Whether you’ve been coming to The Exercise Coach® for years, you’ve recently started, or are contemplating starting a program, the truth is that you are investing in your most precious commodity: your health.  It’s easy for us to find excuses, distractions or to prioritize other things in life, but YOU have decided to take control of your health and you should be proud and excited about your decision.  Like anything else, there will be days when you wonder if the time, the workouts, and the investment are worth it.  Rest assured, they are.  And your body is reaping the benefits.

But what exactly is happening within your body?

That’s the first and most natural question to ask.  No matter your background, history, age or fitness level, we all know, (or have been told), that we need to exercise.  Heck, even the First Lady has started a campaign to encourage the youth of America to get off their keisters and exercise.  But how exactly is your body benefiting from exercise?  Why do we push your physical and sometimes mental limits twice a week?

“Get busy living, or get busy dying.”
-Red, Shawshank Redemption

Well, it starts first with a basic understanding of Mother Nature.  Simply put, we are either getting better or getting worse.   Unfortunately for most, poor diet, needless activity and bad advice have led us into a gradual decline in health.  It certainly doesn’t have to be this way, however, and no matter your physical or health condition, you can get better.

For over a decade, we at The Exercise Coach® have worked with and helped people with health conditions varying from seemingly minor to more serious and threatening.  Our combination of exercise and nutrition can and will improve the greatest threats to our health:

1. Heart Disease (think high cholesterol, triglycerides, blood pressure)
2. Sarcopenia (think loss of muscle mass, poor posture, shrinking)
3. Diabetes (failing glucose metabolism, organ function)
4. Gastrointestinal Disorders (think celiac, colitis, heartburn)
5. Autoimmune Disorders (think multiple sclerosis, asthma, Crohn’s)
6. Neurological Disorders (think ADD, Alzheimer’s, depression)
7. Lack of Sleep, Energy, Vitality (think sleep apnea, chronic fatigue, “the blah’s”
8. Thyroid and Hormonal Disorders (think low estrogen, low testosterone, hypothyroidism)
9. Weight Gain (think belly fat)

THE EXERCISE COACH: A NEW HOPE

At The Exercise Coach®, it is our firm belief, fueled by years of experience and clients’ testimonies, that success begins with each workout and each meal and continues until you are healthy and thriving.  The Exercise Coach® is here to stand beside you every step of the way, and we aren’t going anywhere!

Read the rest of this series:

Take Control of Your Health

Part 2 – The Truth About Cholesterol: Where Did We Go Wrong?

Part 3 – Why We Need Cholesterol

Part 4 – High Cholesterol vs. Low Cholesterol

Part 5 – Cholesterol Does Not Cause Heart Disease.

We at The Exercise Coach® pride ourselves on empowering our members to make informed decisions about their health. We aim to provide direction, information, and support so you can feel comfortable and confident making these important decisions.

The ensuing blog posts will describe how our nation was led down an erroneous nutritional path based on bad science and false conclusions.  We will also delve into what exactly cholesterol is, why it is essential, what nutritional studies actually say in regards to healthy cholesterol levels, why normal to high cholesterol is potentially advantageous, what causes heart disease and what we can do to prevent it.

We know the information we will be presenting may be controversial, counter-intuitive or maybe even different than what your doctor recommends.  We remind you that all information provided is for informational purposes only and that you are the one who is ultimately responsible for making decisions about your health.

THE TRUTH ABOUT CHOLESTEROL: WHERE DID WE GO WRONG?

It all began in 1956, when the American Heart Association (AHA) brought the concept of “heart health” to the forefront of public consciousness. In a public service announcement televised on three major networks, the AHA urged Americans to reduce their intake of total fat, saturated fat and cholesterol, and to increase their intake of margarine, corn oil, breakfast cereal and skim milk. The AHA also endorsed the work of Ancel Keys, the “Father of the Lipid Hypothesis,” who maintained that dietary cholesterol caused high cholesterol in the body, which in turn led to a higher risk of heart disease.

