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Cholesterols, Coronary Heart Disease, Heart Attacks, By-pass Operations, and lies, damn lies.

by W Wong
(Subang Jaya, Malaysia)

Cholesterols, Statins, Heart Attacks, By-pass Operations, and lies, damn lies.

Dear Friends,
To share with you my reply to my brother on the above subject. Hope you find them useful.

By the way, I personally know of at least 2 cases of vegetarians having undergone heart ops for blockage. And, of course, there are many many meat eaters who don't have the problem. So, it is not just simply the question of cholesterol. However, if we live long enough, eventually we will all die of something - but, hopefully not from ignorance and willful suicide from bad habits.

Oh yes! There are doctors who will lie to make extra $$. I have come across them personally. One was a doctor who told me statins has no side effects. Another told my 30-something friend who tested for 'high cholesterol' that he would certainly have a heart attack within 2 years if he did not take medication. What lies!

Cheers and Good Health!

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Thanks for your info about cholesterol as a factor for coronary heart disease and stroke. But, from what I know - which will take at least 1/2 an hour to explain - I am not convinced. I believe that it is a scam by the medical industry to make money.

Briefly, let me explain why.
1. According to the Archives of Internal Medicine USA / Canada 2005 report, 70% of heart attacks occur in people who have no arterial blockage.

2. Cholestrol is produced by our liver and is necessary for many functions in our body chemistry. Statins disrupt the production of cholestrol in the liver and there are many side effects, (to muscles, liver, kidney,..etc) which may be potentially harmful. The side effects may out-weigh the benefits - if any. I already know of several cases. Excess cholestrol from food can be controlled by proper eating.

3. Most harmful are stress, free radicals, inflammation, and lack of exercise. In fact, stress is the number 1 killer. During the first Gulf War, the mortality rate of Japanese Sr execs shot up tremendously. Why? The supply of oil to Japan was disrupted and the price shot up. Because of Japanese industry's high dependency on imported oil, many businesses failed and the execs were severely stressed. The Japanese, as usual, over-reacted (think kamikaze).

Free radicals (from cigarette-smoking, polluted air, as a by-product of metabolic processes, over-exertion, etc.) causes liquid cholestrol to congeal (harden). Hydrogen does the same thing to various types of oil, which are liquid in natural state, to convert them to magarin.

Cholestrol detected in the blood stream DOES NOT EQUAL to cholesterol deposited on arterial walls. Other things have to happen to make it do so. Free radicals and inflammation together may do it.

Inflammation is now believed to be the main culprit for several diseases - arthritis, heart disease, even cancer. Inflammation markers are homocystein and C-Reative Protein (CPR). Do you know that you can test for them (as an option) when you take your regular blood test? My doctor friend also does not know. It's understandable when doctors don't update their know-how or are in denial mode.

Inflammation causes arterial walls to breakdown. A cardiologist at the Institute Jantung Negara (National Heart Institute) in Kuala Lumpur, asked me, by way of analogy, "if a patch of wall is smooth, will cement stick to it? Of course not!", he added. This is further collaborated by a lecture given at Standford University several years ago by a professor of medicine, I think. He theory was that, low level deficiency of vitamin-C - which is very common nowadays days due to denatured / over-cooked / over-processed food and improper diet - causes arterial walls to break down.

He calls this condition low-level scurvy. In scurvy, which was common in the days of sailing ships when Europeans (though not Admiral Cheng Ho's navy, as the Chinese knew better) survived on salted and preserved foods (no vitamin C at all) mainly, arterial walls break down and blood oozed out, causing death in severe cases.

Moderate exercise causes us to sweat and get rid of toxins. It also helps the body to purge out free radicals when we breathe more deeply. That’s why tai chi, qi gong, and yoga especially are good for health. Excessive and extreme exercises, on the other hand, produce more free-radicals.

Food supplements like vitamins A, Bx C, E, D, Selenium, etc and certain foods (mainly coloured and bitter) act like anti-oxidants to counter-act free-radicals and are helpful to reduce the risks of many diseases.

4. Another very important factor is calcium deposit in our arteries. Calcium is present in most foods that we take. People who do not drink enough water and who do not urinate frequently enough will store excess calcium in their tissues and arteries.

When one goes for heart-scan, he is given a calcium-score as an indicator of the possible extent of arterial blockage. Why not cholesterol score? I asked my doctor friend why and he said soft tissue like cholesterol cannot be scanned - only ‘hard tissue’ like calcium can.

This same doctor friend was operated for massive arterial blockage and nearly died on the operating table. He had no high cholesterol at all! However, he had undergone a lot of stress from a failed marriage and partnership problems for a long duration. He was also a smoker.

Then, why don’t doctors test our blood for calcium and provide treatment? In fact, there is no money to be made, because calcium is soluble in water and can be removed through urination! That’s why Chinese water cure, Japanese water cure, and Tamil water cure (drinking lots of water on empty stomach on wake up in the morning ) are very good (because of detox action) for preventing many diseases, including heart disease and stroke. Just ask heart patients and stroke patients their habits and you will learn the truth.

People who do not drink enough water and who do not urinate frequently enough also tend to be obese because calcium retains water. Obese people may drink little water out of concern of being water-logged. But this is mainly the reason why they are obese! Probably they also seldom urinate, thus further retaining excess calcium. People in the sun too much also ‘fix’ calcium in their tissues because sunlight is converted to vitamin D which is a ‘fixing agent’ for calcium.

When heart patients who have been operated on ask their surgeons the extent of their blockage, they are told x% of calcium score! Why no cholesterol score? Reason is, at the angiogram stage before operation, only calcium can be detected. Actually, when arterial walls are damaged, both calcium and cholesterol (if excess and in the presence of free radicals) will start to deposit.

Assuming it’s only cholesterol that is deposited. That is not much of a problem if a person has a strong heart because of regular exercise or sports. The strong heart can push blood through the cholesterol blockage if the arterial walls are soft and elastic (meaning little or no calcium present).

However, when calcium is present, the arteries are also stiff and non-elastic. The calcium blockage also acts as a stiff barrier unlike the soft cholesterol. That’s when hypertension shows up.

5. Other factors relating to coronary heat-diseases and stroke are: obesity, life-style, family history, work and living environment (esp polluted), social environment, and possibly many other factors not mentioned above and unknown yet.

All said, let’s not worry too much about cholesterol and increase other risk factors by unnecessary medication. Just eat properly, drink lots of water and urinate often, avoid stress, meditate, exercise regularly and moderately, do not smoke, avoid exposure to pollution (from food, water, and air), take some anti-oxidant supplements, have sufficient sleep, and not be too self-absorbed.

Last but not least, remember that ‘laughter is the best medicine’.
Cheers!