your Cholesterol Numbers August 10, 2010

BusinessWeek.com January 17, 2008

AmericanHeart.org