Tag Archives: sugar

The Cholesterol Story – An Essay

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The final edition of Dark Side of Statins by Dr Duane Gravelin MD explains why the drug has been such a huge disappointment and damaging mistake to a large proportion of patients. In it he included my essay “The Wonder of Cholesterol” which is a simplified explanation of why cholesterol is vital to our wellbeing and any attempt to lower it was always doomed to cause ill health. A key point in all this was the failure to recognise that the real cause of lipid dysfunction was sugar-damage (glycosylation) to the lipid receptors in all the organs of the body. We now have huge numbers of patients who are using carbohydrate restriction to reverse age-related diseases like mature-onset diabetes (T2D). Data being recorded by their Health Carers shows that the lipid profile (LDL/HDL) improves as the sugar-damage, as measured by HbA1c, is lowered.

Fats, Sugar, Salt & Cholesterol -the video interview!

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The interest in this video has been amazing and thank you to all who have watched it all. You don’t have to  because those with less time here are the “bite-sized” topic-based links below.

Interview

Video Index – Click on the topics to jump in:-

International Presentation Link

Useful References (linked)

  1. Ravnskov U, McCully KS Ann Clin Lab Sci. 2009 Winter;39(1):3-16.Review and Hypothesis: Vulnerable plaque formation from obstruction of Vasa vasorum by homocysteinylated and oxidized lipoprotein aggregates complexed with microbial remnants and LDL autoantibodies.
  2. Wainwright G, Mascitelli L, Goldstein M. Archives of Medical Science. 2009;5(3):289-295. Review paper Cholesterol-lowering therapy and cell membranes. Stable plaque at the expense of unstable membranes?.
  3. Seneff S, Wainwright G, Mascitelli L. Review paper Is the metabolic syndrome caused by a high fructose, and relatively low fat, low cholesterol diet?. Archives of Medical Science. 2011;7(1):8-20. doi:10.5114/aoms.2011.20598
  4. Seneff S, Wainwright G, Mascitelli L. Review Paper Nutrition and Alzheimer’s disease: The detrimental role of a high carbohydrate diet
    Seneff, Stephanie et al. European Journal of Internal Medicine , Volume 22 , Issue 2 , 134 –

“Low Carb” Lifestyle for a better approach to Weight-Loss & Health.

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It seems obvious now that if your GP tells you that you can no longer process the sugars in your blood (diagnosing pre-diabetes) you can fix it by eating less sugar generating foods (Carbs).

So why isn’t everyone getting slimmer and healthier.

The dietary advice we get from many agencies is still contradictory and wrong. We’re told to eat less fat, salt and sugar and then told to eat starchy (sugar generating foods) and vegetable oils – All bad advice for humans

Clearly this ain’t working but something better is now starting to happen.

A small but growing number of people have decided that if they can’t handle Carbohydrates (Diabetes) they should limit them to less than they burn in a day. That way they will bring blood sugar down towards normal and stop storing the excess sugar in their expanding waistlines. They are becoming slimmer and healthier.

Seven years ago after publishing a research review I decided to get myself checked. A Diabetic Clinician told me that I needed insulin and was was on a one-way journey of decline. They said all I could hope was to slow it down. With my research knowledge I declined the advice on offer and requested a further review in 3 months time.  Eating lots of Carbs was now going to be harmful! I lowered my carbohydrate intake to 100g per day (a modest but easy target). , I knew I could burn all that carbohydrate in a day,  At the review my astonished Clinician said I was on well on my way toward good control without medical intervention. At that clinician failed to investigate what I had done!

Two years later  I softened my stance and accepted Metformin thinking it was OK and would  help me control my blood sugars. I settled into a stable period of good sugar control, improved waist line and my weight.

Two years ago, I was inspired by a gadget which I could wear that recorded my sugar level all day and graphed it on my laptop. This allowed me to find out more about how my lifestyle was affecting my sugar. Diet, Activity and stress all play their part. But in 2017 I was told I was no longer diabetic.

2017 May Review copy (2017_05_12 09_45_27 UTC)

In remission as a prediabetic I stopped needing Metformin, but I was too late stopping. My dentist noticed a problem on my tongue and after further investigation suggested I should get checked out for a vitamin B12 deficiency. A cascade of problems was now in play.

I am now well and moving back to diabetes remission with full health thanks to an amazing and timely intervention by the Yorkshire Heart Centre, They too accepted my reasons for not taking statins (a separate blog) and I am now only taking a cardio-aspirin once a day, walking up to 14 miles a day in the dales and feeling really good

I have to say that the dietary advice is at best patchy but the Low Carb Lifestyle is now acknowledged and aapproved by the NHS (UK) for reversing mature-onset diabetes. In fact a lot of troubles that are thought of as “Old Age” are improved by Low Carb Lifestyle, Mindfulness and Exercise.

