Cholesterol - Are You Confused About Yours?

I had a follow up visit with the Joslin clinic yesterday morning. In general terms I have always been somewhat skeptical concerning medical advice. I guess there is a certain amount of caution on my part trying to separate real world medical advice from pharmaceutical sales person's advertising.

I have not found that to be the case with my Joslin clinic doctor and the staff in general. I also appreciate the fact they are equipped to do my A1C, and a host of other medial services all under one roof. Yesterday they did a resting EKG on me as it has been a while. They have also done bone density testing, a PSA test along with the normal height, weight, feet sensitivity tests and going over my medications each time along with my supplements. I am comfortable with Joslin and have been impressed with their knowledge and advice and counseling.

That being said, since in a month or so I am going to have my blood lipid profile numbers ran again, along with testosterone, iodine etc., I thought you might be interested in an article on cholesterol that I received. You might want to open the link and read the article in its entirety.

“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1)

“So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” (Romans 10:17)

“But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.” (Hebrews 11:6)

Here is a link to that article:

http://blueheronhealthnews.com/site/?p=4023

EXCERPTS:

The Complicated Issue of Cholesterol

Posted on January 19, 2013 by Scott Davis

Today’s article is pretty long. But it tackles a very important issue that touches most of us and is becoming very controversial (to say the least) both among doctors and natural researchers:
“Is the high cholesterol danger reality or just a myth from the pharmaceutical companies to squeeze out literally hundreds of BILLIONS of dollars?”
So please check it out and make your comments at the end of this page.
You can’t read about health issues for long before running into the word “cholesterol”.
And in more cases than not, this word is used in a very negative connection blaming high cholesterol for anything regarding heart and arterial health.
If, however, you were to dig deeper into the issue, you’ll soon hear another opinion about cholesterol. Several books have been written asserting the “Cholesterol Myth” claiming that high cholesterol has no negative effects on your health. According to those voices this myth was invented by the pharmaceutical companies to be able to sell billions of dollars of useless drugs.


MORE:

Cholesterol also creates various hormones, helps convert sunlight into vitamin D and substances to improve digestion just to name a few of many functions.

Since no cell can survive without cholesterol, it needs to be delivered from the liver (where it’s produced) throughout the body via the blood stream in the arteries. And then again from the cells back to liver for recycling.

Now you may have heard about so called “bad cholesterol” (LDL) and “good cholesterol” (HDL). The fact is, there is only one type of cholesterol.
You see, cholesterol is delivered through out the blood stream in vehicles that are made up of fat on the inside but protein on the outside. And it’s the vehicle that varies, not the cholesterol itself. Just like sometimes people use trucks and other times cars, cholesterol chooses different vehicles for different purposes.

The LDL vehicle (I’ll refer to it as LDL cholesterol from now on) delivers cholesterol from the liver throughout the body whereas the HDL vehicle (HDL cholesterol) clears the cholesterol from the cells back to the liver.
If you’ve enough HDL, it also helps remove cholesterol plaque build up in your arteries.

Both are equally important. We couldn’t live without either one of those cholesterol types. If we didn’t have any LDL (bad cholesterol), none of the much-needed cholesterol would be delivered to our cells. And without the HDL (good cholesterol), the cholesterol would build up in our body and clog the whole system.

In fact, cholesterol is so important to our survival that our bodies take no risk and have developed a system in the liver to create all cholesterol needed. Even more, every single cell in your body has the ability to create its own cholesterol, just in case the supply runs low.

An average person gets 75% of their cholesterol produced by the liver, whereas only 25% comes from their diet. That’s why you never hear about taking cholesterol as supplement.

The problem arises when LDL, on its delivery mission, begins to build a plaque in the heart arteries that little by little block the blood and oxygen delivery flow through them.

Finally the plaque may break lose and mostly or completely block the heart vessels, preventing the heart from pumping blood throughout the body. Sometimes part of the plaque breaks into the blood stream and shoots all the way up to the vessels infusing the brain, blocking the blood delivery and causing stroke.

In fact, plaque can build up in any artery throughout the body causing various conditions from angina to erectile dysfunction.

What I’ve explained so far is well known fact in the medical field, and nobody argues about any of this.