Over the past 7 weeks we have been breaking down the causes of cardiovascular disease as explained by the American Heart Association in a Fox News article.1 To summarize, it was stated that the 3 primary drivers of cardiovascular disease are hypertension, diabetes, and obesity. With obesity being the primary driver of the other two.
Drilling down a bit further, the article went on to explain that the primary causes of obesity were packaged & processed foods; lack of exercise and sleep, as well as our standard of living and a hectic work life.
I have been breaking all of this down from a wholistic perspective, in order to get to the root cause of each of these, with recommendations on how to overcome each from a natural perspective. The primary focus is how to prevent cardiovascular disease, or reverse it using holistic approaches, not just masking all of these conditions and their associated symptoms with medications.
Let’s Start with the Basics of Cholesterol
There are basically five markers in a cholesterol panel: total cholesterol, HDL (the so- called good cholesterol), LDL (the so-called bad), VLDL (very low density lipoprotein), triglycerides, and the coronary risk factor (CRF, otherwise shown on lab reports as HDL:Total ratio). Total cholesterol and the LDL are the 2 primary markers conventional medicine looks at to determine if there is a need for medication to prevent cardiovascular disease. Although cholesterol can tell us a whole lot more than just cardiovascular risk.
But if we are looking at the cholesterol panel from a coronary/cardiovascular risk concern, then it should stand to reason that the most important number on this panel should be the CRF or HDL:Total ratio. However, most of the time people aren’t even aware of this number. Often, it’s the “Total” and the “LDL” that are the focus, because this is what the drug companies have drilled into the medical doctors and patients alike as the only numbers necessary to look at when determining the plan of action. We all seem to believe that if our cholesterol is over 200, we have high cholesterol and need to be on meds so we won’t have a heart attack and die. There is such a fear factor placed on people that if they don’t take drugs and do what the medical doctor tells them, they will surely die. While this may be true if your objective is to manage your disease, this is not your only option! In my opinion, the better option is to take control of your health by uncovering the reason why the cholesterol number is up, what’s the root cause, or is it even really a problem? And then restore your body back to good health using natural approaches.
When traditional medicine looks at your cholesterol numbers, it should be to see if you are at risk for heart disease. If that’s true, then it would make sense that the most important number on the cholesterol blood panel should be the CRF (Coronary Risk Factor). However, that number is rarely discussed. Everyone seems to know what their total cholesterol is (at least if they have had it checked), but they never seem to know what their CRF is. This is because the drug companies use the total cholesterol and the LDL numbers as their marketing tool. More recently, it is even said everyone should be on cholesterol meds, including kids, simply for prevention.
Cholesterol Myths
I would like to take a moment and just point out a few things to you:
- First, the so-called “high” cholesterol is not a disease; it’s just one risk factor for cardiovascular disease. Others include obesity, smoking, high blood pressure, diabetes, and family history of heart disease to name a few.
- Second, our bodies absolutely need cholesterol.All of our cell walls are made up of cholesterol. The majority of our hormones are made up of cholesterol, and we must have our hormones functioning properly in order for our bodies to function properly – cholesterol is part of our immune system. In contrast, natural medicine considers a total cholesterol number below 140 a possible ominous sign. This could mean that something major is going on in your body and you might not even be aware of it—fatty congested liver, cancer, and any number of other degenerative diseases—and using meds forces the number lower. However, the reference range on lab reports recently show a normal cholesterol range being between 100-200. This implies that having a very low cholesterol, like 100 is not a problem, and yet functional medicine, based on research studies, looks at a total cholesterol below 140 as an ominous sign. Which would you rather believe?
- Third, Cholesterol meds lower both the LDL (“bad” cholesterol) and the HDL (“good” cholesterol), so the coronary risk ratio number is not changed when you do the math.
- Fourth, cholesterol is not usually the root cause of clogged up arteries—it’s actually inflammation that is the problem. Cholesterol simply shows up at the sight of inflammation and becomes the wrong focus. Instead of controlling inflammation conventional medicine simply wants to give you a drug to alter the lab values to the drug companies liking.
- Hypertension
- Diabetes
- Obesity
- Packaged & processed foods, and fast food (prepared foods)
- Lack of exercise
- Lack of sleep
- Our standard of living
- Hectic work life
How to Determine My Coronary Risk Factor (CRF)
To determine that most important number as it pertains to cholesterol and cardiovascular disease, the CRF, take your total cholesterol and divide your HDL into it; this will give you the Total:HDL ratio. You should have 3.0 or less for a healthy CRF, keeping in mind this is only one indicator that you are not at risk for heart disease. For example, let’s say your total cholesterol is 300. You may be concerned or were told you are going to have a heart attack and you need to be on meds NOW! Not so fast: let’s look at the whole picture. In this example, we’ll say your HDL is 100, which by the way is not unusual. My HDL is almost always over 100 and I will humbly admit I am not always the perfect specimen of health. If we do the above math, 300/100 results in 3.0, because your “good” cholesterol is high to begin with, but this is hardly ever taken into consideration. If you are viewing your cholesterol panel to see if you are at risk for heart disease, the most important number should be your CRF, not the Total or LDL.
