Cholesterol got a bad rap. The evidence continues to accumulate that cholesterol is not the villain it is made out to be, but is actually part of your body's defense system against the real killers: chronic inflammation, the lack of good, natural fats, and stress. Dr. Dwight Lundell, one of the 29 experts in Cholestrol Clarity, noted that, in the absence of inflammation, “Cholesterol would move freely throughout the body as nature intended.” 

Mark Sisson, another contributor included in the book, said: "Cholesterol is one of the most important molecules in the human body: we would die very quickly without it. It's an integral part of cell membranes, It’s involved in the creation of vitamin D and in the formation of many important sex hormones, it is necesary for the production of bile, which is critical to our ability to emulsify and digest fats.” Author Jimmy Moore points out another of its health benefits, "cholesterol is a major line of defense when your immune system comes under attack. So lowering cholesterol levels artificially with drugs could make you more susceptible to germs or bacteria wreaking havoc on your health." Cholesterol is also essential for proper brain function as the brain contains more cholesterol than any organ in the body. (Estrogen and testosterone are made of cholesterol. Is it a coincidence that the same companies that sell cholesterol-lowering drugs also sell Viagra and Cialis?) 

Here is a quote from Dr. Malcolm Kendrick: 
“There is absolutely no correlation between saturated fat intake, cholesterol levels, and heart disease. The most accurate research looking at this issue in different countries is the MONICA (Monitoring of Trends and Determinants in Cardiovascular Disease) study that started in the mid-1980s and is run by the World Health Organization. If you look at the figures, it’s extremely clear that the countries whose populations have the highest saturated fat intake tend to have slightly higher cholesterol levels, but all have lower rates of heart disease. We’re talking about a difference of 700 percent! The country whose people eat the highest level of saturated fat in Europe is France. Their average total cholesterol is 215 mg/dL, and yet their rate of heart disease is one seventh that of people in Ukraine, where people eat less than half the amount of
saturated fat and their average cholesterol levels are slightly lower. So from this
data we learn that the countries with the highest saturated fat consumption all
have lower heart disease levels than the countries with the lowest saturated fat
consumption. Cholesterol levels vary from around 195–225 mg/dL, with Switzerland
having the highest cholesterol average at 250 mg/dL—and the rate of heart
disease among the Swiss is the second lowest in Europe and one-fourth of that
in the United States.”

What’s more, we are learning  that  LOW cholesterol may be bad for us. One study of 120,000 men, published recently in the Scandinavian Journal of Health Care, shows that higher than the recommended level of cholesterol is associated with a reduced risk of death in subjects 50 and over. [1] Association of lipoprotein levels with mortality in subjects aged 50 + without previous diabetes or cardiovascular disease: A population-based register study. Scandinavian Journal of Primary Health Care 2013;31(3):172-180. Dr. Chris Masterjohn, a specialist on dietary fats and another contributor to CC, had this to say, "...We do know that people who have low cholesterol tend to have a higher risk of cancer and a higher propensity for violent suicidal tendencies.”

This quote from Cholesterol Clarity sums up what has gone wrong since the government officially endorsed low-fat and low-cholesteol diets in the late 70s: "Statistics from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service between 1977 and 1978 and 2005 and 2008 show that Americans dutifully cut their fat intake from 85.6 g to 75.2 g daily. Additionally, over the same periods, the percentage of total calories consumed from fat fell from 39.7 percent to 33.4 percent. And what has happened to the rates of obesity, diabetes, and heart disease since then? You already know the answer: Heart disease is now the number-one killer of both men and women, and nearly one million Americans have heart attacks annually. Obesity and diabetes have reached epidemic proportions. The financial burden of coronary artery disease alone totals close to $110 billion a year, and that trend is growing."

How could it be possible for the medical establishment to go down a dead end road and become so hopelessly lost? Let me tell you a story. I posted an article in 2008 about a new drug called Vytorin. (carbwars.blogspot.com/search?q=vytorin). Dr. Michael Eades also wrote about it on the Protein Power blog(proteinpower.com/drmike/statins/vytorin-dis-enhance-d/).