What’s interesting to note is that, over the past century, heart disease and obesity rates have increased dramatically, despite this “Low Fat” movement. For instance, in 1910, only 1 in 150 (.6%) people was obese, the risk of heart disease was below 10% and the incidence of Type II diabetes about 3%.  Today, nearly 70% of the nation is obese, a child has a 1 in 3 chance of developing Type II diabetes, heart disease is the #1 killer of men and women (affecting nearly half of the nation’s population) and coronary heart disease costs $110 billion per year and rising.

How can a country that has won two World Wars, survived the Cuban Missile Crisis, defeated communism and segregation, put a man on the moon and created the internet not be able to take care of its own health?  Why do we as people follow a dogma that has led to alarming increases in obesity, heart disease and health care costs?  Why is EAT LOW FAT so permanently ingrained in our collective conscious that despite our nation’s growing heart disease, obesity and health care costs, we refuse to examine everything we eat and instead hammer home the message to eat less fat, eat fewer calories and move more?

The following excerpts from Diet Heart News provide a brief history of the “science,” recommendations and nutritional guidelines that have shaped our nation’s view on fat, cholesterol, and heart disease:

1825  French lawyer and gourmand Brillant-Savarin publishes The Physiology of Taste, in which he says he has identified the cure for obesity: “More or less rigid abstinence from everything that is starchy or floury.”

1863  William Banting publishes Letter On Corpulence, Addressed to the Public. Banting had lost 85 pounds on a high fat, carbohydrate-restricted diet.

1910  Butter consumption (a food high in saturated fat) is around 18 pounds per capita. (In 2000, butter consumption went below 4 pounds per year.)

1910  Lifetime risk of type II diabetes is 1 in 30.

1924  The American Heart Association is formed.

1937  Columbia University biochemists David Rittenberg & Rudolph Schoenheimer demonstrate that dietary cholesterol has very little effect on blood cholesterol.

1945  American Heart Association donations total $100,000.

1950  Using a newly invented one-of-a-kind centrifuge, University of California medical scientist John Gofman discovers several fat-like substances circulating in the blood, including LDL and VLDL. At this time – 60 years ago – he reported that total cholesterol (TC) was a “dangerously poor predictor” of heart disease!

1951  The Practice of Endocrinology, a textbook published by seven prominent British clinicians, comes to nearly the same weight loss recommendations as Banting’s: Avoid bread and everything else made with flour; cereals, including breakfast cereals and milk puddings; potatoes and all other root vegetables; foods containing sugar and all sweets.

1953 Ancel Keys publishes his Seven Country Analysis that shows an association to his theory that dietary fat leads to high cholesterol and high cholesterol leads to heart disease.  Keys studied 22 countries.  He ignored the results of the other 15 countries.

1955  John Gofman reports that carbohydrates elevate VLDL – the lipoprotein that transports blood fats (triglycerides) made in the liver from excess carbohydrates. Gofman wrote, “Restricting carbohydrates would lower VLDL.” Excess carbs = elevated triglycerides = more VLDL = increased risk of heart disease. John Peters, Yale School of Medicine, using a new analytical centrifuge, was able to quantify the triglyceride concentration in VLDL, confirming the work of Gofman.

1956 Framingham Heart Study, the world’s largest epidemiological study to discover common characteristics of heart disease begins.  It will also become the cornerstone for insurance companies and doctors to use when assessing cardiovascular disease risk.

1957  Hilde Bruch, the foremost authority on childhood obesity writes:  “The great progress in dietary control of obesity was the recognition that meat was not fat producing; but that it was bread and sweets which lead to obesity.”

1960 Jack LaLanne starts his career as America’s only fitness guru.

1961  American Heart Association raises $35 million dollars and officially adopts AHA board member Ancel Keys’ low fat diet. In January 1961, Ancel Keys is on the cover of Time Magazine.

