Cholesterol – one doctor’s thoughts
"My own prescription for health is less paperwork and more running barefoot through the grass."
Terri Guillemets
This article is an edited copy of an interview conducted with Dr. Joseph Mercola.
For more information on statin drugs, be sure to read The High Cost of Low Cholesterol, cover story in the July edition of Freshlife’s Options magazine. Pick up your free copy at the store or read Options on line at: www.Freshlife.com
The upper reference range in 1985 for cholesterol was 330. So if you had a cholesterol reading of 310 in 1985, you had normal cholesterol, and no one thought otherwise.
Later on, drug companies developed the technology to make drugs called statins. These statin drugs very effectively reduce total cholesterol levels by impairing an enzyme in your liver, where cholesterol is made. Now, drug companies have a way to sell you something that will work. Now the push is on for nearly everyone to lower his cholesterol. Statins don’t solve the problem of heart disease, yet the drugs generate tens of billions of dollars of revenue.
So that’s why there has been this tremendous push to identify and treat high cholesterol. Many doctors treat cholesterol to ridiculously low levels, because, ideally, your cholesterol should not be 150. When you have a cholesterol reading of 150, it’s too low, because cholesterol is an important element of your cell membranes and a precursor for steroid hormones. Your body needs cholesterol!
The important thing with blood fats is their ratio to one another. Total cholesterol, HDL (good cholesterol) and triglycerides need to be balanced. Your HDL to total cholesterol ratio should be above 25%. In other words, a quarter or more of your total cholesterol should be good cholesterol. I’ve seen people as high as 50%, meaning half their total cholesterol is good, and that’s even better. Those ratios are associated with hyper longevity syndrome.
Your triglyceride to HDL ratio should be below 2. In other words, if your HDL is 45, your triglycerides should be lower than 90, and the lower the better for triglycerides.
If these ratios are distorted, you are at higher risk for heart disease.
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