What You’re Up Against, Again
Everybody knows that "good cholesterol" is good, right? Well, actually, none of you probably know that. You've heard it reported, your doctor has told you so, and so you believe that "good cholesterol" is actually good. Pay attention, because that's not a trivial distinction and it has broad implications in all manner of knowledge.
So, on the heals of my summary of the Cholesterol Con, there's this:
High Levels of "Good" Cholesterol May Be a Bad Thing
A Dutch research study suggests that high levels of "good" HDL cholesterol are
not so good – in fact, they may actually increase the risk of a cardiovascular
event.
Peter, the UK veterinarian of Hyperlipid runs down the details (thought: could veterinarians in general be smarter than doctors for humans, having to deal with the biology and metabolism of multiple species, thus having a more generalized — indeed principled — approach to medicine?). I think he gets to the bottom line.
Are you seeing a pattern here? It all comes down to particle numbers,
sizes, contents. What controls all of these? Not statin deficiencies,
as in IDEAL.Forget your cholesterol. What marker predicts heart attacks and total mortality without all of the paradoxes?
Follow EPIC and HbA1c
(yes, same that same EPIC study as this one) to get some sort of clue.
Control what you are doing wrong diet/lifestyle-wise to glycosylate
your haemoglobin and your liver will sort out whatever cholesterol
particles sizes/numbers it needs for health.
Be sure and follow that link in his quote, above. And here's another word of advice. It's a good idea to educate yourself on how to read these studies and understand them, or at least get a general idea. It takes a little time and effort, but it builds on itself, just like the more you learn of a language, the more you are equipped to learn even more, faster. The information is out there, and much of what I've been posting about is how this stuff gets misreported — or not reported at all — when it conflicts with the received public catechism. Ultimately, nobody is really going to care about your health. But you can, and the information is out there.
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There are numerous studies indicating what is good and what is bad and sometimes all these studies are real contradicting. Like what Jim Rohn says, a doctor may ask you to eat certain thing and you will live forever and another doctor will advise you not to eat it as it will kill you. Which doctor should we listen to? Well, I think we have to collect both information and make our own judgment since this world is full of contradictory statements.