Sayer Ji

...especially, considering the fact that what doctors are telling people today is the acceptable or normal cholesterol level, namely, 200 or below, may actually increase your risk of CANCER and STROKE! Imagine the absurdity of it! There is a huge body of scientific literature that demonstrates this connection clearly. Common sense should dictate the same: cholesterol is a physical carrier molecule for fat soluble antioxidants like the E's: the 4 tocopherols and 4 tocotrienols, and the broad spectrum of carotenoids that prevent oxidative stress in our body....moreover, cholesterol will carry CoQ10 (arguably the most important heart nutrient), throughout the body. Lowering cholesterol - to unnatural levels through unnatural methods - will directly impact the amount of coq10 is available to the heart, so that it can contract. Is this not absurd? These cholesterol lowering drugs are being marketed to us as being good for the heart, and yet they deplete the heart of its most important nutrient (the heart muscle cells have 2000 mitochondria per cell versus 50 for skeletal muscle), while encouraging oxidative stress throughout the body, furthering the likelihood of increased oxidation of LDL cholesterol, making it clump up in problematic and obstructive ways, e.g. stroke.

The absurdity of it all! Cholesterol is essential for the functioning of every cell in the body, and is the basis for all the steroid hormones, and comprises a large part of the brain's actual weight, and seems to prevent stroke and cancer, and is found in the blood of hibernating bears at 700 points or more, and yet noone finds a bear dead from heart attack, after a long winters sleep in his cave. Its so important, we are biologically incapable of controlling it effectively. The more you eat of it in your food, the less your body will produce; the less you ingest in your food, the more your body will produce.

This is not to say that people don't suffer from sluggish liver, and that in the absence of sufficient antioxidants low density lipoprotein does not clump up, or there is an absence of soluble fiber in the diet. But more often then not its the fire fighter being blamed for the fire. If there is chronic inflammation in the cardiovascular system, the body will produce cholesterol to "stomp out the flames," acting something like mortar to glue up the leaks and scars. C-reactive protein, or fibrin levels are probably far more accurate indicators of heart attack risk, meaning that inflmmation (spurned by dietary transgressions, stress, and environmental toxicity) is causing the cholesterol to spike up. Lowering cholesterol will only suppress the symptoms, or second order expression of the originating cause, leaving the underlying malicious process in the dark.

In a nutshell, the whole "cholesterol myth" is primarily a function of marketing a certain class of drugs, and has little clinical or scientific backing.