1961  After 5 years of data, the Framingham Heart Study publishes that men under 50 with elevated cholesterol were at greater risk of heart disease.  They were also more likely to smoke, be overweight and not exercise. These become the well-known Framingham Risk Factors still used today by doctors and insurance companies. High blood sugar was noted but not published! And for men over 50, “there was no association between elevated cholesterol and heart disease!”

1961  Pete Ahrens of Rockefeller University and Margaret Albrink of Yale report that elevated triglycerides are associated with increased risk of heart disease and that low fat, high carbohydrate diets elevate triglycerides.  Carbs – not fat – increase the risk of heart disease.

1967  In the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), Peter Kuo, University of Pennsylvania, reports that of 286 atherosclerosis patients who had been referred to him, 90 percent had elevated triglycerides. The research was ignored.

1970  Margaret Albrink, Peter Kuo, Lars Carlson, and Joseph Goldstein report that elevated triglycerides (TG) were more common in heart disease patients than cholesterol! They confirmed that the majority of people with heart disease have what Gofman called “Carbohydrate Induced Lipemia.”

1972  Dr. Robert C. Atkins publishes Diet Revolution advocating a high fat diet for weight loss. Atkins sells a million copies in 6 months. Atkins first learned about the value of a high fat diet for weight loss in an article authored by Dr. Alfred Pennington in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).

1973  American Medical Association (AMA) attacks Dr. Atkins calling his high fat diet a “dangerous fraud.” Atkins defends himself before a congressional committee.

1974  Framingham Heart Study (24 years). Men with cholesterol levels below 190 mg/dl were three times more likely to get colon cancer as men with cholesterol over 220 mg/dl! In Framingham, there was a strong association between low cholesterol and premature death. Also, there was no relationship between elevated cholesterol and sudden death. 

1976  Nathan Pritikin opens his first “low fat” Longevity Center. One attendee is U.S. Senator George McGovern (Democrat, SD). Although he dropped out of the Pritikin program, Senator McGovern was convinced that fat made us fat and was responsible for “killer diseases” like cancer and heart disease.

1976  Senator George McGovern’s bipartisan, extra legislative Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs conducts 2 days of contentious hearings on “Diet and Killer Diseases.” Staffers are lawyers and ex-journalists without scientific training. In Good Calories, Bad Calories, Gary Taubes reports that McGovern and his staff went into the hearings strongly biased in favor of Keys’ anti-fat hypothesis.

1977  Nick Mottern writes the first Dietary Goals for the United States.  Mottern’s mentors include Ancel Keys.  Mottern is a vegetarian.

1980  U.S. Department of Agriculture releases the official first ever low fat Dietary Guidelines for Americans. In bold face on the cover:  “EAT LESS FAT, SATURATED FAT, AND CHOLESTEROL.” Keys’ still unproven hypothesis that dietary fat was the cause of heart disease becomes the cornerstone of U.S. nutrition policies and education.

1980  Obesity rates begin to climb.

1982  Two years after the passage of low fat Dietary Guidelines, a major study fails to prove that low fat diets were safe or effective.

1984  Anthony Gotto, president of the American Heart Association, says, “If everyone went ahead with cholesterol-lowering, we will conquer atherosclerosis by the year 2000.”Although millions of people are taking cholesterol-lowering statin drugs, the incidence of heart disease has not gone down as promised!  We are still waiting!

1986  The NIH and the American Heart Association establish the National Cholesterol Education Program. Guidelines are issued the following year. For the first time blood cholesterol over 200 mg/dl is treated as a disease. Cereal companies, vegetable oil interests, and the American Medical Association eagerly join the long-awaited “War on Cholesterol.”

1986  The FDA says there is “no conclusive evidence” that sugar causes chronic disease.Since that time, the government has not funded any studies to test the hypothesis!

1986   Japanese physicians warn that low blood cholesterol levels are strongly associated with strokes, the #1 cause of death in Japan.  Furthermore, as more fat in the diet increased, the incidence of deadly strokes declined.

