The standard cholesterol test ordered by physicians measures total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol and HDL cholesterol. The LDLs are off handedly described as the "bad cholesterol"...but there is much more to the story.
Robert Superko, MD, director of research at the Berkeley HeartLab explains.
“Cholesterol is not the problem we thought it was. Relying only on cholesterol levels as a risk factor for coronary artery disease may not be wise since 80% of coronary patients have the same cholesterol as individuals who do not develop the disease."
In fact, God knew what he was doing when he provided us with ample levels of cholesterol.
Dr. Mary Enig, a world renowned researcher of healthy fats and oils relates the benefits of cholesterol:
"Your body needs cholesterol to make stress hormones, sex hormones and is needed for proper function of serotonin receptors in the brain. It also plays an important part in repairing damaged cells and acts as an antioxidant."
So why all the fuss about the dangers of high cholesterol?
Dr. Ravnskov, author of "The Cholesterol Myth" provides us with some little known history.
"It all started with the landmark Framingham Heart Study, which began following healthy people in the early 1950s to see who had a heart attack and who didn't.
"They [public health officials, cardiologists, etc.] have confused a statistical association with causation," he observed. "It's as if they saw a house burning and determined that the bigger the fire, the more fireman are present, and then concluded that firemen cause burning houses."
Cholesterol is an innocent bystander who has been charged with guilt by association, convicted and sentenced to a 40 year term of restriction.
Using advanced technology, scientists are now able to look deeper into the cholesterol components and analyze "what makes them tick."
Researchers at the Berkeley Heart Lab in Berkeley, California have discovered how to break down the LDL and HDL cholesterol into sub fractions according to the size of their particles. What they found may surprise you as it did me.
In a nutshell they discovered that the small dense cholesterol particles, which they labeled APO B, when damaged by inflammation and free radicals, easily enter the artery walls to create a plaque.
In contrast large buoyant particles found in HDL cholesterol flow freely and actually reverse this process.
These large buoyant APO A1 particles are known as "anti-atherogenic", which means that they act like guardian angels to reverse heart disease!
The pharmaceutical industry does not look upon this finding as good news. Their labs are scrambling to find a new "miracle drug" to sell you that will increase HDL cholesterol and lower inflammation and oxidation.
They don't want you to know that this can be accomplished naturally...and without side effects. The sale of cholesterol lowering drugs rings their cash registers to the tune of $14 billion dollars per year.
To learn more about the recently discovered heart attack risks...and how you can send these risks packing send for my free report "How to stop a heart attack before it stops you."