Link

A local community support network for making better lifestyle choices. Based in Leeds wit has a nationwide membership and following and now has wordpress web pages and blogs. Members are sharing their stories about health and fitness improvements. HCPs and people interested in lifestyle changes and functional health are welcome. Some members are reversing glycation damage and going into remission on Type 2 Diabetes. Some just lose weight. Others are interested in using “fat-burn” to fuel endurance sports by avoiding the frequent hypoglycaemic fuel stops and damage caused by sugar generating foods.

Low Carb Leeds

Cholesterol  – under attack again – by vaccine!

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With yet another misguided attempt to remove cholesterol from humans let me explain their stupidity:

The lipid nutrition cycle has large low-density lipids (LDL)
out-bound from the liver, taking fatty nutrition to all organs in the body.
Smaller high-density lipoproteins (HDL) form on the return side, taking excess
or damaged lipids back to the liver. In a healthy person there is a ratio of
about 5:1 (LDL/HDL) when the cycle is working correctly.

The unscientific characterisation this lipid nutrition cycle
ratio as ‘good cholesterol’ and ‘bad cholesterol’ has created an extremely poor
understanding, and consequently inappropriate treatment, of total serum
cholesterol.

The bitly link to my conference presentation (notes &
references) gives the detailed explanation.

In summary it is the failure of the lipid receptor mechanism that allows LDL to build up and that damage is often glycation (AGE) caused by reactive blood sugars (glucose and more recently fructose).

Professionals who talk about good cholesterol and bad cholesterol are simply displaying total ignorance of their field.

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Sugar versus Lipids (Fat & Cholesterol)

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Cholesterol now deserves a full pardon and should be awarded ‘Freedom of the Body’. We now know cholesterol is (and always was) a hero in all the cells of our bodies. The cell walls are made of fat and cholesterol working together to protect, give shape and function to each cell..So when you seek to lower your cholesterol you can expect some loss of function and ill effects (see http://bit.ly/1LdEqhn for details)

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Statin Damage: We have seen a huge growth in on-line social media groups complaining bitterly the devastating health effects of statin medications. Statins stop an enzyme in the liver from working, depriving the body of vital substances and signalling compounds (Cholesterol, Hormones and Co-Q10 and more). Eventually tissues break down (muscle & neuron loss) and stop communicating (signalling loss).  The adverse effects are well documented and we have some idea of the numbers  from the FDA’s own FAER database. results have been documented. This “Mevalonate Blockade” is basic cellular biochemistry so the question is why is modern medicine unwilling to acknowledge and deal with this statin damage?

Sugar-Damaged Lipids

After 50 years of blaming cholesterol for upsetting our blood lipids it has come as a shock to the medical profession to find that the guilty party is sugars (fructose & glucose). Diabetics and their clinicians are increasingly commenting on the fact that Lipid tests show improvement (LDL/HDL ratio in blood fats) if excess blood sugar is well managed. The most important number a medical check-up can give you is a blood sugar-damage test called HbA1c or A1c. Get this number under control and the LDL/HDL ratio improves along with general health. The reason that good control of blood sugar improves blood lipids is the reduction in damage caused by sugar to the LDL lipid receptors that absorb the lipids into our cells and organs . The blood LDL lipids are responsible for transporting all the fats, fatty nutrients and cholesterol to our organs to ensure they work.  The HDL collects and returns excess fatty substances for recycling.

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So it was sugar that stopped the cycle from working – not cholesterol!

An ultimately lethal combination of excess blood sugar, low-fat diets and statins is doing huge harm among our mature population.

Fortunately many patients abandon statins after a few months of experiencing their effects but some persist believing they owe their lives to the misguided claims that they prevent heart disease. Some pharmaceutical companies fund CPD courses on which Doctors are advised to see the statin side-effects as part of the progression of the diseases the statins are claimed to prevent. Treating statin adverse side-effects adds to profitability and makes good financial sense. This is a poor unethical way for drug for the Pharmaceutical Industry to behave and independent regulatory investigation is urgently required. The problem is finding independent experts who are not ultimately dependent of the system for funding!

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What has changed is the science. Over recent decades evidence was building that blood sugar-damage was damaging the lipid nutrition cycle by attacking the LDL receptor mechanisms.