A Better Cholesterol Test
In truth, a better test to determine your coronary risk where cholesterol is concerned is called a VAP test (Vertical Auto Profile), which measures the particle sizes of the LDL cholesterol molecules. Large particles cannot get into the blood vessels as smaller particles can. Before starting on cholesterol meds simply because the drug companies say you need to, ask your doctor to run a VAP test first. This is a relatively inexpensive test, so even if your insurance doesn’t cover it, pay cash for it and have it done. It is far better to do this before being put on a drug (for the rest of your life, no doubt) unnecessarily that causes inflammation, robs your body of vital immune-boosting nutrients like CoQ10, and is very toxic to your liver.
Also keep in mind that your cholesterol picture is only one risk factor in regard to your cardiovascular health; as mentioned others are obesity, smoking, diabetes, hypertension, and family history of cardiovascular disease.
We NEED Cholesterol!
Cholesterol is actually the “good guy” that simply shows up at the site of inflammation to help reduce it. It’s like firefighters trying to put out a fire; because they are at the fire doesn’t make them “the bad guys” any more than cholesterol showing up to dampen the inflammation is bad.
In fact, the cholesterol-lowering prescription drugs known as statins cause inflammation and robs the body of a very vital antioxidant called CoQ10, in turn lowering the body’s immune function. It makes no sense to prescribe something that causes inflammation to combat something that overcomes inflammation, but that is what is done all…the…time.
Another very important point about cholesterol is we actually need enough of it. More times than there should have been, I had patients who had too low cholesterol and the medical doctors didn’t think there was anything wrong with that. On a typical blood panel, the reference range for cholesterol is between 100-200. The reference range from a wholistic/wellness approach, is 140-200, and personally, I actually don’t like to see a person’s cholesterol below 160. If the cholesterol is below 140, there may be neoplastic activity going on (i.e., cancer). Our immune system also needs cholesterol (LDL in particular) as do most of our hormones in order to be formed. Too often I see male patients with low cholesterol driven down by cholesterol meds, who are also on testosterone shots. Of course, their testosterone is going to be low when they don’t have enough cholesterol!
I once had a patient who knew I practiced functional medicine but was only seeing me for chiropractic care; he preferred to go to the medical doctor for his “health.” He shared with me that he was on cholesterol meds and that his TOTAL cholesterol was 87. Some labs list their “normal” reference for cholesterol as “0-200.” This would mean if a person has “0” cholesterol, or in this patient’s case “87,” it would never flag as too low. In the functional medicine world, if we see a total cholesterol below 140 it is considered an “ominous sign.” This same patient also told me that he was receiving prescription testosterone shots. What would happen if he simply stopped taking cholesterol meds? His total cholesterol could possibly rise back up into the healthy range and he might not need the testosterone shots once his body had enough cholesterol to make hormones again. Even worse, if by not being concerned about too low cholesterol based on the range used by this particular lab, something very serious were going on with his health and he would never even know it until it was too late.
Contrary to what you might hear, high cholesterol is not because of too much dietary a,fat.It’s because of an overall inflammatory diet and other life stressors causing inflammation in the body. In my book “Are You Being Deceived About True Wellness” I talk about an inflammatory diet vs. a non-inflammatory diet. If you want to lower your cholesterol, avoid inflammatory foods and eat the non-inflammatory foods, and reduce stress.
One last point: when I assess someone’s lab work, and I look at the cholesterol numbers and they are out of reference range—whether high OR low—the first place I suggest starting is the liver. Why? The majority of the body’s cholesterol is made in the liver, and it is quite possible a fatty, congested liver is the problem as opposed to the body making too much cholesterol. One solution is to start with a liver detox.
Now, I am not saying you are not at risk for heart disease based on this information alone, nor am I saying you don’t need your meds any longer. I am merely trying to enlighten you on the truth about cholesterol, and paint the bigger picture. Don’t be so quick to listen to what the drug companies are trying to tell you. Learn what your CRF is and make wise decisions based on the whole picture and not just a part of it.
The Common Denominatora
Let’s bring all of this back home to where we started this discussion 8 weeks ago. The American Heart Association states that the 3 driving forces behind cardiovascular disease are:
Obesity was stated as the driving force behind the other two. They also stated that some of the top causes of obesity are:
When we explored each of these causes, the one common denominator of each of these risk factors is inflammation. Each can cause inflammation in the body—that’s why they are risk factors.
The Morale of the Story?
Don’t just mask the symptoms with a drug. This is only altering lab values, but not fixing the problem. Instead, address the root cause, always, which in these cases, and most anything else related to chronic degenerative diseases, is inflammation.
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Looking for a great beach read this summer? How about digging your toes in the sand, or swinging in the hammock with a copy of “Are You Being Deceived About Truth Wellness?”
Did you miss some of these earlier blogs? These could give you some great insight — especially as you pursue your health journey:
“A Holistic Approach to Heart Disease”
“Cardiovascular Disease – Our Reliance on Packaged & Processed Foods”
“A Holistic Approach to Exercise and Cardiovascular Disease”
“The Connection Between Obesity and Lack of Sleep”
“Impacts of our Standard of Living and our Hectic Work Life on our Cardiovascular Health”
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(1)To reference the Fox News article go here