1987  Framingham Study after 14 years: “Framingham residents whose cholesterol levels declined over the first 14 years were more likely to die prematurely of heart disease and cancer than those whose cholesterol remained the same or increased.”  The findings are ignored!

1988  Surgeon General’s Report on Nutrition and Health is released with the following recommendation:  “Highest priority is given to reducing fat intake.”

1989  After 20 years researching carbohydrate metabolism, Gerald Reavan, MD, University of California, announces his discovery of “Syndrome X,” now referred to as Metabolic Syndrome or diabetes-related heart disease. Syndrome X is a cluster of abnormalities, including high blood sugar, high insulin levels, elevated triglycerides, and depressed levels of protective HDL. In his book Syndrome X, Dr. Reaven said theculprit in heart disease is excess sugar and excess easily-digested carbohydrates – not red meat. 

1997  “There’s no connection whatsoever between cholesterol in food and cholesterol in blood…And we’ve known that all along.” – Ancel Keys, Father of the Lipid Hypothesis

1999  At the 14 year point in the Harvard Nurses Study, 3,000 nurses had developed cancer. According to study leader Walter Willett, the less fat the nurses ate the greater their risk of cancer. Willet said, “Saturated fat seems to be protective….” Even though dietary fat was exonerated, the American Cancer Society continues to blame red meat and fat on cancer – not sugar or excess carbohydrates.

2000  Over $1 billion spent on trials focusing on lowering LDL cholesterol.  Little or no money spent researching added sugars, omega-6 industrial seed oils (vegetable oils) or the official low fat diet. Sugar consumption in the US: 150 lbs. per capita. Butter consumption: < 4 lbs. per capita.

2008  With the 2010 Dietary Guideline revision process approaching, the Corn Growers Association is spending $20 to $30 million on an 18 month TV ad campaign “targeting mothers” with the reassuring message that high fructose corn syrup (processed sugar with a significantly higher concentration of fructose) is perfectly okay for toddlers and children – young citizens whose lifetime risk of diabetes is now 1 in 3.

2010  The 2010 Dietary Guidelines continue their low fat = good health mantra. Unlike the media intensity over “health care reform,” the 13-member Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee (DGAC) conducted its business behind closed doors. Though the DGAC is charged with basing their revision on the “preponderance of the scientific and medical evidence,” the evidence in favor of a higher fat diet was simply ignored.

2013  In Dallas, the American Heart Association is inviting 33,000 cardiac experts – professionals who continue to follow the low fat gospel according to Keys – to their grand annual conference. The city of Dallas has agreed to build a lavish new 1,100 bed “Four Star” hotel. Mr. Phillip Jones, president and CEO of the Dallas Convention & Visitors Bureau, said the event will generate an estimated $86 million for the city of Dallas. The AHA has assets over $1 billion. The CEO earns over $500,000 annually – They continue to promote a low fat dietary guideline.

2013  The lifetime risk of Type II diabetes: 1 in 3. Nearly 70% of the population is overweight or obese.  Heart disease is the #1 killer of men and women. Coronary Heart Disease Costs $110 billion a year. Health and Fitness clubs generate $26 billion in revenue. There are over 300,000 fitness “experts.”

As you can see from the timeline, there has been plenty of opposition to the dietary recommendations we currently have from notable and prominent researchers and universities.  Even the man who started it all, Ancel Keys, has admitted there is no connection between dietary cholesterol and heart disease.  Recommendations we currently have from the statistics speak for themselves; over the past 50 years, there has been a dramatic increase in the incidence rate and the mortality rate of heart disease. The current recommendation to eat less fat to reduce heart disease has not worked!

We will continue to discuss the topic of cholesterol in upcoming posts, including why low cholesterol could potentially be problematic. Stay tuned….”

*Credit to Diet Heart News for supplying several historical points highlighted in this blog post.  See full article here.

Read the rest of this series:

Take Control of Your Health

Part 2 – The Truth About Cholesterol: Where Did We Go Wrong?

Part 3 – Why We Need Cholesterol

Part 4 – High Cholesterol vs. Low Cholesterol

Part 5 – Cholesterol Does Not Cause Heart Disease.

