by Dr. John Briffa
The Cholesterol Truth
Excerpts:
We’re constantly reminded that having a ‘raised’ cholesterol level puts us in mortal danger of ‘cardiovascular’ diseases such as heart disease and stroke. I was therefore interested to read a brief communication in a recent edition of the Archives of Internal Medicine, which provides evidence that starkly contradicts this idea [1]. It was concerned primarily with the relationship between cholesterol and the risk of stroke in Japan.
One of the points of the piece [1] is that in Japan, cardioembolic strokes are quite common, relatively speaking. And there is some link between low cholesterol levels and a heart rhythm disturbance known as atrial fibrillation. The relevance of this is that atrial fibrillation is a risk factor for clot formation in the heart and cardioembolic stroke. Could an increased risk of cardioembolic stroke associated with low cholesterol outweigh the supposed reduced risk of atherothrombotic stroke? In other words, could the problems associated with low cholesterol outweigh its supposed benefits?
Read the full article here: http://www.thecholesteroltruth.com/could-high-cholesterol-actually-lower-your-ri
