By David Blyweiss, M.D., Advanced Natural Wellness
July 17, 2013
- The great American Cholesterol Scare
- What nobody ever told you about LDL
- Avoid these two trends to protect your heart
Back in 1938 when H.G. Wells’ “War of the Worlds” first aired on the Columbia Broadcasting System with Orson Welles hosting that Halloween night, listeners panicked.
An invasion of Martians was attacking earth!
People became hysterical. They called their local police stations, pregnant women reportedly went into early labor and people fled their homes.
Today the whole idea of this type of panic seems more than a little bit silly.
But you know what? I’ll bet that’s exactly what our children, grandkids and great-grandchildren are going to say when they look back at the “great American cholesterol scare.”
You see, today it’s not the Martians who are the boogey men. It’s cholesterol. And no matter how many clinical studies tell us otherwise, the threat has become so widely accepted in our society we can’t seem to break away from it.
The truth is your body needs cholesterol. It’s important for digestion, making hormones, synthesizing vitamin D, maintaining cell membranes, learning, memory and sleep. And you don’t get most of it from the foods you eat. About 75% of the cholesterol circulating through your bloodstream is manufactured by your liver.
Additionally, studies repeatedly show low levels of cholesterol can actually increase your risk of death. Low cholesterol is associated with hemorrhagic stroke, cancer, liver disease, chronic obstructive lung disease and more.
And a not so recent study from 2005 published in the American Academy of Neurology concluded, “High total cholesterol in late life associated with a reduced risk of dementia”. The study participants were patients first examined at age 70 and followed up intermittently from age 75 to 88.
Mt. Sinai School of Medicine and the James Peters Veterans Affairs Medical Center concluded in their study “Better memory functioning associated with higher total and LDL cholesterol levels in very elderly subjects without (non-carriers) of the APOE4 allele.”
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When I’m working with cholesterol, I advocate a healthy ratio of good high density lipoproteins (HDL) to low density lipoproteins (LDL.) But here’s something most people don’t realize.
Lipoproteins are not cholesterol.
Lipoproteins are particles that carry fats, proteins and yes – even cholesterol and triglycerides – through your bloodstream. And they have the important job of delivering certain nutrients throughout your body.
However, not all low density lipoproteins are created equal, especially when it comes to particle size.
If you’ve never heard of “particle size” before, don’t worry. I’m going to tell you all about it right now…
Scientists have discovered LDL particles come in different sizes. Some are big, fluffy and bouncy. Others are small and dense.
When I start describing these differences to my patients, most of them automatically jump to the conclusion bigger and fluffier LDL is the bad guy. But that’s not so. It’s the smaller ones that cause the problem.
These small particles tend to slip through the lining of your blood vessels where they can do the most damage. They become oxidized. Inflammation sets in. Plaque starts accumulating and blockages begin to develop.
And you know what?
We’ve known about this since the late 1980’s! That’s when a groundbreaking study appeared in JAMA. It associated small, dense LDL particles with a threefold risk of heart attack. Since then, study after study has supported LDL particle size as a primary risk factor when it comes to your heart health.
To make matters worse, statin drugs do nothing to give you big, fluffy LDL particles that bounce off your arterial walls without doing any damage. All they do is lower total LDL levels. And they come with more side effects than I like to think about.
Indeed, there is currently no drug that will improve particle size.
If there was, this condition would be probably plastered all over the headlines. But for some reason media outlets don’t seem to like talking about a health condition that doesn’t have a pharmaceutical remedy directly at hand.
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Unlike the Mediterranean – or even the Asian and Indian cultures – we Americans constantly trade in healthy eating habits for fads and trends. And this is wreaking havoc on our health.
If you don’t believe me, just take a look at the two biggest contributors to small LDL particle size…
Trend #1 – A high carbohydrate diet.
Years ago misguided politicians told us we shouldn’t eat fats. They were bad for us. They’d clog up our arteries and lead to heart attack.
