The demon of high cholesterol:
Is it real?
By David Christine
Certified Craniosacral Therapist
B
In 2004 Dr. John Upledger, developer of craniosacral therapy, wrote an article in Massage Today entitled “Cholesterol: Friend or Foe.” He concluded that, “the statin medications that are used to lower cholesterol are far more toxic than blood cholesterol of 300.”
“When I was in general practice from 1964 through 1975,” he wrote, “a normal blood cholesterol level was 250 to 300 mg% ….Now doctors want it to be at 125mg% or less.”
This change in what was considered normal cholesterol levels troubled Dr. Upledger because of the numerous positive qualities of cholesterol in the body. Cholesterol is critical for the proper function of the brain, spinal cord and nerves. Cholesterol helps produce hormones that reduce inflammatory responses throughout the body. Without these hormones we probably wouldn’t survive attacks of various bacteria, viruses, fungi, molds, and allergies. Our bodies manufacture both male and female sex hormones from cholesterol. In the presence of sunshine, cholesterol is converted to vitamin D, which is necessary for health, and is in fact good for the heart.
Despite all of these facts, which Dr. Upledger was aware of since his graduate work in the 1960's, many doctors, including 30% of cardiologists believe that lower cholesterol is good for your heart. How could that be?
Studies before 2005 seemed to support the positive benefit of statins in preventing heart disease by lowering cholesterol, but recent reviews of the original research indicate that the results were “spun” by the pharmaceutical companies to appear much more positive that then they actually were, according to a discussion among distinguished researchers in a recent issue of Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine.
In the first big trial, the Excel Trial, more people died taking the statins than the placebo, but the results were quickly dismissed because the follow up period was less than one year, a fact which turned out to be irrelevant.
The West of Scotland study appeared to support positive results for stain use, but the study included only men. The preponderance of these men were smokers who already had some form of heart disease, the primary group that receives a positive result from the use of statins.. The positive results were not because the statins lower cholesterol but because statins lower inflammation. Their anti-oxidant effects counter-act the negative effects of smoking in the blood. The other group that receives benefit from statins are those with a serious inflammatory disease.
More recent studies show that even people with high risk for heart disease do not benefit from statins and that statins have adverse effects that often outweigh the benefits. In fact, several studies have shown that statins actually increase the amount of plaque in the coronary arteries. A study in Atherosclerosis found a 53% increase in prevalence of coronary plaque in statin users. A 2012 study in Diabetes Care found increased coronary artery calcification in patients with advanced atherosclerosis who used statins. The Veterans Affairs Diabetes Trial also showed calcification of coronary arteries in those taking statins