Ep. 29: Cholesterol Part 1: Statin Dangers and Whether Cholesterol Causes Heart Disease

12 Oct 2020 Ep. 29: Cholesterol Part 1: Statin Dangers and Whether Cholesterol Causes Heart Disease

Posted at 10:41h in Podcast by Jay Feldman 0 Comments

Where the mainstream view that high cholesterol levels cause heart disease went wrong
Why we may want to reconsider statin use for the vast majority of cases
Why we don’t need to avoid high-cholesterol foods, even if we have high cholesterol levels
The protective, beneficial effects of cholesterol
What actually increases cholesterol levels and why statins don’t effectively address these factors
Why the cholesterol-lowering drugs are often more harmful than helpful

2:55 – the conventional, mainstream view of cholesterol

13:40 – the problems with the conventional view of cholesterol and the cholesterol hypothesis

29:20 – what causes elevated cholesterol levels

42:15 – why we don’t need to avoid dietary cholesterol and high-cholesterol foods

The Cholesterol Nonsense Continues (article)
Polyunsaturated Fats (PUFA) and Energy Balance (podcast episode)
Graph from Framingham study showing that cholesterol levels between those with heart disease and those without are nearly identical (1 )
The role of cholesterol in our immune system and as a protective factor against infections and endotoxin (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
Lower cholesterol levels are associated with lower immune function and susceptibility to infection and cancer (1, 2, 3)
Statin-induced muscle damage and heart failure (1, 2, 3)
Fibrate drug use resulted in no reduction in the risk of coronary deaths (1)
Thyroid function and cholesterol levels (1)
Energy production is vital to the conversion of cholesterol to steroid hormones (1)
Low cholesterol levels in older populations increases all-cause mortality and susceptibility to infections, cancer, and dementia (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
Cholesterol levels and mortality (graph) (1 )
Endotoxin (LPS) is implicated in atherosclerosis and heart disease (1, 2, 3, 4)
Damaging metabolic and gut effects of endotoxin (1, 2, 3, 4)
Stress hormones increase cholesterol levels (1, 2, 3 )
Anti-inflammatory effects of statins (1, 2 )
Antimicrobial effects of statins (1, 2, 3 )
Dietary cholesterol has little effect on serum cholesterol (1, 2)