Cholesterol, Heart Disease, Stroke, Statins

 

For the longest time animal fats, saturated fats like butter, ghee, coconut oil have been demonized by the whole cholesterol game played on by the  pharmas  and the food lobby for the last few years. All this instead of resulting in lesser strokes, cardiac arrests, and deaths caused by the cardiovascular disease have only increased. India, China, the U.S and other countries lead the world when it comes to heart disease.

Cholesterol has never been the problem and does not cause heart attacks and strokes. Yet, as we focus on just cholesterol and cholesterol-lowering drugs that have such severe side effects, we ignore inflammation and take high blood pressure lightly because, when on BP pills, it does bring down the pressure to within range. But in the background, there is more serious damage being caused because we tend to ignore the root causes and inflammation which lead to clots, strokes, paralysis and cardiac arrests.

The human body needs cholesterol to make vitamin D, to build and repair cell membrane, to develop memory and neuron health in the brain, to make hormones.Estrogen, testosterone, cortisone are all precursors of cholesterol and if we constantly try and lower cholesterol we have hormonal imbalances and issues from weight to depression to low immunity and rapid aging.The liver produces cholesterol every day. If by chance you eat high cholesterol foods, the liver will just produce lesser amounts, of course, unless you are overdoing it, then your levels may spike. 

Don't focus on total cholesterol, focus on HDL which is your good cholesterol and the more you have of it, the healthier you are. LDL can be high in the right amounts if your HDL is good. Low HDL and high LDL, is not good and high LDL, High HDL is ok. What you want to be careful of is VLDL, that is the fat that covers your organs and triglycerides, high triglycerides roam freely in your body forming plaque and clots anywhere over time and can lead to strokes and blocks.

The higher your insulin levels the higher your cholesterol. When our insulin rises, your cholesterol also rises, so for a diabetic who also has bad cholesterol focusing more on managing insulin will take care of the cholesterol. Every disease is connected and the human body has this brilliance and intelligence that mankind is yet to understand. So eating junk and processed all the time doesn't only lead to insulin insensitivity but, also cholesterol.

Nuts, saturated fats, good animal fats, eggs don't cause cholesterol. Bad carbs, processed salts, sugars, fiberless foods, excessive drinking, smoking, bad grains and excessive carbs cause high triglycerides, inflammation, low HDL and high LDL and VLDL.

I meet so many people who say, “I don't drink during the week but, I binge drink on the weekends.†You are better off drinking in moderation every day and not binge drinking. No matter how strong you think you are, your liver has a life and so does your heart and other organs.Smoking will cause the arteries to harden and an increase in high blood pressure which really is the main cause of most strokes and cardiac arrests.

In integrative medicine statins and cholesterol lowering drugs may be prescribed for a condition called ' familial hypercholesterolemia ' children and young adults born with bad cholesterol levels and a history of early cardiac arrests. For all other cholesterol issues, lifestyle and nutrition are enough to take care of your heart. Putting a stent and not changing your lifestyle is the most foolish thing someone can do. And, so is going through a bypass and not changing the way you eat and live. 

Understand how and what inflammation is?

You fall down, and you get a cut. Inflammation kicks in by your immunity to protect you and the healthy cells around your arteries will constrict so you don't bleed to death. Your blood will thicken so it can clot. Your immunity will produce chemicals and WBC, etc to fight infections, bacteria etc. Your cells will rapidly divide and multiply to repair and protect the cells around a scar forms and you heal. Take this same concept to your artery.

Keep eating junk, sugar, excessive alcohol, smoking, lack of sleep and your artery wall starts getting inflamed. Arteries constrict and blood thickens, sending your pressure up.Instead of a scar you get plaque which hardens over the months. Now you have high blood pressure, possible clots and eventual stroke or heart attacks. 

Inflammation is damaged cells and to repair cells the body needs cholesterol. So if you are on drugs to lower the same your inflammation always stays high as your body has insufficient cholesterol to repair the inflamed cells. 

CRP which is c-reactive protein is such an important marker for inflammation and yet highly ignored in the medical world. While we focus on cholesterol, it is more important to focus on inflammation.

Natural ways to manage your lipid profile.

Optimize your vitamin D. If you have low levels, your liver will constantly produce more cholesterol in the hope that the UVB sun rays will hit your skin and use cholesterol for vitamin D production.

Eat good saturated fats like the egg yolk, cold pressed coconut oil, olive oil, pure ghee, nuts, seeds,

Exercise daily

Sleep 7-8 hours

Manage stress levels that have a direct impact on pressure

Reduce salt (switch to pink). Junk processed, high carbs food

Increase your intake of fiber

Choose plant-based formulations over medications. Nature works better, always.

Yoga, deep breathing, pranayama, meditation

If you are on statins, plan with your doctor to get off it ASAP. Statins work by inhibiting an enzyme in your liver that produced cholesterol and this is messing with the intelligence of the human body after all, cholesterol really has nothing to do with overall heart health.If you are on a statin you have to be on a coq10 or ubiquinol as statins deplete coq10 enzyme leading to cellular damage and that's the reason people on statins have severe side effects ranging from muscle pain to migraines, blasting, fatigue, Alzheimer, fat gain and several other issues and then you need other drugs to manage these side effects. 

Get off your drugs, there are severe side effects. If you are willing to make lifestyle changes, that's what you need to kick the 'quick fix' drug habit. Keep your doctor in the loop always.