Welcome to our continuing series called “Cholesterol: Is it Really That Bad?”  Check out the first post of our series, called The Truth About Cholesterol: Where Did We Go Wrong? Today’s post will answer the question of why we need cholesterol.

In the year 1871, a small spark in Chicago ignited The Great Fire that would eventually destroy the city and require the rebuilding of entirely new structures and roadways. It took thousands of firemen and a heavy downpour of rain to put out the flames. How could such a small spark ignite such massive destruction? Was it because the wooden buildings in the city were hastily and poorly built due to an exploding population? Was it the hot weather and summer-long drought that made the structures perfect kindling for a fire? Or was it those pesky firemen who showed up? Naturally, we would say the firemen weren’t the cause.

Believe it or not, this analogy helps us explain cholesterol’s role in heart disease and inflammation. Misinformation has led us to believe cholesterol is the enemy, wreaking havoc in our systems and setting off the destruction of heart disease and inflammation. Rather, cholesterol’s true role in the body is to “douse the flames” by healing inflammation in our arteries and veins.

WE NEED TO CLEAR UP WHAT CHOLESTEROL IS, AND WHAT IT ISN’T.
 
Cholesterol, chemically speaking, is a combination of a steroid ring structure and a hydroxyl group (alcohol). There is no fat in cholesterol.  Cholesterol is made in the liver and lipoproteins such as LDL (low density lipoprotein) transport the cholesterol from the liver to our body’s cells.  Cholesterol is found inside the LDL and HDL transporters so to speak.  Now our bodies NEED cholesterol and without it we will die.  Cholesterol is involved in:

• Making and repairing new cells
• Repairing nerves
• Synthesizing steroid hormones (testosterone, estrogen, cortisol, DHEA, progesterone)
• Making Vitamin D
• Stabilizing cell membranes
• Regulating homeostasis
• Improving memory
• Boosting serotonin (happy hormone)
• Making bile for fat emulsification and digestion
• Preventing hemorrhagic strokes
• Providing antioxidant properties
• Protecting the body’s immune system

ALSO, DID YOU KNOW?

When we eat and digest our food, cholesterol is the only thing that is separated and filtered out by the lymph nodes and taken to the big vein that leads into the heart…in other words, our HEART NEEDS CHOLESTEROL.*

The brain contains only 2% of the body’s mass yet holds 25% of the body’s cholesterol…in other words our BRAIN NEEDS CHOLESTEROL.*

SO IF CHOLESTEROL IS SO IMPORTANT FOR OUR BODIES, WHY IS EVERYONE SO SCARED OF IT?

(image source)

When autopsies are done, and plaque is found in arteries and veins, there is going to be cholesterol present.  However, correlation doesn’t imply causation. This is why the above picture is so frightening.  I know I don’t want any arteries like the one above in by body.  So while the cholesterol does clog the artery it is important to understand it is attempting to heal the inflammation.  A fire is to a fireman as inflammation is to cholesterol; cholesterol is not the root cause of the problem.

WHERE THERE’S SMOKE THERE’S FIRE?
 
Nevertheless, elevated ‘cholesterol,’ specifically LDL particles, can signal that there is indeed something going wrong inside the body.  Remember, LDL is the transporter of cholesterol from the liver to the cells.  Also remember, cholesterol’s job is to repair damage to tissues caused by inflammation (much of which is due to consumption of sugar, refined carbohydrates and processed vegetable oils).

On LDL’s way to repair the inflammation, it does its best to start the healing process.  However, during its travels, the LDL molecule is very fragile and is easily damaged through a process called oxidization.  Oxidization is caused by free radicals, bacteria and viruses found within our body.  So when this transporter, LDL, is damaged, cholesterol can begin to stack up in the blood vessel.  Once the artery or vein is occluded more than 70, 80, or 90%, a heart attack or stroke is likely to occur.

