Question of the Day

I eat tons of eggs and my cholesterol is fine. That doesn't mean it will work the same way for everyone.
Cholesterol is overinflated as a marker for poor health.

It doesn't take a paranoid conspiracy theorist to realize that cholesterol-lowering drugs are the number one selling pharmaceutical, which is a billion-dollar industry. So why on earth would a lobby with billions of dollars want to educate the average consumer about ...

• the ability to modify cholesterol through diet, and
• the fact that other markers, like homeocysteine, may be better indicators than total cholesterol (but there is no billion-dollar homeocysteine-modifying drug cartel)

In fact, get this ... even with the prevalence of cholesterol-lowering drugs, the number of people suffering from this condition is increasing. So what did our friends do? They decided to lower the threshold for doctors to recommend cholesterol-lowering medications. This increased their consumer base by 36 million. Of course, it's our health interests, not their business interests, in mind, right?

A great book to read on the topic is The Schwarzbein Principle. This doesn't so much talk about the drugs, but the dietary changes. It explains how most people are fine with cholesterol in their diet. For many people, the culprit is excess calories which are converted to saturated fats and then manufactured into cholesterol.

Of course, even the cholesterol number itself is under debate. Half of people who suffer from heart attacks have normal cholesterol and many people with high cholesterol have no heart issues whatsoever.

It has a bit to do with genes, and being affected by dietary cholesterol is actually the minority of the population. For those who are affected, it is still up for debate whether having a high cholesterol number really means something (besides increased sales of drugs with potentially fatal side effects.)

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