The University of Illinois Extension relates the following:

Thirteen patients at the Highland Hospital in Oakland, California were fed the equivalent in egg yolks of that found in 15 eggs per day for a 3 week period. The serum cholesterol did not increase significantly in any except two bedridden, obese patients. Four of the 7 ambulatory patients in the study actually showed a slight decrease in serum cholesterol.

There were many other references to the lack of correlation between ingested cholesterol and serum cholesterol. I find the cholesterol and heart healthy paradoxes interesting and amusing.

My own particular crusade has to do with the very clear results from studies that show between 3 and 5 times greater likelihood of heart disease among those with elevated stress, anger, and anxieties than those without these traits. This ratio is far more than the difference between heart disease among those with high cholesterol compared to those with normal cholesterol.

We get so worked up over lowering our risk associated with cholesterol but how many take seriously the even greater risk one is exposed to in the form of how one deals with life’s stimuli.

Perhaps we need a total stimuli reaction number like we have a total cholesterol number.

Pcovers---You have made some very valid points. It really is a shame that for decades we have been bombarded with such idiotic propaganda about the dangers of eating eggs. It is interesting to note that the outrageously flawed studies which resulted in this erroneous belief was conducted by the Cereal Institute over 60 years ago. The study was carried out using dried egg yolk powder, not fried or poached eggs, as eggs are usually eaten. Dried egg yolk powder is an oxidized form that is toxic to the blood vessels! So, all of these powdered egg yolk studies should have been thrown out as invalid.

You mentioned stress, anger, and anxiety as being factors in heart disease. I believe there may be a link. For example, cholesterol levels tend to rise when the body is under stress. The most plausible theory I have heard to date was one which was described in "Dr. Atkins' Health Revolution." It states the following:

"Dr. Elmer Cranton, president of the American Holistic Medicine Association and author of Bypassing Bypass, was the first to propose a theory that has influenced my thinking considerably. He suggests that perhaps the role of cholesterol is to help protect the body from free radical oxidation, that cholesterol is one of the body's antioxidants. That would mean it is manufactured by the body as protection against oxidative damage by free radicals and that in the process of providing that protection cholesterol is converted into its oxidized form, which is harmful to the blood vessels(angiotoxic).

Dr. Harry Demopoulos points out that oxidized cholesterol is bound to low-density lipoproteins(LDLs) while unoxidized cholesterol is bound to high-density lipoproteins(HDLs). This would explain why LDL correlates more with heart disease than does total cholesterol.

What this could mean is that elevated serum cholesterol may be indicative not of a high intake of dietary cholesterol but of the metabolic and oxidative stress the body is under. If the body is suffering a high rate of free radical damage and is getting an insufficient quantity of effective antioxidants- such as selenium, vitamins E, C, and A, cysteine, and glutathione- it responds by manufacturing large quantities of cholesterol, which, having done battle with the free radicals, is converted into the harmful oxidized cholesterol, LDL cholesterol."