An interesting study recently revealed that nearly 75% of heart attack victims had normal or low levels of LDL cholesterol.  Additionally, it has been reported by Austrailian author David Gillespie in his book, Toxic Oil, that looking at cholesterol numbers yields roughly a 50/50 chance at predicting heart disease yet when oxidized LDL particles are measured there is an 82% chance of predicting heart disease.

Therefore, our recommendation at The Exercise Coach® is to reduce the inflammation that leads to this plaque build-up in the arteries, rather than fear dietary cholesterol. And reducing inflammation is precisely what our exercise and nutrition program is designed to do!

In the next blog, we will investigate the role that diet and drugs play with cholesterol, and will examine alternative ways to prevent heart disease.

* Source: Stephanie Seneff, Senior Research Scientist, MIT

Read the rest of this series:

Take Control of Your Health

Part 2 – The Truth About Cholesterol: Where Did We Go Wrong?

Part 3 – Why We Need Cholesterol

Part 4 – High Cholesterol vs. Low Cholesterol

Part 5 – Cholesterol Does Not Cause Heart Disease.

Every day, we are bombarded by messages from our doctors, from billion dollar ad and marketing campaigns, from our government creating guidelines and recommendations, and from the myriad of food items (cheerios, pancake mix, even cookies) that claim to be “heart healthy” and “cholesterol free.” It’s us versus the industry—David versus Goliath.

Luckily, we have the ability to think, investigate, ask and discover the most important thing that can set us free from the overwhelming pressure we receive to lower our cholesterol at all costs: the truth.  For instance, the Framingham Heart Study found the following:

• Older people with the lowest cholesterol have some of the highest death rates.
• Elderly people with low cholesterol die more often from heart attacks than those with high cholesterol.
• People of all ages with low cholesterol have higher death rates from gastrointestinal and respiratory diseases.
• Low cholesterol increases the rate of infection.
• People with cholesterol levels below 160 mg/dL are twice as likely to die than those with levels between 160-250.
• Low cholesterol levels have been associated with higher cancer rates in individuals who use statin drugs.

WHO OR WHAT TO BELIEVE?

So, conventional wisdom and modern medicine tell us two things: that high cholesterol leads to heart disease and that low cholesterol will, therefore, reduce your risk of heart disease.

In 1981, normal cholesterol was considered between 150-310 if you were 50 or older. And in the last 30+ years we have seen those recommendations drop from 300 to 240, to 220, to the current 200 total cholesterol recommendation.

It’s appropriate to reiterate that more than 20 randomized, controlled studies show that people with low cholesterol do NOT live as long as those with high cholesterol.  Not only are mortality rates worse for those with low cholesterol, but there are significant side effects that have proven to negatively impact the quality of life.  Low cholesterol has been linked to violence, aggressive behavior and depression due to low serotonin levels. Further, hemorrhagic strokes are twice as likely to occur in people with cholesterol levels below 180 compared to those with total cholesterol at 230.

The bottom line is that low cholesterol doesn’t necessarily improve our health. So to chase a low cholesterol number does not guarantee improved health, nor will it mean improving the quality of your life.

THE MAGIC PILL

Of course, any conversation on cholesterol needs to include a discussion on cholesterol-lowering medications—statins. The truth is that there are many side effects and adverse health consequences to using statins that some consumers may not know about. The following is taken directly from the Lipitor® web site:

• LIPITOR® (atorvastatin calcium) tablets, along with a low-fat diet, is clinically proven to reduce the risk of heart attack, stroke, certain kinds of heart surgeries, and chest pain in patients with heart disease or several common risk factors for heart disease. Common risk factors include family history of heart disease, high blood pressure, age, low HDL (“good”) cholesterol, and smoking.
• LIPITOR®’s objective is to lower cholesterol.
• LIPITOR® (atorvastatin calcium) tablets are not for everyone, including anyone who has previously had an allergic reaction to LIPITOR®. It is not for those with liver problems. And it is not for women who are nursing, pregnant, or may become pregnant.
• If you take LIPITOR® (atorvastatin calcium) tablets, tell your doctor if you feel any new muscle pain or weakness. This could be a sign of rare but serious muscle side effects. Tell your doctor about all your medical conditions and all medications you take. This may help avoid serious drug interactions. Your doctor should do blood tests to check your liver function before starting LIPITOR® and during your treatment if you have symptoms of liver problems. Tell your doctor if you have diabetes. Elevated blood sugar levels have been reported with statins, including LIPITOR®.
• Common side effects are diarrhea, upset stomach, muscle and joint pain, and changes in some blood tests.

