Vincent Bellonzi: Hello again. I want to talk a little bit about cholesterol. In a lot of ways, cholesterol got a bad reputation. It's been really disrespected. The reason is that we made so many assumptions because of a simple association. In other words, we look at heart diseases and then we see the cholesterols there at the same time. Well, that's sort of like saying, if something occurs in a building, a person walking by was the cause, not necessarily. It's an association, it's circumstantial evidence, it's not necessarily the truth. In fact, people can run a very high cholesterol level and be extremely healthy.
If you look at the Eskimos, they are people that eat a higher fat diet. A lot of people who under more stressful environmental conditions run higher cholesterol. When you are stressed, your cholesterol level goes up.
It's noted that many athletes have been tested when they are performing a very intense activity and their cholesterol goes up. It doesn't mean that they immediately have to be put on statin drugs. What it means is that we need to do realize that cholesterol does go up and down. We also have to realize that cholesterol is an extremely important substance in the body. It's a very good antioxidant. You should look into antioxidants if you don't know what they are, because most of it needs more than we've got. But antioxidants control free radicals. It's a very important precursor or something to be made, used to make your steroids. So the hormones in your body are made from cholesterol. Cholesterol has a part in making vitamin D, which in essence is a hormone.
So cholesterols got a lot of functions. In fact it can be more dangerous to have low cholesterol than high cholesterol. Many researches point to the number of about a 150 as opposed to this idea that it needs to be as low as possible. So 200 is the number that you problem have heard your doctor about because the National Cholesterol Education Program set that number and they are considering lowering as a number that your cholesterol should stay below. It's not an exact science, it's just an association of statistic. The truth is that cholesterol below 150 in many research studies is too low of cholesterol. You want to be probably above 150. In fact some studies even indicate that above 165 is healthy. One way that we know that people are dying is when the cholesterol falls away to something well below 150.
Now you've got total cholesterol and then you got what we call the good cholesterol and the bad cholesterol, basically HDL and LDL. But the best way to look at cholesterol is to see what it's made of, are the particles large and buoyant, are they small and dense, because this small and dense particle are portions of the cholesterol that actually can get into the blood vessel and cause the damage, start the inflammation and eventually cholesterol becomes part of this block which closes the artery. Honestly, a lot of studies say that it's vasospasm or spasm of the artery that causes a problem and not the blockage.
So we have to consider that as well. But getting back to cholesterol, cholesterol numbers are just an indication that you need to look further. You don't need to get all excited and thrown on some drug, where you're going to change the production of cholesterol, you have to just determine whether or not the cholesterol is actually some kind of a threat.
So when we talk about statin drugs, some drug affects the ability of the body to make cholesterol. In fact, that's not the major action, we believe that one of the most beneficial acts of the statin drugs is it's an antiinflammatory, although it doesn't even do a good job of that in many occasions. But cholesterol is so important that you don't want to just stop it without knowing that it is the problem. In fact, if you know the cholesterol is made up, you can determine a therapy much better. Many times, you can control the cholesterol level better with something like Niacin or an extractive ready-to-use or many other herbs and supplements over a statin. In fact, some of the statins recently have been either taken off the market or they've stopped the marketing because they didn't perform any better than things you could buy over the counter.
So good nutrition and other things plan to the cholesterol, they manage to stress you under, but we have to realize that cholesterol is not the entire picture. In fact, recent research shows that the most important number to look at or one of the more important numbers to look at is actually the ratio between tri-glycerides or your blood fats and your HDL or what's called the good cholesterol, that ratio should be below 2. That's a much better indicator of heart disease and cholesterol ever was.
So if your cholesterol is above 200, somebody should look further, but it doesn't mean that you necessarily need to be taking statin drug. There are risks and dangers to statin drugs. I don't believe they are safe for long-term use. We see people with a lot of problems. One of the more common problems is muscle damage and muscle pain but it also causes kidney, liver. There is not drug out there that doesn't have some risk to it. Cholesterol is one of the statins are one of the more symptom causing drugs that there are.
So you don't want to automatically assume you need a statin. If you have a high cholesterol, then the next thing your doctor should at is C-reactive protein, it's an indicator of inflammation. Is the inflammation even there to make the cholesterol something to worry about, is the cholesterol oxidized or is it in dangerous state or size or buoyancy, those are some of the questions to be answered.
Another thing to look at is homocysteine. There is a very good association between homocysteine and this inflammation. So if your homocysteine, which is just a byproduct of certain proteins being broken down, but it's part of a very important cycle in the body, in the metabolic cycle, if the homocysteine is high, then there is a much better association between that and heart diseases. If you lower homocysteine, you get an improvement in the heart disease risk.
So there are other factors to look beyond just cholesterol. I don't think it's necessary that everybody be taking a statin drug. Do you know that statin manufactures would love that, and of course it's going to help their bottom line. They propose it in order to help public health but in reality, it means that they will be able to sell more of their drug. Statin drugs are a problem. They are not the indolent bio, they are not the greatest solution, there are many other very good solutions many times better.
The other thing that you have to realize if your doctor has put you on a statin and he didn't tell you about something else called coenzyme Q10, you need to do some of your own investigation. Because not only does the statin drug interrupt your ability, interrupts an enzyme but interrupt your ability to make cholesterol but it also stops your ability or interrupt your ability to make coenzyme Q10, a very important substance in your body, also an antioxidant, very important in your energy creation cycles. It's something you have to have.
While the statin drugs stops your ability to make it and it's something that is very necessary for you to take if you are on a statin drug, something for you to look into if you are using a statin. But if you are considering the need for Lipitor or Crestor or one of various numbers of statin drugs, then at least you'll be taking coenzyme Q10. But the next step for you is to figure out how you're going to get off the drug.
Again, we get back to the idea of self sufficiency being health. If your body is functioning correctly, you will make more cholesterol than you need, your body won't have any diseases, you won't have any symptoms and you will be vital and healthy. That's what I want for all of you. So if you are using a statin drug, figure out how you're going to get off of it. If you cholesterol is getting high, go look into what that means, it may need more laboratory testing and may need some drastic changes in your diet, it possibly means that you're going to have to change your activity schedule so you are exercising more, you need to take care of yourself. Don't just watch the cholesterol numbers climb and go crying to the doctor and say, okay, throw something, I mean that's going to lower that number. That doesn't necessarily mean you are safe.
Again cholesterol is an important substance. You make it for a reason and you want it around. So don't just assume that cholesterol is bad. In fact nothing is really all bad or all good. But rethink the fact that statin drugs are not the final answer. You wanted to able to have a functioning body that's healthy, you need to learn how your body operates, and work with it, and not force it, and not make it dependent. So again, when we talk about cholesterol, all that means is look further. Very high levels of cholesterol have been measured in people with completely open arteries, no blockages whatsoever, no inflammation, and they just live with high cholesterol, it's very common actually.
So don't get wrapped up in this idea that you're going to die without a statin drug. Be concerned if your cholesterol is high. Look into the evidence, see if it really means anything. And for a very, very small percentage of you, a statin drug might be useful. But don't jump on it without getting the information and learning what it means to be using the drug and setting a strategy for how you're going to get away from it. Eventually, you want that self sufficiency.
So I hope these videos make you think, I want you to investigate everything that you do with your doctor, I want you do understand what's happening, it's not all that complicated but it's something that you need to do. Make yourself a priority, learn how to take care of yourself. Again, it's always a pleasure. This is Dr. Vincent Bellonzi and I'll talk to you again.
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