Transcription
So I want to create a short video on cholesterol. I want to separate the facts from the opinions and the myths. First of all, that cholesterol has a purpose. And I know that you were taught, and I was taught, that cholesterol clogs arteries. It, it, uh, makes heart disease, and it's really, really bad, and we should avoid it. Um, and eat Cheerios because of course that oatmeal reduces it. But let's just take it one step further and help you understand what the heck it is.
First of all, the first thing you need to know is that your body makes cholesterol. In fact, 75% of all the cholesterol in your body right now is made by your own body. Only 25% comes from the food from your diet. That's interesting. So if your cholesterol was so bad, why does your body make it? Because obviously it has a reason. Here's the purpose of cholesterol.
Number one, it's the raw material that makes up hormones, especially the steroid hormones, which is like testosterone, uh, adrenal hormones, the sex hormones. All these hormones that you need to prevent aging are built from cholesterol. So when you start cutting down cholesterol, especially when you get older, um, you're going to have a lot of problems because there's just as many diseases and problems that occur with a low cholesterol as with a high cholesterol, which I'm going to get into in the next section. But we need cholesterol to make hormones, especially as you age.
Number two, you need cholesterol to make bile. Bile is the detergent that breaks down the grease. It's a fluid from your liver that helps you digest. Without bile, you get bloating, right shoulder pain, you can't absorb any of the fat, fat-soluble vitamins like vitamin A, D, E, and K. So we need cholesterol to make bile. And vitamin D. Vitamin D is made from cholesterol from converting the sunlight through the skin. All the cell membranes are made from cholesterol. Your brain is made of cholesterol. The skin is lined with cholesterol. So you need cholesterol.
Okay, so it's not as bad as you think. The problem with cholesterol is when you have maybe too much, uh, cholesterol that goes in versus coming out. But it's overrated. Back, I would say about 20 years ago, the normal cholesterol was 225, and they arbitrarily lowered it to 200, put millions of people on cholesterol-lowering drugs. I don't know if you knew that. So the other problem is that, um, now they're going down to 150 and 100. It's getting crazy. So it's the inability to kind of they kind of take if if a little cholesterol might clog an artery, they go all the way to the extreme.
Some other facts about cholesterol are: Number one, carbohydrates turn into bad cholesterol and triglycerides, which are blood fats, faster than consuming cholesterol turns into cholesterol. Okay? So in other words, when you eat eggs and things like that, your body will break that down with the bile. But when you have too many carbs, breads, pasta, cereal, crackers, biscuits, waffles, pancakes, you're going to spike your cholesterol a lot higher. So there's a conversion ratio. Sugar and refined carbs and juices and alcohol and all that stuff. All right.
Next thing is adrenal stress. When you're under stress, your body requires more cholesterol to make more hormones. And a lot of times doctors, when they evaluate, they don't find out in the history, when did your cholesterol start spiking? Could have been after a a stressful event. Your body is just trying to survive. It needs cholesterol to make these anti-stress hormones.
And then lastly, the eggs. Eggs are loaded with cholesterol, but eggs will increase the good cholesterol, okay? And they are loaded with lecithin. Lecithin is the antidote to cholesterol. It breaks down cholesterol. So I do, I've been doing four eggs a day, every day for the last 20 years, 25 years, and, uh, my cholesterol is about 4,000. No, I'm just kidding. It's actually pretty low. It's like 180, and, um, it's within the normal range.
And the other thing I want to mention is that when your cholesterol is normal, don't let the doctor put you on a cholesterol-lowering medication. Only treat something if there's a problem, not when you don't need it. Because a lot of people are taking it as a preventative. Well, the side effects from a lot of these medications are major. They're way more than potential problems with cholesterol. So you want both ends. But sometimes the doctor puts you in fear and says, if you don't take this, you're going to get a stroke. But you just need to, you need to understand all the facts.
So, so in the next section, I want to show you something even more interesting. Okay, so now check this out. Here's a graph of the Framingham Heart Study, which basically all of the risk factors that you get on your cholesterol reports are based on this one study. And if you've ever read the study, it's fascinating. Very, a lot of doctors have never read the study. But this is what it says. It says that when you have lower cholesterol, and by the way, on the left side here, these are the deaths, um, yearly deaths, one, two, three, four, and five, okay? And that's with people with low cholesterol, and then people with high cholesterol. They're considering 270 high, 130 low. Okay? So this is what happens. If you look at the deaths with low cholesterol, it's one out of a thousand at 130, and it's two out of a thousand at 270. Okay? So this is what they did. They said that's an increase of 100% risk. But notice what they said. They, they used the word risk, but not rate of getting heart attacks. Risk has basically no legal definition. Apparently, in this study, because it's not really 100% increase because these are fractions. If you know anything about mathematics, going from 1/1000 to 2/1000 is only an increase of an actual point 1%. One tenth of 1%. That's the real rate of getting a heart attack. This, if the doctor told you that you have a 0.1% of getting a heart attack, you probably wouldn't take the medication because it's so rare. One tenth of 1%. Okay? That does not make sense.
So, um, so that's, that's basically how they fudged it. They used the risk factors and you say you're at 100% risk. And they have risk one, two, like a risk factors of one, two, three, and four, which I'm still trying to figure out what it means because it's very complex and confusing. But it's not 100% risk. Now, the other thing that you need to look at is that the total deaths from cholesterol, low cholesterol is even higher than high cholesterol. So check this out. Other side effects of cholesterol-lowering drugs include a 7% I'm sorry, a 700% increase in colon cancers, a 12-fold increase in breast cancer, 45% increase in gallstones, 145% increase in gastritis, um, an increase rather than expected decrease in heart and circulation related deaths, and twice as many heart attacks, internal bleeding and severe constipation, liver disease and ulcers of the stomach, intestines, anemia, taste and smell disturbances and visual difficulties, dizziness, lower white blood cell count, angina, heart rhythm problems, phlebitis, set inflammation of the arteries, um, cancer, increased death rate. Um, in a 5,000 patient study, there was a 36% increase in death as compared to those taken to placebo. Placebo. Increase incident of impulsive homicidal and suicide behavior and 175% increase in appendectomies. Other than that, there's no other side effects.