7 Tips for Optimizing Cholesterol
New This Week: December 11, 2012
Optimizing Your Health, Part 10: Managing Cholesterol and Blood Fats
Dear Readers,
Are you going into holiday season, but have the blues because you're looking at all this great food but worried about a high cholesterol level. Here is some great news for you!
Optimal cholesterol levels are the #1 topic of conversation when it comes to promoting a healthy heart and circulatory system.
Want to know a dirty little medical secret? In people without known heart disease, maintaining healthy cholesterol levels is not necessarily the most important (or even an especially significant) factor when it comes to supporting heart health.
For one thing, scientific research shows that many other factors are far more important to promoting a healthy heart. They include exercising regularly, maintaining healthy blood pressure levels, optimizing blood sugar levels, eating a healthy diet, stopping smoking, getting proper nutrition, supporting good thyroid function, and (in men) optimizing testosterone levels. Lowering cholesterol doesn't even make the top 10!
Another concern is that levels of cholesterol that are too low may be unhealthy, because cholesterol serves a critical function in the body. Cholesterol is essential for the manufacture of key hormones, such as cortisol, DHEA, estrogen, progesterone and testosterone.
It's true that statins — the cholesterol-lowering medications so widely used today — can be critical and life-saving in those who have already had a heart attack or who have angina (chest pain from narrowed arteries). But statins have a minimal impact on those who have never had a heart attack (called primary prevention), only decreasing risk by less than 10%.
To put that statistic in perspective, some studies have shown that eating dark chocolate may be more likely to improve heart health, statistically by 5 times as much, than taking a statin! Another showed that owning a cat may be 3 times more effective. Optimizing thyroid, even when thyroid blood tests are normal, may be 5 times more effective. You get the picture…
If you want to promote healthy cholesterol levels, there are safe, natural ways to do so. Here is the list of ways I developed for one of my most recent books, Real Cause, Real Cure (Rodale, August 2012).
Love & blessings,
Dr. T
Research Briefs
Is Your Statin Robbing You of Energy?
Researchers at the University of California studied more than 1,000 people with moderately high levels of LDL cholesterol, half of whom had taken a statin (20 mg of Zocor or 40 mg of Pravachol) for six months. Those using statins had lower levels of energy and/or more fatigue after exercise. And the women in the study suffered more of these side effects than the men.
See the report at Bottom Line Publications »
Red Yeast Rice — a Safe, Natural Alternative to Statins
Noting that many patients don't take their cholesterol-lowering statins because of side effects like muscle pain, a researcher from the Department of Medicine at Columbia University gave 18 people with high cholesterol an all-natural, cholesterol-lowering powdered shake (with almond, soy or low-fat milk) that contained 1,200 mg of red yeast rice and 1,250 mg of phytosterols. (They drank the shake twice a day.) After six weeks of drinking the shake twice a day, total cholesterol dropped by an average of 19% and LDL cholesterol by 33%.
Cool Stuff
The Magic Snow Globe
This is absolutely amazing! Give it a try. You'll love it.
Funny Stuff
Open-Heart 'Mechanicing'
A motorcycle mechanic was removing a cylinder head from the motor of a Harley when he spotted a well-known cardiologist in his shop. The cardiologist was there waiting for the service manager to come and take a look at his bike when the mechanic shouted across the garage, "Hey Doc, take a look at this."
A bit surprised, the cardiologist walked over to where the mechanic was working on the motorcycle. The mechanic straightened up, wiped his hands on a rag and said, "So Doc, look at this engine. I opened its heart, took the valves out, repaired or replaced anything damaged, and then put everything back in. And when I finished, it worked just like new. So how is that I make $30,000 a year and you make a million when you and I are doing basically the same work?"
The cardiologist paused, leaned over, and then whispered to the mechanic, "Try doing it with the engine running."
Jacob Teitelbaum, M.D. is one of the world's leading integrative medical authorities on fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue. He is the lead author of eight research studies on their effective treatments, and has published numerous health & wellness books, including the bestseller on fibromyalgia From Fatigued to Fantastic! and The Fatigue and Fibromyalgia Solution. Dr. Teitelbaum is one of the most frequently quoted fibromyalgia experts in the world and appears often as a guest on news and talk shows nationwide including Good Morning America, The Dr. Oz Show, Oprah & Friends, CNN, and Fox News Health.
