Your Doctor Knows What (S)He's Doing 1

This week, we are going to look at the most common things doctors do to line their wallets and "avoid unnecessary liability risks in diagnosis and prescription of medications." Naturally, these missed diagnoses and faulty advice result in unnecessary prescriptions for people or faulty courses of "corrective action."

In other words, what the doctor says is not always accurate. 

There are two possible reasons the doctors are so inaccurate: either they are voluntarily being insidious for their own gain, or they simply do not know any better. By the way, inaccuracies also come from the nursing community: Registered Nurses and Nurse-Practitioners, as well as Physicians' Assistants will all spout the same Bovine Scatology. But why?

Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity. - Hanlon's razor
Or... in this case... faulty training. The paradox of why so many medical professionals stick to false knowledge is not easily explained by malice. It is easily explained by inaccurate teaching being done in medical training schools, as well as inaccurate studies being accepted as "science" by the American Medical Association. 



Today's topic: CHOLESTEROL


People with increasingly lower levels of cholesterol are being "diagnosed" with "high cholesterol" - primarily so they can be prescribed drugs called "statins." The whole premise behind the prescription of a statin is riddled with errors.

Back in the 1970's, doctors didn't even begin to think "high cholesterol" until a person's total cholesterol numbers were in excess of 350. Today, they will call readings in the 170's "elevated." Yet, to date, nobody has ever died of high cholesterol.

Why the change?
Surely, it couldn't be to sell more drugs? Naw.

Some real facts about cholesterol:
Most doctors don't even run particle size tests.
"High" cholesterol has never killed anybody.
Your body manufactures over 75% of the cholesterol found in your blood.
Statins do not change the real root problems of truly elevated cholesterol.
Cholesterol does not cause heart disease.

From this link:

The American Heart Association recommends that your total cholesterol is less than 200 mg/dL, but what they do not tell you is that total cholesterol level is just about worthless in determining your risk for heart disease, unless it is above 330.

Cholesterol levels are, in fact, elevated... but Americans consume more "heart healthy," "low cholesterol," and "low fat" foods than at any time in history. We are also consuming more grains than any humans have at any time in history. Most of those grains are genetically modified.


Some Rational Conclusions
So, if your body produces cholesterol, and cholesterol is not a killer in and of itself, and if you have truly high cholesterol (over 350) or dangerous particle sizes, then what does that mean?
It means there is some reason your body is doing harm to itself.
Typically, that means your diet and exercise is lacking.
I'd try a high fat, low carb diet (HFLC). Paleo / Primal / Fat resistant / etc.

Here are some cholesterol myths you should learn.



Personal anecdotes:
When I was diagnosed with diabetes, my cholesterol was "high" at 205.
After a year on the Primal Diet, my cholesterol was 173. More importantly, my HDL was way up, my LDL particle size was darn near perfect, and my Vitamin D levels were good.

My brother in law was "diagnosed" with high cholesterol after a reading of 253.
The year prior, his cholesterol had been 204. He had eaten all the "heart healthy" and "low cholesterol" foods for a year. That really "helped."
He asked me about primal diet. He decided to start eating eggs and meat again.
After 90 days of eating whole eggs (cooked in real butter) 5 days a week, plus following HFLC type diet, his cholesterol was 169.


Personal thoughts:
I would never take a statin.
I would never take cholesterol advice from a doctor who did not perform particle size tests.
I would never take cholesterol advice from a doctor who did not run a vitamin D test.
I would never consider someone's cholesterol to be "high" unless it was over 350.
I would never take cholesterol advice from a doctor who advocates eating grains - whole grains or otherwise.


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