Independent research reported in various publications such as the Archives of Internal Medicine, Annals of Internal Medicine, and the Journal of American Heart Association revealed the following side effects from cholesterol-lowering drugs (otherwise known as statins):

• Increased risk of diabetes by 4%
• Increased risk of impotence by 20%
• Muscle and joint pain in nearly 40% of consumers
• Short term and long term memory loss
• Liver and Stomach problems
• Tingling, burning or numbing sensations in the limbs
• Weight gain, mood swings, protein in the urine, irritability

Please keep in mind that the above is for informational purposes only and in no way constitutes medical advice.  Any topic concerning your personal health should be discussed with your doctor.

WHAT TO KNOW…NOW

So if there’s a wide range of potential “normal” cholesterol numbers, and low cholesterol doesn’t guarantee a reduced risk of heart disease or improved mortality rate, how can we tell if our risk of heart disease decreases, and what should we pay attention to on a typical blood test?

Well, a standard blood test includes the following:

LDL cholesterol – The “bad” cholesterol

HDL cholesterol – The “good” cholesterol

Total cholesterol = LDL + HDL + Triglycerides/5

Triglycerides – Indicates fat accumulation in blood

Fasting Blood Sugar – Indicates sugar accumulation in blood

The truth is, the ratio between Triglycerides to HDL cholesterol has been proven to be the best indicator of heart disease .  Ideally, that ratio should be below 2:1 of triglycerides to HDL, which would give you a better picture of your coronary health.

It is also important to note that triglyceride levels are more related to carbohydrate intake than fat intake. Whatever sugar the body can’t use is taken into the liver and converted into triglycerides, which leads to excess fat on our bodies and in our blood.

To contrast with cholesterol, remember that only 20% of cholesterol is affected by our diet while the remaining 80% is made by our body which is greatly influenced by our genetics.  Furthermore, not only are LDL and HDL cholesterol numbers ‘estimates’ (link to above explanation), but there are actually several different classification or types of LDL cholesterol.  This is a relatively new idea as the recognition of various types of LDL cholesterol, and the testing for it, first began ‘only’ about 30 years ago.  What is known, however, is that there are different types or patterns of LDL particles and these are not differentiated on a typical blood test.  This means one can have a really high LDL number but if those LDL particles are comprised of the benign and harmless Pattern A type there is NO cause for concern.  It is the smaller, denser Pattern B particles that pose the risk to heart health.  [To test for the pattern type of LDL cholesterol you have, ask your doctor for a VAP test or NMR lipoprofile test.]

The purpose of these informational posts is to shine light on information often overlooked or not as well known.  We want to arm people with information to help and improve the quality of their life.  Most people just don’t know the risks with low cholesterol, or better ways to interpret a standard blood test, or that there are even different types of LDL particles.  In the war we wage for health, it becomes increasingly difficult to sift through the barrage of misinformation coming at us from all directions, even from those who are well-intentioned.   But that’s what we will do–provide truthful and factual information to empower our members to improve the quality of their lives.  In essence, we want to give David better chances to defeat Goliath (or at least to know which of Goliath’s nutritional messages we should be listening to

Read the rest of this series:

Take Control of Your Health

Part 2 – The Truth About Cholesterol: Where Did We Go Wrong?

Part 3 – Why We Need Cholesterol

Part 4 – High Cholesterol vs. Low Cholesterol

Part 5 – Cholesterol Does Not Cause Heart Disease.