Understanding cholesterol labs

As for LDL being “bad,” this idea is also oversimplified. There are actually two types of LDL: small dense LDL and large buoyant LDL. Small dense LDL particles are like little darts that tear holes in the lining of blood vessels, but large buoyant LDL particles are like large fluffy balls. They can’t do any damage and may actually prevent the small dense LDL from causing damage. For this reason, a simplistic cholesterol test that does not separate out these two types of LDL cholesterol cannot predict your risk. 

So what does predict heart attack and stroke? We know the answer to this question – these are the bio-markers that actually predict heart attack and stroke:

• Low HDL “good” cholesterol
• High triglycerides, which can reflect a diet high in sugar and refined carbohydrates.
• High levels of small dense LDL

So as you can see, cholesterol is involved – just not at all in the way we thought, and the only way to truly assess risk is to run different, more comprehensive tests. I run a blood test on my patients called the NMR (Nuclear Magnetic Resonance) that tells me if they have more small dense LDL or large buoyant LDL. We also look at inflammation which is an underlying cause of heart disease that has nothing to do with cholesterol, and we look at chronic disease as a whole, which is a measure of general health and vitality.

There are three other significant predictors of heart attack and stroke related to inflammation:

• CRP: C-Reactive Protein is an inflammatory protein and the test measures it along with IL-6, (3) another pro-inflammatory protein. They are both linked to chronic inflammatory health problems. Optimal Range: < 0.5 mg/L
• Homocysteine: This inflammatory amino acid is linked to heart disease, destruction of the blood-brain barrier, (4) and dementia. This is also commonly elevated in people with autoimmune problems. Optimal Range: < 7 Umol/L
• Ferritin: Normally used to check for stored iron levels in cases of suspected anemia, it is also considered to be an acute phase reactant, and when high, it’s a sign (5) of inflammation. Optimal Range: Men: 33-236 ng/mL; Premenopausal women: 10-122 ng/mL; Postmenopausal women: 10-263 ng/mL

I run these three blood tests on my patients to determine the patient’s level of inflammation. When inflammation is high, that is when I know we need to intervene to reduce the risk of heart disease.

What really causes heart disease?

While cholesterol is not the heart disease culprit, there are some dietary demons that likely do contribute significantly to heart disease risk. Populations with diets high in saturated fats and low in what Weston A. Price referred to as the “displacing foods of modern commerce” – like white flour, white sugar, white rice, and vegetable oil – don’t have the rates of chronic disease that we see in the United States. The legitimate, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled studies are clear: A low-fat, low-cholesterol diet is not the answer to decreasing heart disease. In fact, this diet has been shown to increase triglycerides, decrease HDL, and increase small dense LDL and inflammation – all of the factors for a heart attack or stroke!

How to prevent heart disease

Avoiding processed foods and focusing on whole natural foods means giving yourself a better chance of avoiding heart disease. Here are three dietary changes to make today, in service of a stronger and healthier heart.

1. Remove inflammatory fats and replace them with heart-healthy fats

Certain fats really do harm your health, but they may not be the fats you think they are. “Bad” fats include hydrogenated and partially hydrogenated oils, trans fats, and polyunsaturated industrial seed oils such as corn, vegetable, soy, and canola oil. These are all linked to cellular congestion and inflammation, which can lead to chronic diseases like heart disease.

Science shows this. The Sydney Diet Heart study (6) found that a diet rich in polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) increases mortality by 39 percent. The top three sources of calories for Americans today are refined carbs, vegetable oils (PUFAs), and corn syrup – three things our healthy ancestors never even heard of. Is there any question as to why heart disease is an epidemic?

By contrast, diets high in saturated fats and cholesterol don’t raise blood cholesterol levels in most people, and even when they do, they tend to raise the levels of the large buoyant “fluffy” type of LDL cholesterol, which we learned in my last article are protective, not harmful! 

A University of Connecticut study (7) showed that eating three eggs a day decreased small dense LDL by almost 20 percent. Some of my favorite sources of good fats are coconut oil, avocados, local farmed eggs, kefir, ghee, organic butter, grass-fed raw milk, and raw nuts and seeds.

3. Choose better meat

Not all meat is bad. What separates good meat from bad meat is quality. There are hundreds of studies that link commercial meat (i.e., industrial farm lot meat) to heart disease. Surprisingly, this could be due to grain (many of them genetically modified) fed to these animals. This sub-standard cattle diet changes the fatty acid ratios in the meat, denaturing good fats and making the meat more inflammatory. This leads to chronic disease like heart disease.

These factory farmed cattle are also typically pumped full of hormones and antibiotics. The inflammatory toxins accumulate in the fat. This is how to turn a nutritious food into a food that raises disease risk. But it isn’t the animal fat per se that is the problem. It’s what we’ve done to it. When you choose grass-fed beef and organic chicken, you avoid this problem. Fat from these animals is benign. If you can’t find these products, choose the leanest meat possible, to avoid the accumulation of toxins and other inflammatory properties in the animal fat.

3. Remove all processed grains and refined sugars

Now for the final and significant culprit! What we’ve done as a society to our grain supply is contributing to the deaths of millions. The genetic modification, refining, hybridization for more starch and sugar content, and all-around defiling of most grains with pesticides and desiccants, makes it difficult to get a good source of this once healthy food (which, by the way, our ancestors ate in extremely small quantities compared to the way we eat grains in our world today). As alternatives to products made with industrial wheat and corn, try organic quinoa and wild rice, both good grain options thanks to their high nutrient density and the fact that they don’t typically trigger the inflammatory response that most grains cause.

And what about sugar? This anti-nutrient offers insignificant amounts of vitamins and minerals, but simultaneously robs your body of nutrient stores. This can lead to chronic diseases such as heart disease. High glycemic or refined sugar causes elevated glucose levels, resulting in insulin spikes that can lead to premature aging and degenerative diseases such as heart disease, diabetes, and cancer.

The Inevitable Demise of the Lie

How have all the myths and lies surrounding cholesterol survived, despite all the evidence to the contrary? Sadly, eight out of nine doctors who write the National Cholesterol Guidelines receive money from the pharmaceutical industry, I’d say that was a conflict of interest. Also, two-thirds of all medical research is funded by those pharmaceutical companies. The market for statin drugs is over $25 billion per year and is the largest drug company in the world! 

There is money and power in keeping the population in a direct battle with heart disease, and while it would be a daunting task to try and change the entire billion-dollar cholesterol drug racket and government-subsidized junk food monopoly, you can change your own destiny.

It’s my goal to impact people’s health on an individual basis. Elevating people’s minds and health (and hearts) is my passion and I believe this prioritizing of health over profit must be a part of the future of evidence-based natural health.

As one of the first functional medicine telehealth clinics in the world, we provide webcam health consultations for people around the globe.

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