“Safe” Levels of LDL Cholesterol
How low can you go – before you’re dead, or crazy?
If I had any hair left, I’d be pulling it out in little tufts
right now.
I suppose I shouldn’t be this worked up, seeing as how every day
of my life, I report on the misconceptions (or just plain
deceptions) that conventional medicine foists upon us. But every
once in a while, something I read in mainstream sources just
makes me want to scream – because I know that real people out
there are making life-and-death health choices based on this
same hogwash.
So what’s got my goat this time? The mainstream’s latest
wrong-headed conclusions regarding “safe” levels of LDL
cholesterol. Presented at a recent meeting of the American Heart
Association (and reported by just about every major news outlet,
including CNN), the basic gist of their “findings” is this:
There’s no such thing as ‘too low’ for LDL cholesterol in the
blood.
What wishy-washy wimps – they won’t even commit to a “safe”
number, for Pete’s sake! This, in the wake of their absolutely
preposterous recently revised guidelines regarding “high” blood
pressure (Daily Dose, 8/8/2003) that make anyone who’s not a
marathoner a candidate for hypertension medications. But I
digress – we were taking about cholesterol
Never mind the fact that we NEED cholesterol (yes, even the LDL
variety) to survive, and that our body makes it on its own.
Forget about the research linking drug-induced cholesterol
lowering with mental impairment (Daily Dose, 3/28/2003). And
even if you can overlook the evidence that links low levels of
blood cholesterol to depression, mood swings, and the risk of
stroke
There’s still the issue of the potentially fatal side effects of
the mainstream’s cholesterol drugs! (Remember Baycol – pulled by
the FDA after being blamed for more than fifty deaths?) To say
that levels of LDL cholesterol can’t get too low is medically
irresponsible, in my opinion. Clearly, the “powers that be” in
conventional medicine don’t understand what it is or how it
works if they’re suggesting that anything lower than a combined
score of 300 is remotely in need of adjustment.
And all this while the REAL heart-stoppers like homocysteine get
barely a notice.
Oh well – it’s only another lie, right? What’s one more on top
of the pile?
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Nationwide, bread’s not rising anymore
At last, some good news: It looks like the low-carb message is
finally sinking in.
How do I know? Because recently, the Associated Press ran a
story – which was picked up by several major news outlets across
the country – about recent plummeting profits in the baking and
bread-making industries nationwide. Like the AP, I attribute
this drop to the dramatic increase in the popularity of Atkins
and other low-carbohydrate nutritional plans.
While I do feel for the hardship this must be creating in all
those small corner bakeries, I can’t help but be heartened by
the news. It means that despite the media’s (and the medical
mainstream’s) continual vilification of us carnivores, somehow
the message is getting out. Maybe it has to do with all the
slimmer waistlines out there among those who’ve embraced the
low-carb approach. After all, nothing sells like results.
I hope this trend keeps up, regardless of the bottom-line impact
to the nation’s baking industry. More than tasty pastries, we
need to reverse the national epidemic of obesity – along with
all the disease and death that goes with it.
If only my old friend Dr. Atkins were still alive. I know he’d
be so happy to see the lifesaving groundswell his life’s work is
finally spurring.
Spending my dough on beef, not bread,
William Campbell Douglass II, MD
