Heart Disease, Cholesterol, Prescription Drug Surprises

You’ve likely seen the commercial saying cholesterol “comes from two sources”; your mother and father, grandmother and grandfather, from your aunt and uncle, and from foods like cream pie and rib roast. The only way cholesterol can come from your aunt and uncle is if you eat cream pie and rib roast made by your aunt and uncle. Genetically, you don’t have any genes at all from your aunt nor your uncle. They removed the aunts and uncles from the commercials about a year ago.

Bad genes don’t often cause heart disease, but genes are often talked about in advertising, probably to try to create a feeling of helplessness and fear in people. Heart disease and other degenerative disease that supposedly runs in the family usually are not genetic at all, but dietary weaknesses of the culture and family being passed from generation to generation.

Cholesterol and LDL Facts

Cholesterol is made by the liver of an organism. The cholesterol in meat and dairy is made by the liver of the animal. There is no cholesterol in plant food because plants don’t have a liver. Cholesterol does not dissolve in water. The medium of blood is water. Whether cholesterol comes from food from the digestive system or made by the liver, the only way cholesterol can enter the bloodstream is by being contained inside molecules of LDL.

Cholesterol is necessary for making cell membranes, bile, vitamin D, brain tissue, and much more and is carried to where it’s needed by LDL. LDL is known as “bad cholesterol” or cholesterol that causes heart disease. HDL is known as “good cholesterol” or cholesterol that protects the heart. Neither of them are cholesterol. Both pick up and drop off molecules of cholesterol. But oxidized LDL is harmful and becomes oxidized by free radicals. What is bad is not LDL but free radicals. HDL protects the body by bringing oxidized LDL (and other harmful molecules) to the liver for dismantling and removal. HDL does not become oxidized like LDL because HDL contains an antioxidant (paraoxonase).

Detrimental Consequences Of Statins

The current medical treatment for heart disease is using statins to reduce the liver’s ability to make cholesterol. Besides the fact that cholesterol doesn’t cause heart disease, statins cause a deficiency of coenzyme Q10. Coenzyme Q10 is necessary for the production of energy in heart cells and cells throughout the body. According to the FDA, ” #3 Statin-induced decreases in CoQ10 are more than just hypothetical drug-nutrient interactions. Good evidence exists of significant CoQ10 depletion in humans and animals during statin therapy. #4 Scientific evidence confirms the existence of detrimental cardiac consequences from statin induced CoQ10 deficiencies in man and animals.”

Study Shows Zetia Doesn’t Work

Another medication advertised on TV reduces the ability of the intestines to absorb cholesterol from food (Zetia). But, at most, only 10% of the cholesterol in your blood comes from food, the rest is made by the liver. Researchers haven’t believed dietary cholesterol contributes to heart disease for a long time. “There’s no connection whatsoever between cholesterol in food and cholesterol in blood. And we’ve known that all along. Cholesterol in the diet doesn’t matter at all….”(1). The conclusion of a study of 6,433 men significantly reducing their cholesterol, saturated fat, and calories compared to the same number of men who made no changes to their diet was, “The overall results do not show a beneficial effect on coronary heart disease or total mortality from this multifactor intervention.”(2) Another conclusion on the same study from the Journal Of American Medicine, “Mortality from coronary heart disease and from all causes was not significantly different among the two groups.”(3)
1) Ancel Keys Ph.D. 1997, Ret. Prof., U of Minn.
2) Multiple Risk Factor Intervention Trial Research, 1982
3) JAMA, 1982; 248:1465-77

In mid January 2008, retesting results of Zetia were terrible. According to the New York Times, “While Zetia lowers cholesterol by 15 percent to 20 percent in most patients, no trial has ever shown that it can reduce heart attacks and strokes – or even that it reduces the growth of the fatty plaques in arteries that can cause heart problems. This trial was designed to show that Zetia could reduce the growth of those plaques. Instead, the plaques actually grew almost twice as fast in patients taking Zetia along with Zocor than in those taking Zocor alone.” (Vytorin is Zetia combined with Zocor.) Side effects of Zetia not so great either.