Learn Your Biology Lesson Then You’ll Understand The Cholesterol Bunk

Have you seen some of the recent drug commercials to reduce cholesterol? Zocor or Lipitor are two of the drugs that spend millions on advertising to convince you that taking these drugs will be good for you. But before you make a decision it’s time to learn your biology lesson. Then you’ll be able understand the cholesterol bunk.

Let’s start with biology basics and what cholesterol actually is. Cholesterol is produced mostly by the liver but every cell in the body can actually make cholesterol. The body uses cholesterol to form cholic acid which is used by the body to make bile salts needed for us to digest fat. Cholesterol is also needed for the production of reproductive hormones such as estrogen, testosterone, prenenolone, progesterone, and DHEA. It is also used for the production of adrenal hormones.

Cholesterol makes our skin water proof meaning that not only can water not penetrate it; other substances that could be toxic can also not enter. It also binds the toxins in the blood so that they can be removed from the blood. The removal of these toxins means reduced inflammation of the brain, heart, and nerves.

So at the end of our basic biology lesson we can quickly see that cholesterol is important to the body. So the next logical question would be to ask why cholesterol is shown as being so terribly bad for us.

This cholesterol myth began when scientists were conducting some research and discovered there was a correlation between heart disease and the level of cholesterol in the blood. Now if you took any type of science classes in school you’ll know that a correlation means absolutely nothing, it’s just means that some things happen to appear at the same time.

If this was a court room it would be considered inadmissible evidence. In fact this theory of reducing cholesterol to reduce heart disease is so far fetched it would be rather like having an ingrown toenail removed to treat a brain tumor. Ridiculous!

No one is arguing that if cholesterol levels are too high they need to be addressed but the question is what is considered too high? It seems these numbers continue to be lowered on a regular basis and one has to question whether this is a result of new study results or a billion dollar drug industries desire to sell more drugs.

Not so long ago a normal cholesterol reading was considered anything from 0 to 200. Now it appears that a normal reading is anything from 0 to 169. Stats show that heart disease is not improving despite these cholesterol busting drugs. The number of people diagnosed with heart disease continues to increase even though they are being treated with these drugs.

The drug companies would not want to admit that there drugs are really doing little to benefit their takers so rather they’ve decided these growing numbers have to be because the result of the cholesterol numbers not being set low enough. Besides the lower the numbers the more drugs they can sell.

Why is it that natural health professionals feel that a level anywhere from 175 to 230 are ideal and levels either above 250 or below 150 are considered to need attention? Why is it that LDL and HDL are not used more often to determine the risk of health disease? This is a far superior method of deciding if you are at risk. Or how about the new C-reactive Protein test?

There is no question that cholesterol levels that are too high come with health risks but cholesterol levels that are too low also have health risks.

To date there is no scientific evidence that proves that cholesterol lowering drugs reduce heart disease and what’s worse is that no one seems to be addressing the terrible side effects of these drugs.

The irony is that one of the most serious side effects is an increased risk of heart disease due to the depletion of CoQ10 within the body which is essential to heart health. The depletion of antioxidants in the body also leads to memory loss, fatigue, headache, and trouble sleeping.

Perhaps before you buy into the cholesterol busting drug theory you’ll want to explore the biology of the body more in-depth. Then you can discuss with your doctor in an intelligent way what really is beneficial to you.

Aura Mirchandani is the Editor and Publisher of Article Click. For more FREE articles for your ezine and websites visit ArticleClick.com. Article Click is a free content article directory.