Monday Book Excerpt: The Cholesterol Theory of Heart Disease

"To understand what I’m talking about, it’s first necessary to understand the beneficial role that arterial plaque plays in the human body (yes, beneficial), because therein lies the key to understanding cholesterol. The role of plaque is as 'repair cement' for arterial walls. If there is any damage to the arterial wall, your body will whip up some plaque from the cholesterol, calcium, and fibrin in the bloodstream to “patch” the damage before the arterial wall develops a leak, which would cause you to bleed internally. Cholesterol isn’t part of the problem; it’s part of the solution--to a different problem.

With that in mind, let’s now look at some of the basic assumptions of the cholesterol theory of heart disease.

• Does eating a high-cholesterol diet automatically lead to heart disease? Absolutely not. Look at the results seen on the Atkins Diet, which include lowered cholesterol levels. This is pretty remarkable considering that this diet encourages the consumption of high-cholesterol foods, including large amounts of meat and dairy. Only synthetic trans-fats and refined carbohydrates need to be restricted on the program.
   
• Does eating a high-saturated fat diet automatically lead to heart disease? Again, no. Consider the traditional Eskimo diet, which is probably the diet with the highest saturated fat content in the world because of all the whale and seal blubber consumed. Eskimos on that diet have virtually no heart disease, that is, not until they shift to a modern Western diet. (Unfortunately, both the Atkins Diet and the Eskimo diet are associated with different problems in the long term. Eskimos on the traditional diet, for example, have an extremely high rate of osteoporosis because their diet promotes high acid levels in body tissue. The odds are we will see similar results down the road from those who live on the Atkins Diet for any period of time.)
   
• Does lowering cholesterol in the diet automatically reduce cholesterol levels in the bloodstream? Not necessarily--as evidenced by all the advertisements on television for statin drugs.
   
• Does lowering cholesterol in the bloodstream reduce the formation of new plaques? In many cases it does, but not necessarily for the reasons promoted. The primary reason may be that you’ve minimized the ability of the body to effect repairs. You haven’t got rid of the problem--merely the ability of the problem to manifest in one particular set of symptoms.
   
• Do statin drugs reduce the incidence of heart attack and stroke? Yes, but as we will discuss shortly, probably not because of their ability to lower cholesterol and not without significant side effects."

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