Vytorin is a combination of Zocor (simvastatin), which reduces the production of cholesterol by the liver, and Zetia (ezetimibe), which inhibits the absorption of cholesterol from the digestive tract. Like all newly developed drugs, it is very expensive and gives Merck, the maker of Zocor, a way to continue making money from a drug whose patent has expired and is now available as a generic.

The combination drug must have sounded like a slam dunk for the pharmaceutical companies: If one statin could lower cholesterol, a combination of two that worked in two different ways should lower it even more. Both drugs had already been approved for sale separately, so Vytorin could be sold before it was tested. You undoubtedly remember the commercials for Vytorin: "Cholesterol comes from two sources, from fettuccine Alfredo or your grandpa, Alfredo. From Barbecue ribs or your grandma Barbi." They showed goofy pictures of your pretend relatives dressed to look like high-fat foods. The remarkably effective, direct-to-the-consumer campaign convinced about five million people to take the drug. Here's an example if you need a refresher: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_Szhp-jvqE 

The ads reportedly cost at least 100 million dollars a year to run and two page ads were featured in all the major newspapers and magazines as well. The first line in the ads asked, “Do you have high LDL cholesterol? It’s important to talk to your doctor about ways to lower it.” After a few sentences about how the drug works, they stated in bold type, “Vytorin has not been shown to reduce heart attacks or strokes more than Zocor alone.” The second page lists the devastating side effects of the drug, but it fails to mention that Merck’s own trails showed MORE heart attacks and an INCREASE in the thickness of artery plaque, known as atherosclerosis,  in people taking the combined drug, even though it was 20% more effective at lowering cholesterol than Zocor alone. (The control group taking only Zocor also showed an increase in plaque.) 

The obvious conclusion from the ENHANCE study by a rational person would be that lowering cholesterol did not prevent heart attacks and strokes. But a clever marketer can always find a way to spin a story--it might be better to take one statin than two. Too bad they didn't include a dietary change or even a placebo for comparison. 

So why would a company spend huge amounts of money to advertise a drug that not only doesn’t have any benefit, but actually makes the targeted problem worse? Just the fact that the ad is there gives the impression that this is a useful medication and may lead many people to pressure their doctors to prescribe it. Cholesterol is so firmly established in the minds of most of the population as the world’s most dangerous substance that lowering it may be seen as a good thing in and of itself. Perhaps Merck and partner, Schering-Plough, hoped to cut their losses on a failed drug by continuing to have doctors put patients on it, in spite of the consequences. After all, they told us flat out that this drug didn't work, giving them a surefire defense against lawsuits. 

When the results of the first study done on Vytorin, which was completed in April of 2006, were released in January of 2008, an article in the New York times said, this headline appeared in the New York Times: Study Reveals Doubt on Drug for Cholesterol. "A clinical trial of a widely used cholesterol drug has raised questions both about the medicine’s effectiveness and about the behavior of the pharmaceutical companies that conducted the study."," said The article by Alex Berenson, goes on to quote Dr. Steven E. Nissen, the chairman of cardiology at the Cleveland Clinic, who said the results were "shocking...This is as bad a result for the drug as anybody could have feared, Millions of patients may be taking a drug that does not benefit them, raising their risk of heart attacks and exposing them to potential side effects."
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/15/business/15drug.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1&sq=vytorin&scp=1 Other publications called it a PR debacle and predicted that the company could not survive the scandal.
The study results were known to the company but not released for two years, and then only after a House of Representatives Committee began an inquiry into the delay. Schering-Plough's president was investigated for selling off $28 million worth of stock between the time the trials were completed and the data was released.  
The study did not measure heart attacks or strokes, so the American College of Cardiology suggested that major clinical decisions not be made on the basis of this one study alone and the manufacturers promised follow-up studies to see what affect Vytorin had on those events. The first of the studies was due in 2012, but has now been extended to 2014. Meanwhile Vytorin continues to be heavily advertised and sold, giving Merck and Schering-Plough  another year to rake in billions of dollars in profits. Multiply this sad story thousands of times and you may get a picture that won't seem so farfetched after all. 

