Here’s The Truth About Cholesterol
“Better Health Begins At The Cell.” -Dr. Bill Cole
(If you have or suspect you might have thyroid related problems go to ColeClass.com and watch the short video (about 23 minutes) that I made for you. It’s free… You don’t even have to give me your email.)
Hey guys, I want to talk with you today about the test that I see in my office that freaks people out the most. What do you think it is? What blood test do people focus on more than any other blood test? If you guessed cholesterol, you would have guessed right. It’s the one thing that we’ve been trained since we have been young to believe is a major problem in terms of causing heart attacks and strokes, and you know, we’re eating low cholesterol, low fat-type diets.
In reality, where are we? Well, we’ve been trying to run away from fat since the 1960s. We’re fatter than ever as a nation. We have over 600,000 of us dying from heart attacks. You throw strokes into it, it’s over 800,000 dying every year from cardiovascular-type situations.
So, you know, cholesterol has been the focus, but it’s not working because your total cholesterol number is not a good number to tell us whether or not you have a greater chance of having a cardiovascular event. The truth of the matter is there’s something more important. That is the relationship, or the ratio, between cholesterol, HDL (high-density lipoproteins), and your LDL (low-density lipoproteins) numbers in total.
So, when I look at a blood test, I’m not just looking at cholesterol. I’m looking at the HDL and the ratio between cholesterol and the HDL. That ratio should be 3 or under. Anything in that ballpark, and you’re talking about something that’s heart protected. Anything over that, and you start running more of a risk. So, why is that? Because HDL, which by the way your medical doctor probably would be satisfied if it’s above 30-ish, we’re saying you need to be between 60 and 70, even higher, to get this heart protective mechanism that goes with a higher HDL number.
Well, it’s because your HDL acts like Scrubbing Bubbles. They’re like a wheelbarrow. They just carry away the bad stuff, the bad cholesterol (LDL), and help remove the plaque from our arteries. So, it’s really important that we have a high HDL number, but because of what we’re doing in our lives, because of how chronically inflamed we are, we wind up seeing HDL numbers down in the basement.
I want to give you an example of what I’m talking about. You can have a person come in, and they’ll have a 210 cholesterol, let’s say, which is above what the doctors would consider being healthy. They might even at that point be wanting to put somebody on a statin drug. But let’s say that their HDL number’s at 70. So, when you take the ratio between 210 and 70, and divide that, you’re only talking a ratio of 3. And then like I said, anything from three and under is considered to be heart protective, right?
You can have another person who has a cholesterol down of 150, well within the acceptable range. They may be on a statin drug to achieve that, but let’s say they have an HDL number of only 25. Well, which of those two patients is going to more at risk? The person with the cholesterol at 210 or the person with the cholesterol at 150? When you factor in the HDL, the person who is at 150 is at much greater risk because their ratio is 6. It’s double what it should be.
And so, you can see that just looking at cholesterol by itself is not a good indicator. There are things like C-reactive protein, which is an inflammatory marker in the body, that is also really indicative. When I see somebody with a low HDL, almost inevitably their C-reactive protein is creeping up. Sometimes it’s really high, and when that number is high, you’re really increasing your risk for a future cardiovascular type of an event.
The question is how do I get my HDL up? How do I get this protective ingredient, this cholesterol, in my body that’s going to make a difference in terms of whether I have some sort of a heart attack or a stroke? Well, the way we do that is with a healthy diet. We want to increase healthy fats. We want to eliminate the bad fats, right? Getting rid of your cooking oils such as vegetable oil, corn oil, canola oil, margarine. These trans fats are going to create a whole separate set of problems, and they’re going to create inflammation in the body. There is that relationship that I just described.
But there are six supplements that we focus on in addition to the change in the diet to an anti-inflammatory diet. Niacin, L-carnitine, Taurine, Magnesium, Phosphatidylcholine, and Vitamin E. When we’re utilizing those supplements to help raise up the HDL number in addition to a good diet, then we can predictably see results.
But if you really want to be more exact, then I would go to your doctor and ask him to do a cardio ION test. We use Genova Labs, and that cardio ION test is really a tremendous blueprint for cardiovascular health. It gets rid of the guesswork, shows you where you’re deficient, and allows you to then focus on these deficiencies to help raise that all so important HDL number in your body.
So, when you go to your doctor, and you ask him, “Hey Doc, how do I get my HDL up?” And his answer is, “Put you on a statin,” you know you’re going to be talking to somebody that does not really understand the root cause of why HDL numbers would be low to begin with.
I hope this helps.
Take care, guys. God bless.
