by Dr. Mercola
Spending on cholesterol-lowering drugs like statins increased by $160 million in 2010, for a total spending of nearly $19 billion in the U.S., the IMS Institute for Healthcare Informatics reported in their Use of Medicines in the United States: Review of 2010.
In all, more than 255 million prescriptions were dispensed […]
by Dr. Mercola
One of the most revealing examples of what happens when policy makers are allowed to accept money from drug companies lies in the current U.S. cholesterol guidelines. In 2004, the U.S. government’s National Cholesterol Education Program panel advised those at risk for heart disease to attempt to reduce their […]
by Dr John Briffa
for The Cholesterol Truth
Excerpts:
Suck the water out of brain tissue and what you’re left with is mainly fat. The brain is also very high in cholesterol. This substance actually plays a key role in the normal functioning of the brain. Just these very facts alone might cause us to be wary about driving […]
by Dr. John Briffa
for The Cholesterol Truth
Excerpts:
A recent report from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), in the US, recommends that all children aged 9-11 should be screened for raised cholesterol levels. The report recommended that this should be repeated at age 17-21 too. Last month, the Journal of the American Medical Association […]
Dr John Briffa
The Cholesterol Truth
Excerpts:
It’s the New Year, a time when many of us feel motivated to get fitter and healthier. I’ve noticed that there are television adverts currently doing the rounds encouraging us to eat cholesterol-reducing foods. As I’ve written before, there really is no good evidence that taking dietary steps to reduce […]
Dr John Briffa
for The Cholesterol Truth
Excerpts:
As people age, they can find themselves becoming increasingly forgetful and absent-minded. Some will end up being affected by Alzheimer’s disease or some other form of dementia. I often find that my patients believe that there is quite a lot they can do to maintain and even improve the […]
The Deccan Herald
“Half of all heart attack victims have normal cholesterol levels”
— The Harvard Medical School Family Health Guide
Recently, a 43 year old local doctor who was also a fitness freak and had no history of heart disease, collapsed while jogging on the treadmill and died of a massive heart attack.
Cardiologists […]
by Jeanne Lenzer
New America Foundation
Jeanne Lenzer is a former Knight Science Journalism Fellow and a frequent contributor to BMJ, and has published works in The Atlantic, The New York Times Magazine, Discover, The New Republic, and other outlets.
When doctors recommend tests, drugs or surgeries to prevent bad outcomes (think cholesterol-lowering agents to prevent strokes […]
by Dr John Briffa
The Cholesterol Truth
Excerpts:
Cholesterol is transported in the bloodstream in two principle forms: LDL-cholesterol (LDL) and HDL-cholesterol (HDL). LDL is said to be the form of cholesterol responsible for depositing on the inside of the arteries and is therefore often dubbed ‘bad’ cholesterol. HDL cholesterol, on the other hand, is said to be […]
by Bob Kaplan
winchester.patch.com
“If you eat too much [saturated fat], then over time fatty deposits can build up in your arteries, and this increases your risk of heart disease,” says an advertisement by the Food Standards Agency (FSA) in the United Kingdom.
Sound familiar? If it does, then you have […]
by Dr John Briffa
for The Cholesterol Truth
Excerpts:
When individuals have their cholesterol checked by a doctor, whether the levels are deemed ‘raised’ or not depends on guidelines usually decided by panels of doctors and scientists. One thing I’ve noticed in my time in medicine is that, over the years, what is regarded as the upper limit […]
by Dr. Mercola
Could it be possible that nearly everything your doctor and the media is telling you about high cholesterol and how it relates to heart disease and strokes is wrong?
Absolutely!
The media and health experts have been giving out massive misinformation about cholesterol. In a thought-provoking two-part series, Dr. Ernest N. […]
By Dr. Stephanie Seneff
Mercola.com
Just about everyone in America is convinced of two well-established tenets for how to live a long and healthy life:
Eat a low-fat diet
Avoid the damaging rays of the sun
My goal in this essay is to convince you that these two tenets, […]
by Dr. Mercola
Dr. Stephanie Seneff is a senior research scientist at MIT where she has been conducting research in computer science for over three decades. She also has an undergraduate degree in biology from MIT, and a minor in food and nutrition. She’s affiliated with the Weston A. Price Foundation […]
by Dr John Briffa,
The Cholesterol truth
Excerpts:
A couple of weeks ago my blog post featured some research which found no association between total cholesterol levels and heart disease in a huge sample of individuals living in England. Moreover, this research found that higher levels of cholesterol were associated with a reduced risk of death due […]
by Dr. John Briffa
The Cholesterol Truth
Excerpts:
I had a patient in my practice this week who was seeking advice about the prevention of heart disease. He’d been on a statin for several years, and then started to get what he felt might be side-effects.
He stopped the statin and the side-effects went away. As he rightly […]
by Dr John Briffa
for the Cholesterol Truth
Excerpts:
This week’s New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) contains an interesting editorial from Dr. Eric Topol [1]. The editorial focuses on the drug nesiritide (Natrecor) used to treat heart failure (where heart function is weak and can cause symptoms such as fatigue and breathlessness, and ultimately lead to death). […]
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 […]
by Robert Nool
Nutritiopedia
Let’s make one thing clear – when someone is going to lower carbohydrate content in their diet, they should replace it mostly with fat, not protein. Eating a lot of protein with little fat and carbs may be a short term strategy for initiating fat loss, but not a healthy way of […]
by Dr. John Briffe
The Cholesterol Truth
Excerpts:
Listen to the advice given by many doctors and scientists, and you’d soon believe that cholesterol is a killer substance that needs to be tamed. Yet, the reality is that it’s a natural substance, present in every cell membrane in your body and essential for […]