The printed inserts that come with prescriptions for statins tell you to eat a low-fat, low-cholesterol diet when taking them. The tag lines for statin commercials say, "When diet and exercise aren’t enough, ask your doctor if (fill in the blank) is right for you!" Translation: "When the diet we tell you to eat and exercise don't help, ask your doctor  to line our pockets!" 

Americans spend more on health care than any country in the world, but a substantial part of our economy is based on our being unhealthy. It takes roughly a billion dollars to bring a new drug on the market. They literally bet the company on its success. If the best selling drugs were to go away, the  repercussions would likely result in a financial melt-down bigger than the Wall Street scandal of 2007-2008. Big Pharma may now be considered too big to fail. If there is any hope of reversing the health crisis we face in this country, it is for brave people to speak out, people like Jimmy Moore and the top doctors, researchers, and experts who contributed to Cholesterol Clarity, including luminaries like Dr. Eric Westman,  Dr. William Davis (author of Wheat Belly), Gary Taubes (author of Good Calories, Bad Calories), Dr. Robert Lustig, Stephanie Seneff PhD (research scientist MIT), and many others. 

A new nonprofit organization called, the Nutrtion and Science Initiative (NuSi), founded by Gary Taubes and Dr. Perter Atia, plans to carry out meticulous. unbiased experiments that will give us definitive answers to clear up the current confusion about diet and health, but those results won't be in for up to six years. In the meantime, I urge you to take resonsibility for your own well-being. Reading Cholesterol Clarity is a good place to start. 

Investigators have been looking into the lives of the shooters to try to find the commonality between them, but no one seems to see what links all our current epidemics, including obesity, diabetes, heart disease, autism, depression, attention deficit hyperactive disorder (ADHD), Asperger's, Celiac's, Alzheimer's, and so on. They may all be the result of the dramatic change in the eating habits of Americans in response to the low-fat and low-cholesterol dietary advice from our government and health groups.

Investigators are looking into the lives of the shooters to try to find the commonality between them. Gun control is being suggested as the solution, and that might help, but guns are a symptom, not the cause. There is a lot of anger toward the perpetrators, but they may be victims too. No one seems to see what links all our current epidemics, including obesity, diabetes, heart disease, autism, depression, Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD), Asperger's, Celiac's, Alzheimer's, and on and on.

Over the past 30-plus years there has been a dramatic change in the eating habits of Americans in response to advice from our government and health groups. Many whole foods, such as whole milk and real cheese, have almost disappeared from store shelves and high-fructose corn syrup, sugar, and starchy fillers have replaced fat in most commercial products. Restaurants and food companies replaced natural fats with processed soy and grain oils for cooking and most magazines and cookbooks now routinely specify egg substitutes, low-fat cheese, non-fat milk, and low-sodium ingredients in their recipes. These changes coincide precisely with the epidemics of many conditions that have gotten worse during this time period. 

Our bodies, especially our brains, need natural fats. (The brain is mostly made of fat. Next time someone calls you a Fathead, say, "Thank You!") Just as important is what replaced the fat in our food supply. 

==
Here is the official website for the book: http://www.cholesterolclarity.com
Are you confused by what your cholesterol levels really say about your health?

Don’t you wish someone could just spell it out in simple, easy-to-understand language
and tell you what, if anything, you need to do about your cholesterol?

Good news! That’s precisely what Cholesterol Clarity is designed to do.

This is one of the most unique books you’ll ever read on this subject, featuring interviews with twenty-nine of the world’s top experts from various fields who are willing to tell the truth about what really causes heart disease and how to prevent it, and guess what? It isn't all about  to give you the complete lowdown on cholesterol. Jimmy uses the easy-going interview style he has perfected in his popular podcast series, to share the knowledge of 29 of the world's top doctors, researchers, and experts in the field to sweep away all the medical jargon, the confusion, the silly explanations from endless commercials for drugs to treat something that isn't really the problem at all ??? and the hype generated by those with vested interests in perpetuating the myths about cholesterol.    If you’re worried about any confusing medical jargon in this book, don’t be—this critical information is broken down for you to grasp what is really important and what is not. 

