Patrick Holford is the founder of the Institute for Optimum Nutrition in London and heads the Food for the Brain Foundation, pioneering nutritional approaches to mental health. He has written more than 20 health books, including the worldwide bestseller, The Optimum Nutrition Bible.
It all started in 1913 when a Russian scientist called Nikolai Anitischkov fed rabbits a high cholesterol diet and they developed arterial blockages full of cholesterol and died. Rabbits eat grass, not cholesterol, and have no way to process it. The same does not apply to humans. However, thus began almost a hundred years of misinformation about cholesterol.
Here are the facts that may surprise you:
Eating cholesterol doesn't raise cholesterol. In fact, there have been so many studies feeding volunteers eggs every day without any effect on blood cholesterol it's amazing this myth continues. The body makes cholesterol every day ? far more than you'll eat ? precisely because it needs it. Eating fat doesn't raise cholesterol either. Neither does eating cholesterol n or fat increase s the risk of heart disease risk.
Having too low a cholesterol levels (below 4 mmol/l) is as dangerous as having too high (above 6 mmol/l).
Current guidelines of deeming a person with a cholesterol above 5 as worthy of a lifetime of taking statin drugs is more to do with money than science. Statin drugs, designed to lower cholesterol, sold US$20 billion (S$30 billion) last year. (The "statins reduce risk in men who have had a heart attack " line could come in here.-don't want ppl going off their statins!)
Yet, some say that the lower your cholesterol, the better; and that even healthy people should be on these drugs. They do reduce risk in men who have had a heart attack.
The fact is that statins don't reduce mortality if given to healthy people. That was the conclusion of a major study of 42,800 healthy people taking statins or placebo for an average of four years. There was no difference in mortality (November 2006, Archives of Internal Medicine).
There was, however, a small 1.7 - per n cent decreased risk of heart attack and a 0.37 per cent decreased risk of stroke. That means that 59 people would have to take statins for about four years in order to prevent just one non-fatal heart attack. For cerebrovascular disease, it means that 270 people would have to take statins for four years in order to prevent just one non-fatal stroke. They do reduce risk in men who have had a heart attack. They don't significantly reduce risk in women who haven't had a cardiovascular event. Stroke risk isn't predicted by a high cholesterol level. In fact, having a low cholesterol level is more predictive.
"I think we have been sold a pup. A rather large pup ? more of a full-grown blue whale, in fact," said Dr Malcolm Kendrick, cardiology expert and author of The Cholesterol Con, an eloquent expos? of the cholesterol myth that's selling like hot cakes in Britain the UK.
While statins do reduce risk of a second heart attack, Dr Kendrick he doesn't think it has anything to do with their cholesterol-lowering effect, caused by blocking an enzyme that makes cholesterol (and another key nutrient, CoenzymeQ10, in the process), resulting in a whole host of side-effects, especially muscle weakness and heart muscle problems, experienced by one in two people.
The heart uses a huge amount of CoQ10 and one study found that 71 per cent of patients with no history of heart problems developed heart rhythm abnormalities when given statins, while giving CoQ10 supplements reversed the abnormality (Silver, American Journal Of Cardiology, 2004).This risk of inducing CoQ deficiency is now a mandatory warning on packets of statins in Canada, stating that saying that CoQ10 reduction "could lead to impaired cardiac function in patients with borderline congestive heart failure". I certainly recommend supplementing CoQ10 at a daily dose of 90mg to anyone taking a statin drug. One drug company has already patented the combination of their statin drug plus CoQ10, so they obviously think it's a good idea, too.
What does reduce heart disease risk?
Reducing stress, increasing exercise, upping your omega 3 fats in oily fish, a low glycemic load diet, more magnesium (itself depleted by stress) rich in seeds, nuts and greens, less nicotine and probably less caffeine, lowering your homocysteine level with B vitamins and, most of all, large amounts of vitamin B3 (niacin). Niacin, at 1,000mg a day (the Reference Daily Intake or RDA is 18mg) happens to normalise excessively high cholesterol and raise the "good" HDL levels much more effectively than statins. There 's have been more than 40 studies showing niacin's beneficial effects, well summarised by the National Institutes of Health ? look up NIH + niacin + cholesterol in Google.
Alternative ways
The whole cholesterol scenario is quite fascinating because having a high cholesterol level has become a "disease" in its own right. In other words, you could be perfectly healthy, visit your doctor for a check-up, and leave with a disease you never knew you had ? and a prescription of a statin drug.
I challenged a TV station recently to find me someone with a high cholesterol level and give me three weeks.
Andrew applied. Six months ago he had his cholesterol measured ? it was 8.8. He was put on statins and, six months later, it was 8.7. He considered the small reduction, and side-effects, not worth it and quit taking them.
He was also gaining weight, feeling tired all the time, stressed, and not sleeping well.
He changed his diet, started exercising and taking supplements very close to what I recommend here, including 1,000mg of "no blush" niacin, plus EPA-rich fish oils and extra magnesium. Three weeks later, he had lost 4.5kg , his energy levels were great, he no longer felt stressed and he was sleeping much better. I tested his cholesterol level in the TV studio and it had dropped to a healthy 4.9. Why take drugs when diet, supplement and lifestyle changes work faster, better and are safer?
DISCLAIMER: Any information or advice given in this column is not intended to replace the advice or services of your physician. The writer's views are his own and do not represent that of the publication
