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Women and Cholesterol
The guidelines developed for cholesterol, were based on study trials where (on average) 80% of the participants were males, and the majority had diagnosed heart and cardiovascular problems.
An interesting article was written in the USA media Newsday as far back as 6 July 2004 which highlighted the concern, and yet very little has been done since that time to educate doctors not to prescribe statin drugs to women.
Dr. Beatrice Golomb, an assistant professor of medicine at the University of California at San Diego who has done research on cholesterol and statins (and who is currently heading the U.S. National Institute of Health's investigation into statin drugs) says no study has ever demonstrated that statins extend life for women.
There was an interesting event that happened to my daughter three years ago, when she turned 23. When her doctor pronounced her reading of 9mmol/dl (~360mg/dl -for Americans reading this.) not knowing that her Grandmother lived well till 85 yo with a cholesterol reading above 10.
If the doctor had said to my daughter "By the way, some patients do get side effects, and the most common one is muscle pain or muscle atrophy and this could stop you from exercising. And a small number have lost their mental thinking abilities which has affected their ability to hold their job then she could have made an informed choice.
It's like saying Epidemiology studies suggest that you live longer if your height is below 1.8M (6'), therefore take drugs to suppress your height if you are above this in height. The same applies to cholesterol, and the idea of using chemical agents to force your cholesterol level into the 5.1 -- 7.1 range is a very risky strategy, as discussed in the book.
But as a general rule, the association between cholesterol (including LDL and HDL) and coronary heart disease is extremely weak, except for those few people with super high cholesterol levels in the 10 -- 20 mmol/L range who are classified with hypercholesteremia.
I think Dr Charles McGee summarises the causes very nicely in the Preface to my book Cholesterol and The French Paradox when he talks about Oxidation theory, damage to the arteries from high Homocysteine levels, the role of Inflammation, and the rupture of Fatty Plaques.
And the fact that people are going to be their healthiest by consuming fresh whole foods and shunning refined and processed foods.
We in Australia have been led to believe that margarine and vegetable oils are good for us, even though these are all processed oils that have been chemically altered. These oils slowly clog-up bodily systems, because at the cell level, the cell does not know how to handle them.
The French on the other hand use natural fats like butter, duck/goose fats, unprocessed virgin olive oils, and the body cells know exactly how to utilise these for cell energy and cell repair. That is just one example of a food that affects the health of our arteries, and that's just one.
Men on the other hand have a Just-in-time approach to health, and don't worry about coronary heart disease until the doctor tells them that they have a real problem. And by the way, there are no sacrifices required, because the food will taste better as well.
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