You can pre-order Cholesterol Clarity on Amazon for 40% off the retail price before the official release on August 27th, 2013.
==
First a little about Jimmy: In January 2004, Jimmy Moore made a decision to get rid of the weight that was literally killing him. At 32 years of age and 410 pounds, the time had come for a radical change of lifestyle. A year later, he had shed 180 pounds, shrunk his waist by 20 inches, and dropped his shirt size from 5XL to XL. After his dramatic weight loss, Jimmy was inundated with requests from friends, neighbors and complete strangers seeking information and help. Jimmy is dedicated to helping as many people as possible find the information they need to make the kind of lifestyle change he has made. To that end, he has started a blog and a number of websites to get out the message of lifestyle change and healthy living. Here you will find links to Jimmy’s blog, his YouTube videos and all of the websites he contributes to. Book Review: For those who have read my book the Primal Power Method: Unlocking the Ancient Secret to Health, I go into the cholesterol and saturated fat myths. Jimmy takes it to a whole other level and gets into the history and nitty gritty of the false information duping the public. Here is a quote from the beginning of the book that sets the tone: If you like straight talk that cuts through the muckity muck, you’ve come to the right place. The title of this book is Cholesterol Clarity for a reason: The intention is to make the truth about cholesterol absolutely clear. There is no guessing on what this book is going to be about, and that is what I love about Jimmy: Honest and straight to the point. For those looking to get the facts and fine tune their health, or for those just getting started, this is a must read. As a former Special Agent for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I can tell you this: We are getting misled by the medical and food industries, to the detriment of our health and Jimmy takes them all head-on. Here is a list of some of the contributors to Cholesterol Clarity: - Dr. William Davis (author of Wheat Belly) - Gary Taubes (author of Good Calories, Bad Calories) - Paul Jaminet PhD (author of the Perfect Health Diet) - Dr. Robert Lustig - Stephanie Seneff PhD (research scientist MIT) There are many more, but I think you get the idea. This book is loaded with the most renowned experts in the area of cholesterol, dietary fats and health in general. Here are a couple more quotes to wet your appetite (no pun intended) for what to expect in Cholesterol Clarity: Statistics from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service between 1977 and 1978 and 2005 and 2008 show that Americans dutifully cut their fat intake from 85.6 g to 75.2 g daily. Additionally, over the same periods, the percentage of total calories consumed from fat fell from 39.7 percent to 33.4 percent. And what has happened to the rates of obesity, diabetes, and heart disease since then? You already know the answer: Heart disease is now the number-one killer of both men and women, and nearly one million Americans have heart attacks annually. Obesity and diabetes have reached epidemic proportions. The financial burden of coronary artery disease alone totals close to $110 billion a year, and that trend is growing. - See more at: http://www.garyshealthtips.com/gary-the-primal-guy-reviews-jimmy-moores-new-book-cholesterol-clarity/#sthash.qanaYySX.dpuf
quote: In April 2013, I attended a medical conference of the American Society of Bariatric Physicians in San Diego. One of the speakers, Peter Attia, MD, gave a talk called “The Straight Dope on Cholesterol” (google that phrase to read his ten-part blog series on the subject), and he made a fascinating point: Only 15 percent of the cholesterol that you consume through diet is absorbed and used by the body; the other 85 percent is excreted. His natural conclusion? The cholesterol we consume has very little to do with the cholesterol levels in our bloodstream. That salient point really stuck with me in light of all the hysteria about eliminating cholesterol-rich foods from our diet. 
Wow, talk about some powerful information! Cholesterol Clarity is loaded with statements from experts and useful information that is a must for people looking to change their health and life.
Needless to say I couldn’t recommend this book highly enough, and it gets a definite thumbs up from Gary the Primal Guy!
Click here to purchase Cholesterol Clarity
Jimmy Moore’s Links:
Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb Blog
http://www.livinlavidalowcarb.com/blog
The Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb Show Podcast
http://www.thelivinlowcarbshow.com
Other books by Jimmy
21 Life Lessons From Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb
- See more at: http://www.garyshealthtips.com/gary-the-primal-guy-reviews-jimmy-moores-new-book-cholesterol-clarity/#sthash.qanaYySX.dpuf