Cholesterol - one word which so many of us have had the pleasure of discussing with our doctor. The only problem with this discussion - we don't have the slightest idea what they are talking about, most of the time, that is.
So what do we do? We just kind of sit there and shake our head up and down and agree occasionally by saying "yes...yes!". But the whole time we really don't want to open our mouth because we have no idea what to say anyway.
But somewhere in that conversation, there's a pretty good bet the words cholesterol and heart disease just happened to be placed in the same sentence. And for most people, their first impulse, "Give me the drug. I don't want any heart attack".
But medical science has advanced far beyond those ideas these days.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology has claims reporting although the drug of choice for lowering cholesterol ( a family known as statins) will effectively lower cholesterol in most people, but that in itself does not show any rise in mortality rates for afflicted individuals. In other words, they are telling us that statins may lower your cholesterol levels but that isn't necessarily going to give you any more years on your life. What statins can do for you though is decrease your quality of life in later years by destroying your muscles, impacting the health of your liver, kidney and even your heart function.
Why? Because the only way to effectively lower your cholesterol levels for better health does not come out of some bottle of pills - it comes from lifestyle changes, hence avoiding high intake of saturated fats (from animal products) and eliminating as much as possible your intake of chemically processed fats such as vegetable oils and fats which are high in omega 6 fatty acids.
So does all of this mean you are now off of beef, dairy and corn oil for the rest of your life? The surprising answer - No! You just have to re-learn to eat the way your ancestors did. With a few alterations and some smart choices, your cholesterol levels will soon learn to take care of themselves.
So what do we do? We just kind of sit there and shake our head up and down and agree occasionally by saying "yes...yes!". But the whole time we really don't want to open our mouth because we have no idea what to say anyway.
But somewhere in that conversation, there's a pretty good bet the words cholesterol and heart disease just happened to be placed in the same sentence. And for most people, their first impulse, "Give me the drug. I don't want any heart attack".
But medical science has advanced far beyond those ideas these days.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology has claims reporting although the drug of choice for lowering cholesterol ( a family known as statins) will effectively lower cholesterol in most people, but that in itself does not show any rise in mortality rates for afflicted individuals. In other words, they are telling us that statins may lower your cholesterol levels but that isn't necessarily going to give you any more years on your life. What statins can do for you though is decrease your quality of life in later years by destroying your muscles, impacting the health of your liver, kidney and even your heart function.
Why? Because the only way to effectively lower your cholesterol levels for better health does not come out of some bottle of pills - it comes from lifestyle changes, hence avoiding high intake of saturated fats (from animal products) and eliminating as much as possible your intake of chemically processed fats such as vegetable oils and fats which are high in omega 6 fatty acids.
So does all of this mean you are now off of beef, dairy and corn oil for the rest of your life? The surprising answer - No! You just have to re-learn to eat the way your ancestors did. With a few alterations and some smart choices, your cholesterol levels will soon learn to take care of themselves.
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