Re: Cholesterol - at what point does it start to matter?

[Guest guest]

My understanding is that cholesterol levels in the blood are not in and of

themselves harmful or dangerous, but are a surrogate marker for a system

that is not functioning correctly in the body.

By using medications that lower cholesterol but do not address the

underlying metabolic problem (be it diet, genetics, disease, or anything

else), we are cutting the wire to the " check engine " light and figuring we

fixed our car.

Now, are there levels of serum cholesterol that in and of themselves cause

harm, rather than being a " red flag " for imbalance in a body system? That,

I'm afraid I don't know. Perhaps. Probably, even.

Also, total cholesterol, even within the " cholesterol is bad " paradigm, is

not meaningful, because (again, within that paradigm) they want " bad "

cholesterol to be low and " good " cholesterol to be high. Do you know the

breakdown on the numbers? Also, what are her triglycerides? That measure

really is much more predictive of health problems, and responds VERY well to

lifestyle changes.

Lots of folks on my Atkins lists have had their " bad " cholesterol numbers

plummet and triglycerides go down from sky-high to completely normal, often

before they'd even lost much weight at all. I suspect that eating low carb

and high fat is the best way to favorably influence serum lipids. I still

don't know if, when it comes to cholesterol, that matters, unless you're

also favorably influencing the underlying broken system.

Christie