Tales of the misunderstood: Cholesterol

When talking to my patients, one thing they that constantly comes up in conversation is cholesterol. "My GP says I have high cholesterol" and 9 out of 10 times, they've been put on cholesterol lowering medication. But why? Research suggests that there is no link between cholesterol and heart disease, and a new study even shows that people with low levels of cholesterol are more likely to die than those with higher levels. Now I could go on and on and on about the twisted logic behind this but there are many smarter people who have already done this, so I won't. But I will leave you with this thought, if cholesterol lowering medications kill more people than they save, why are so many people on them? There's no correct answer to this, but it comes down to a few key things:

• Victim mentality (It's not my fault, I can't do anything to change, It's cholesterol's fault)
• Quick-fix mindset (Easier to take a pill than change my diet and exercise)
• Money (Do you have any idea how much drug companies are making from these meds?)

All I know is that looking at the stats, I personally would never let anyone I know and care about within 6 feet of cholesterol lowering medications.
"So what should we do about heart disease?" I hear you all cry. Well, to answer this you need to look at what cholesterol actually does. Other than helping with production of certain hormones and helping with the absorption of certain Vitamins (namely K, E, A and D) it's main action is to heal, repair and maintain the cells of nerves and arteries. So what damages arteries?

SUGAR

And whether we know it or not, we eat tons of it. Mainly in the form of complex carbohydrates such as bread, pasta and rice, but sugar is added to almost every mass produced food on the shelves. So giving cholesterol lowering medication is like giving you a mop when water is poring through a hole in your ceiling. Time to throw away the mop and work out what caused that hole I say. Stay tuned, more to come...