Thus the original cholesterol scare began, and the low-fat, high carb trend was born.
Little did the politicians know eating a diet filled with high glycemic carbohydrates would lead to an epidemic of obesity, metabolic syndrome and diabetes.
And guess what else happens when we load up with carbs? Our LDL particle size gets smaller and smaller!
This may be why people with metabolic syndrome, insulin resistance and diabetes are more prone to heart disease.
Studies have repeatedly shown the connection. Not only are insulin and glucose problems directly linked to an increase in small, dense LDL particles. The high glycemic foods that cause these metabolic disorders in the first place also have a noticeable effect on particle size.
For example, when researchers divide people into low-fat, high carb – or high-fat, low carb – groups, those who eat more carbohydrates and fewer fats have smaller and more dense LDL particles. Higher fat/lower carb diets produce just the opposite effect – larger, fluffier particles that are much healthier for your heart and arteries.
When you take this information to heart, you’ll automatically know what you should do…
My recommendation is to stay away from packaged foods, starches, sugars and processed flours. Instead, eat plenty of healthy fruits, veggies, nuts and fish that is loaded with healthy omega-3 fatty acids.
Drop those extra pounds by gently moving your body – even walking will help.
Trend #2 – Trans fats.
Back when everyone decided saturated fats were the biggest enemy to our arteries, a “healthier” type of fat was introduced into our food supply.
I’m talking about trans fats, which are found in hydrogenated vegetable oils.
And once again, they’ve turned out to be anything but healthy. Trans fats not only increase LDL, they also cause healthy HDL to plummet.
Worse, trans fats are associated with a harmful increase in small, dense LDL particles. So all that margarine and vegetable oil that was supposed to be good for you is really working against you. You’d be better off sticking with regular butter… hopefully organic without concentrated rBGH, (recombinant bovine growth hormone,) added cow feed antibiotics, or pesticides from the corn mash they eat.
So always read the ingredient list and look for the words “hydrogenated” or “partially hydrogenated.” These both mean the product contains trans fats.
In the meantime, your HDL and LDL numbers may be obsolete. Instead, ask your doctor to run Apo A-1 and Apo B blood tests to determine your LDL particle size profile.
And remember, it only takes a few changes to restore healthy, buoyant LDL particles that will protect your arterial function and heart health.
Resources:
Frank JW, Reed DM, Grove JS, Benfante R. Will lowering population levels of serum cholesterol affect total mortality? Expectations from the Honolulu Heart Program. J Clin Epidemiol. 1992; 45:333-346.
Austin MA, et al. Low-density lipoprotein subclass patterns and risk of myocardial infarction. JAMA 1988;260:1917-1921.
Mauger JF, Lichtenstein AH, Ausman LM, et al. Effect of different forms of dietary hydrogenated fats on LDL particle size. Am J Clin Nutr 2003;78:370-5.
Siri PW, Krauss RM. Influence of dietary carbohydrate and fat on LDL and HDL particle distributions. Curr Atheroscler Rep. 2005 Nov;7(6):455-9.
Moreno JA, Pérez-Jiménez F, et al. The effect of dietary fat on LDL size is influenced by apolipoprotein E genotype in healthy subjects. J Nutr. 2004 Oct;134(10):2517-22.
Mielke MM, Zandi PP, Sjögren M, Gustafson D, Ostling S, Steen B, Skoog I. High total cholesterol levels in late life associated with a reduced risk of dementia. Neurology. 2005 May 24;64(10):1689-95. PubMed PMID: 15911792
West R, Beeri MS, Schmeidler J, Hannigan CM, Angelo G, Grossman HT, Rosendorff C, Silverman JM. Better memory functioning associated with higher total and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels in very elderly subjects without the apolipoprotein e4 allele. Am J Geriatr Psychiatry. 2008 Sep;16(9):781-5. doi: 10.1097/JGP.0b013e3181812790. PubMed PMID: 18757771; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC2614555.
