Cholesterol and heart disease are not linked to each other. Saturated fats have nothing to do with heart disease. Every well informed holistic practitioner knows this, as do enlightened doctors.

Cholesterol is a necessary hormone. It can come from your diet. Or it can be made by your body. When you don’t eat enough foods which contain cholesterol, your body makes it. And you need it in abundance. A study done in Norway, using over 52,000 people, ranging in age from 20 to 74 years old, concluded that the mortality rate was nearly 30% lower when their cholesterol was greater than 270. This was compared with those with cholesterol levels of 193.

Cholesterol is converted by sunlight to vitamin D, an incredibly important nutrient.

Women seem to be particularly affected by low levels of cholesterol, showing the exact opposite of what they are told by mainstream MDs. In a Yale Medical School study, they had FEWER heart attacks when their cholesterol levels were high.

Chances of heart attacks come from inflammation, not cholesterol. Independent study after study show this. Cholesterol plaques come from chronic inflammation, not how much cholesterol you consume.

Cholesterol plaque cannot build up on the blood vessel walls without chronic inflammation. Without chronic inflammation, cholesterol moves freely about the body. This means the idea of LDL and HDL or ‘good’ and ‘bad’ cholesterol is unreliable.

So why does this high cholesterol and heart disease myth continue? It turns out that trans fatty acids, omega 6 fats, along with other unhealthy foods, cause chronic inflammation. And it is this inflammation that is responsible for the heart attacks.

Other processed foods such as white sugar, white flour, white rice and all the other foods that have the most nutritious part stripped away from them, also cause chronic inflammation. The body views these foods as alien and foreign. They don’t recognise them and can’t utilise them. So the body treats them as it treats an invading pathogen.

Inflammation is the perfect way to deal with such invasions. This inflammation is acute or short lived, as long as it takes to expel the pathogen. This is healthy. What is unhealthy is the chronic inflammation that comes from regularly eating processed foods.

To add insult to injury, the cholesterol lowering drugs, the statins, are one of the most harmful drugs there are. Over 900 studies provide evidence to their serious adverse effects, from chronic muscle pain and atrophy, to liver dysfunction, to cataracts, to memory loss, to nerve damage, to immune suppression, to increased risk of diabetes and cancer. 

Muscle pain and atrophy are the most common adverse side effects of statins. These problems can continue long after the drug is stopped.

Statin drugs deplete your body of CoQ10, This can have devastating effects on your health.

For more information on this important subject, you may like to visit Your Brain on Statins by Kelly Brogan MD.

Low fat foods are usually high in processed sugar. Saturated fats have been substituted for processed fats high in the omega 6 fats. This means that the so-called ‘healthy’ fats, (polyunsaturated or unsaturated fats), are in fact more unhealthy than the saturated fats.

Humans need the omega 3 fats, especially those found in nuts, seeds (particularly flax and chia seeds) and green leafy vegetables. These are the best sources of omega 3. They are in natural balance and from whole foods, totally unprocessed.

Omega 6 fats are unhealthy, but are in great abundance in our unhealthy society, especially in processed foods as they store well.

Animal protein causes inflammation, too, especially at the rate most people consume it. If you have to, consume it two to three times a week, not two to three times, or more, a day.

If you want to avoid disease, eat food that is close to how it was created. Eat fresh produce, the complex carbohydrates such as colourful fruit and vegetables. And eat plenty of them. It is impossible to overdo these healthy foods. Eat raw nuts and seeds. Ditch processed food, packaged food, junk food, food high in white sugar, foods high in unsaturated fat, foods or drinks high in artificial flavours, if you can call any of these items food.

Heart disease is the number one causes of death in the western world. It has been for a long time. Despite all the statins, the most prescribed drug in the world, and advice about cholesterol. It appears they have had no effect whatsoever.

Cholesterol and heart disease are not directly linked. But the fear that they are, creates a wonderful market for the drug companies. As with so many medical drugs, there is no science behind statins.

Changing your diet is one of the first beneficial things you can do to prevent heart disease, or any disease. That may be all you have to do.