Have you been told you have high cholesterol?

The cholesterol question is HUGE.
I have worried Kick Starters every day
who have been told they
have high cholesterol or family history of
cholesterol and heart disease
and eating
fats goes against EVERYTHING
they have been told.
So what is the deal?
It’s another BIG question that I wanted to address and put
your mind at ease if its concerns you.
If you’ve got a raised risk of heart disease, the standard
medical advice is to take a cholesterol-lowering statin
drug to cut your chances of having a heart attack or
developing heart disease.

The NHS spends nearly £1 billion a year on prescriptions for
statins and a huge amount administering the cholesterol tests, surgery visits, follow ups etc.

Is this worth it?

Are we looking at the right problem?
According to an article being published in the medical journal
The Lancet in 2007, the answer is NO.
A leading researcher at Harvard Medical School
has found that women especially,
do not benefit from taking statins at all.

Hundreds of doctors and researchers agree that the cholesterol hypothesis itself is nonsense.

What their work shows is:
• A high fat diet, saturated or otherwise, does not affect blood cholesterol levels.

• High cholesterol levels do not cause heart disease.

• Statins do not protect against heart disease by lowering cholesterol – when they do work, they do so in another way.

The protection provided by statins is so small. The reality is that the benefits have been hyped out of all proportion

• Statins have many more unpleasant side effects, that are distressing.

So how can we say saturated fat doesn’t matter
when everyone has been told that saturated fat is bad for cholesterol?
“Many Dr’s tell us this, even the government tells us this…”

How can they be wrong?

And again, like the Type 2 Diabetes problem
how can there be allthis conflicting information and
research be available
Could all those millions of people who have been putting
skinless chicken and low fat fat yoghurt into their trolleys
really have been wasting their time?
YES YES YES YES
Major studies show that as far as protecting your heart goes,
cutting back on saturated fats makes no difference and,
in fact, is more likely to do harm.
WE HAVE ALL BEEN LEAD TO to believe that cholesterol is
bad and that lowering it is good.
Because of extensive pharmaceutical marketing to both doctors and patients we think that using statin drugs is proven to work to lower the risk of heart attacks and death.
Let’s take a look at what cholesterol actually is.

It’s a fatty substance produced by the liver that is used to help perform thousands of bodily functions.

The body uses it to help build your cell membranes,
the covering of your nerve sheaths, and much of your brain.

It’s a key building block for our hormone production, and without it you would not be able to maintain adequate levels of testosterone, estrogen, progesterone and cortisol.

So if you think cholesterol is the enemy, think again.

It’s Not.

We Need Cholesterol.

Without cholesterol,we would die.
And surprise surprise….

The biggest source of abnormal cholesterol is not fat at all — it’s sugar.

The sugar you consume converts to fat in your body.

And the worst culprit of all is high fructose corn syrup.

Cholesterol Myths

One of the biggest cholesterol myths out there has to do with dietary fat.

Although most of us have been taught that a high-fat diet causes cholesterol problems, this isn’t entirely true.

Here’s why:

The type of fat that you eat is more important than the amount of fat.
Trans fats or hydrogenated fats and saturated fats promote abnormal cholesterol, whereas omega-3 fats and monounsaturated fats improve the type and quantity of the cholesterol your body produces.

I’m going to say this again……

The biggest source of abnormal cholesterol is sugar.

Consumption of high fructose corn syrup, which is present in diet drinks, many juices, and processed foods, microwave ready meals, sauces, ketchup, some cereals and many many foods you may not even realise are the primary nutritional cause of most of the cholesterol issues.
So the real concern isn’t the amount of cholesterol you have, but the type of fats, sugar and refined carbohydrates in your diet that lead to abnormal cholesterol production.

I’ve written loads about INFLAMMATION a lot in this newsletter.
Inflammation is a huge contributor to heart disease.

Cutting out common inflammatory causing foods is key to lowering
your predisposition to heart disease.
Another predisposing factor to heart disease is insulin resistance or
metabolic syndrome, which leads to an imbalance in the blood sugar and high levels of insulin.

This is often called pre-diabetes.

So What Can You Do?

Eat a diet rich in green vegetables, good fats
like butter, coconut oil, olives,
oily fish, olive oil that maintain a steady blood
sugar level and you won’t go wrong.

Embarking on one of the Kick
Start Plans is an excellent way
to improve overall health and well being.
Have you been told that you need to lower your
cholesterol – What was the medical advice
you were given?

Does any of what you’ve read here come as a surprise?

Let me know tweet me @rachelholmes 
Have A Wonderful Day
Love Rachel xx

Posted on February 6, 2018 by Lauren Smedley