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Cholesterol skeptic : Cooked vegetable oil : the potential culprit

Low HDL link to cancer

Cholesterol was the dominant topic of the two-day event, as well as the subject of the opening lecture provocatively entitled, "High Cholesterol Protects Against Disease." Uffe Ravnskov, MD, PhD, a Danish physician who has published many critical papers about the purported association between cholesterol and cardiovascular disease, led off with a slide showing the results of all the major clinical trials that attempted to prove that lowering cholesterol in healthy but high-risk people would reduce their death rate from heart disease. "The reduced rates of cardiovascular mortality were small for men and non-existent for women," said Dr. Ravnskov, who is the author of The Cholesterol Myths, a paperback that refutes the theory that cholesterol in our food and in our blood causes heart disease.

These cholesterol trials also looked at total mortality, that is, the deaths from all causes, and found little difference between the study participants who tried to lower their cholesterol and those who did not. In other words, some clinical trials showed that the heart disease death rates were, in fact, lower among men who had reduced their cholesterol levels. But this benefit was offset by a higher rate of deaths from other causes.

When studies failed to prove that lowering cholesterol made any lifesaving difference, researchers forged ahead with more multi-million dollar clinical trials. Not until the statin drugs (Lipitor, Mevacor, Zocor, Lescol, Crestor, Advicor) came along did cholesterol-lowering finally prove to be lifesaving to high-risk but healthy people. Whether this benefit might actually be due to the anti-inflammatory effects of statins has been the topic of controversy ever since.

As with several of the speakers who would follow him, Dr. Ravnskov is unimpressed with the reduction in heart disease mortality shown for the statin drugs "When you look at the CARE trial [Cholesterol And Recurrent Events], Pravachol did show a small benefit--after five years 5.7% had died from heart disease in the [untreated] control group, compared to only 4.6% in the treatment group, but [this benefit] was not dose related." he said, referring to the expectation that the more a person lowers his or her* cholesterol, the less likely a heart-related death. Also, the people taking Pravachol had a few more deaths from other causes. Dr. Ravnskov managed to push the envelope further by making a case for high cholesterol as a protective against cancer. He showed slides listing published studies that found higher rates of infectious disease among hospitalized people with low cholesterol levels. Also, several studies found higher cancer rates in people with low cholesterol levels.

Women told to take statin drugs should be aware of this risk found in the CARE trial: There were 12 cases of breast cancer in the women taking Pravachol, compared with only one case in the untreated (control) group. Statin drug proponents dismissed this worrisome finding as a fluke, said Dr. Ravnskov, because the control group would be expected to have had more than one case of breast cancer.

Dr. Enig is a leading spokesperson for the Weston A. Price Foundation, which sponsored this conference. The foundation is named for a dentist who, beginning in the 1930s, studied the dentition of healthy isolated people untouched by Western civilization. He found that they inevitably had great bone structure and beautiful straight teeth.

Primitive diets were nutrient dense, with four times the calcium and mineral and ten times the level of fat-soluble vitamins, compared to the modern American diet. Dr. Price continued to study these isolated people as Western foods were introduced. The white flour, sugar, devitalized oils, etc., gradually displaced the traditional foods, such as organ meats, fish eggs, and butter from pasture-fed cows. Changes in diet led to rampant tooth decay; narrowing of the face that brought on a susceptibility to sinus infections; narrowing of the pelvis that led to childbirth difficulties; and behavioral problems. Sally Fallon, president of the tax-exempt foundation, told the conference that its goal is to disseminate the research of this "nutrition pioneer. According to the information packet supplied to the conference attendees, the Weston A. Price Foundation takes no food industry funding.

The article implies that we still need good cholesterol for optimal health, not the damaged one from processed food, trans fat, processed/refined caborhydrate and cooked vegetable oil that would cause us heart problem.