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Lower Cholesterol Without Drugs
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Chapter 1: About Blood Lipids __________________________________________________________
We have fats (lipids) in our blood that are necessary for life. Vegans who eat no cholesterol whatsoever still produce it in their livers. We are only going to be concerned with cholesterol, high density cholesterol, low density cholesterol and triglycerides. Total cholesterol is the most important to measure. HDL takes cholesterol from the bloodstream into the liver, while LDL takes it back into the bloodstream. Therefore we want high HDL and low LDL levels generally. Triglycerides are esters of fatty acids and glycerol.
You should have your blood lipids measured annually as part of your medical checkup. The usual ceiling of 200 mg/dl for total cholesterol is just too high- 150 is the ideal. Most rural Asian people and vegetarians normally have levels of only about 150, so this is a very realistic goal. Divide your cholesterol level by your HDL level for the cholesterol:HDL ratio. For example if your cholesterol is 200 and your HDL is 40 (200 divided by 40) you have a ratio of 5.0. Men should be 4.0 or lower and women 4.5 or lower. Triglycerides should be under 100. You can also use the home test kits available in the drug stores, but they only give values for total cholesterol.
Every year about 1.6 million Americans suffer heart attacks and almost one third of them die. The higher your cholesterol level the more chance you have of not only having a heart attack but suffering from stroke, atherosclerosis (clogged arteries), high blood pressure, Alzheimer’s, cancer, diabetes, and dying early.
The National Cholesterol Education Program has done much to tell the public about the dangers of high cholesterol. Look at the following chart (Arch. Int. Med., 148,1998) on cholesterol and death rates. 361,662 men aged 35-57 were studied for six years. The men with low cholesterol had only 3 deaths per 1,000 every year, while the men with high cholesterol had 16 deaths per year. Over 500% more fatalities. This is a huge difference and clearly proves the diagnostic value of your total cholesterol level.
The Multiple Risk Factor Intervention Trial (MRFIT) study was based on 361,662 men aged 35-57 and was one of the largest, most important studies ever done on heart and artery health in general. This study has been covered in many medical journals due to the tremendous amount of information that was found. You can see for yourself based on the studies of over a third of a million people that the lower your cholesterol down to a level of about 150 the longer you are going to live. The higher your cholesterol the less time you have on earth.
The most popular diet books in history were on the Atkins ketogenic diet, the low carb lifestyle, and the ”glycemic index”. You are told not to eat any carbohydrates, that all carbohydrates are equal, and somehow brown rice and white sugar are the same. You are allowed to eat all the meat and fat you want. It has become a widespread fad to say that lowering cholesterol levels does not extend our lives, low fat diets do not reduce heart disease, and lowering our cholesterol levels is a waste of time and effort. Robert Atkins died prematurely of chronic heart disease in 2004 at only 74, which tells you all you need to know about the value of his health advice. Ketosis is, in fact, a disease state.
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