« April 2005 | Main | June 2005 »
May 30, 2005
Lower Your Heart Disease Risk by Raising Good Cholesterol
What traditional cholesterol measure, if any, is important to monitor for heart health? The answer is HDL, the so-called "good" cholesterol. HDL is the single most important cholesterol factor in determining your risk of developing heart disease. Don’t worry about lowering your total cholesterol level or your LDL level, just raise your HDL cholesterol.
The Framingham study shows that high levels of HDL are directly related to lower risk of heart disease. In fact, it showed that increased HDL could reduce coronary disease independent of LDL cholesterol. This is the real eye-opener: If your HDL is above 85, you are at no greater risk of heart disease if your total cholesterol is 350 than if it’s 150.
High HDLs trump other cholesterol concerns. Why isn’t this simple and powerful advice getting through? For one reason, there is no drug to boost HDL. What’s the best way to increase HDL cholesterol? Exercise. (You can learn how to raise you HDL cholesterol in with exercise in Chapter 7, Build a Strong Heart: Get More with Less.)
To read more about this topic order Al Sears MD’s The Doctor’s Heart Cure today.
Posted by james at 5:50 AM | Comments (0)
May 23, 2005
Remove Plaque from Arteries Now By Raising HDL
You've probably heard about the two types of lipoproteins: low-density lipoproteins (LDLs) and high-density lipoproteins (HDLs). LDLs help lay down the plaque deposits in the arteries (that's why this is the “bad” cholesterol), and HDLs help remove plaque from the arteries (that’s why this is the “good” cholesterol). The bloodstream carries many sizes and types of lipoproteins. Those with a little fat and lots of protein are heavier and denser; those with more fat are lighter and less dense.
The different types of lipoproteins determine where in the body the bloodstream delivers the fats. While most doctors prescribe traditional cholesterol tests that tell you your total cholesterol, LDL, and HDL levels, these don’t reveal enough information to tell whether you are measuring a normal building block for sex hormones or an abnormal heart threat. When it comes to determining healthy cholesterol profiles, doctors need more specific details.
You can find out just how to use the details about your blood cholesterol profile in Chapter 5, Measure Your Real Heart Health.
To read more about this topic order Al Sears MD’s The Doctor’s Heart Cure today.
Posted by james at 5:12 AM | Comments (0)
May 16, 2005
Sometimes When Serum Cholesterol Goes Down, Risk of Dying Goes Up
Now another fact to make you wonder what the experts were thinking: High cholesterol seems to have a protective effect in the elderly. According to research done at the Department of Cardiovascular Medicine at Yale University, nearly twice as many people with low cholesterol had heart attacks when compared to those with high cholesterol levels. Data from the Framingham study also supports the finding that when blood cholesterol decreases, the risk of dying actually increases.
There is no question that blood cholesterol is involved in the accumulation of plaque in the arteries. Plaque buildup narrows the arteries and restricts blood flow, often leading to heart attacks and strokes. Yet the conventional approach continues to miss the most important point: the plaque buildup is dangerous, not the presence of cholesterol itself.
To read more about this topic order Al Sears MD’s The Doctor’s Heart Cure today.
Posted by james at 5:55 AM | Comments (0)
May 9, 2005
Cholesterol Levels Generally Do Not Predict Heart Attacks
Even if you dismiss the link between dietary fat and cholesterol, you may still be left with the impression that heart disease is caused by high blood cholesterol levels, regardless of whether they are caused by diet or some other factor. Once again, the data does not back this claim.
Doctors and drug companies often refer to the famous Framingham Study when talking about cardiovascular risk. Framingham is a small town near Boston, where for more than 50 years, researchers have followed the population and tracked risk factors for heart disease. Government organizations often cite these study results as a reason to beat cholesterol into submission, using potent prescription drugs if necessary. But what does the study really reveal?
Amazingly, Framingham researchers themselves reported that “80 percent of heart attack patients had similar lipid levels [i.e., fat levels in the blood] to those who did not have heart attacks.” In other words, cholesterol levels do not predict heart attacks in the vast majority of patients. The link between cholesterol and women was essentially nil; women with low cholesterol died just as often as women with high cholesterol. Furthermore, according to data from the Framingham study, almost half of the people in the study who had a heart attack had low cholesterol.
Ironically, as the study participants grew older, the association between cholesterol and heart disease became weaker, not stronger. In fact, according to the data, for men above age 47, cholesterol levels made no difference in cardiovascular mortality.
Since 95 percent of all heart attacks occur in people above age 48 -- and those who have heart attacks at an earlier age are usually diabetics or have a rare genetic problem -- then most people do not have to worry about their cholesterol levels!
Posted by james at 5:45 AM | Comments (0)
May 2, 2005
We Ate Less Fat but Heart Attacks Increased
To find out how fat in the diet affects heart attack rate, it is helpful to study how eating patterns have changed to see if the heart attack rate changed, too. If dietary fat caused heart disease, then the heart attack rate would increase when fat intake increases, and it would decrease when fat intake declines. The data simply does not bear this out. (Keep in mind, even if the numbers did link dietary fat and heart disease, it would not necessarily prove that the fat and not some other related factor was the cause of heart disease.)
From World War I to the 1980s, the death rate from heart attack increased while fat intake declined. In the United States, the death rate from cardiovascular disease increased about tenfold between 1930 and 1960! During that time, the consumption of animal fat declined. If the dietary fat model was correct, the heart attack rate should have declined in keeping with the decline in consumption of fat.
Additional studies shoot down this theory. In the 1960s, researchers from Vanderbilt University studied the Masai tribe in Kenya. These slender shepherds drink about a half gallon of whole milk each day, and they feast on as much as four to ten pounds of meat on occasions. If dietary fat caused high cholesterol and heart disease, the Masai would have sky-high lipid levels and high rates of heart disease, but they have neither. The researchers found that the Masai have exceedingly low rates of heart disease and low cholesterol levels, about 50 percent lower than most Americans do.
Other researchers explored changes in cholesterol when the nomadic Masai moved to urban Nairobi and changed their eating habits. They found that the urban dwellers ate less animal fat, but their cholesterol levels were 25 percent higher than their fat-eating kinsmen were.
Clearly, some people consume large – even huge – amounts of animal fat and maintain extraordinarily low rates of heart disease and low blood cholesterol levels. This evidence alone dispels the belief that heart disease is caused by dietary fat. Still, many doctors refuse to let go of this outdated idea. Most doctors never read the original studies or examine the data that supports this conclusion. When they do, they, too, learn there is no scientific evidence to support the assumption that eating dietary fat causes high cholesterol.
To read more about this topic order Al Sears MD’s The Doctor’s Heart Cure today.
Posted by james at 5:48 AM | Comments (0)