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Excess Sugar+ Low-Fat+ Statins = Debilitating Deterioration of Organs

Let’s Talk Statins

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For over a decade I’ve been reviewing all the research I can find on sugar, fats and cholesterol. This has involved writing review papers in bio-science and medical journals, and presenting at conferences and giving talks. I studied bio-chemistry in the 1960s and revived my interest to look at age related illnesses and related medical issues. This interest was sparked off by a 6 day period of taking statins, and realising very quickly that something was seriously amiss with this ‘preventative’ approach to my health.
I am not clinically trained and do not to advise individuals about their ills. However, I do try to help people, when asked, to become more aware of the biological science and principle behind age related illnesses as we move from maturity to seniority! Three themes keep recurring in this bio-science adventure: sugar damage, low-fat damage and statin damage.
Statin users who ask me questions are often concerned about what they have read and maybe they have started to feel unwell since commencing medication. To those who have no pre-existing illness and are taking statins to keep themselves  well (like I did some years ago) I ask “ Why are you taking a medication that makes you feel unwell and has only a dubious statistical link with reducing heart attacks?”  When I was offered statins I was told there would be a 30% reduction in risk over the next 10 years. I was not told that the absolute risk was in fact reduced from 4% to 3% (1 % reduction compared with 3% produced the dramatic figure 30%). This is not impressive given the real toxicity and documented risks that statins carry! Starting from a position of health, over the 6 days I spent taking on 40mg Simvastatin, I started with 5 new disturbing ailments.  My old 1960s biochemistry books showed these were all likely linked to cholesterol and lipid deficiencies in my body. I stopped taking them and recovered fully within a week. Day 7 is still in the packet which I keep with my notes.

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Sometimes when giving talks I meet a statin user who is convinced that they owe their life to statins . The conviction normally comes straight from their medical advisors, who have been adamant about the claimed benefits. So I become curious about the impact on their general health. Taking care not prejudice them I enquire about general wellness, and listen carefully for comments about muscle aches, exercise tolerance, joints aches etc. Quite often I have collected a list known statin side-effects, which they understand to be “expected at my age”. If spouses are present it can be revealing to get a second slightly less subjective opinion, especially on mood and behavioural changes. The crucial question is how have these things changed since starting statins. Quite often many other medications have been added to deal with what we know to be predictable effects of not only statins but also elevated blood sugar and inadequate amounts of natural fats in the diet.  
If they are healthy or concerned about the statin’s effects I suggest asking their GP for a ‘Statin Holiday’ after which they can assess the impact the statins were having.  A supervised withdrawal might be advisable. A ‘holiday’ can help with in assessing other unpleasant medications too!
Normally I get one of two reactions when talking to medical practitioners. A small minority are too busy to think clearly about it and resent the implied criticism of their prescribing to guidelines. Thankfully the majority of cardiologists and GPs feel informed and are keen to undertake further reading. They’ve often puzzled over the patients’ responses and intolerance toward statins.
All too often the statin toxicity alarm bells do not sound until some permanent harm has accumulated.
(Highlighted links to further materials)

Cell Walls – Essential Role of Fats & Cholesterol

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The outer and inner membranes protect and define the cells in the tissues of our bodies. They give them shape and strength. These membranes organise, support and protect the proteins (enzymes) that give function and purpose to the tissues and organs of our bodies.

Cell Membranes are made of fat (lipids) and cholesterol. To work and protect the cell there has to be at least 1 cholesterol molecule for every 4 fat molecules.  Less cholesterol causes the membrane to become weak and leaky.
The maintenance of organs and tissues relies on a regular supply of fats and fat soluble nutrients. This supply comes from the large LDL lipid droplets which are recognised and absorbed by the LDL receptors on the cells. The recycling waste involves the return of smaller HDL  lipid droplets to the liver via the blood stream.

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As we age ours cells LDL receptors can become damaged by sugar leading to poor maintenance of the membranes.  The cell has a shortage of lipids (fats) and cholesterol. Cell walls  becomes leaky and prone to fail. LDL lipids are left unused in the blood stream. HDL lipids are not being returned.

As we age what we we required is a reduction in damage caused by excess blood sugars (glucose and fructose) together with an adequate supply of fats and cholesterol.  

This is the basis of the success of the Low-Carbohydrate High-Fat diets in addressing the modern dietary health issues.

Published research on cell membranes and lipids is at complete odds with modern medical practices and much dietary guidance.  Statins and low fat diets are misguided attempts to prevent fatty nutrients from entering the blood stream by blocking the production of mevalonate.  Mevalonate is used to make steroids hormones, cholesterol, signalling molecules, dolichols and co-enzyme Q10 etc – a whole series of vital health promoting substances.

The Statin-Damage Triad is a modern health crisis progressively brought on by a combination of 3 lifestyle factors: Excess Blood Sugar, Low Dietary Fat intake and statin medications.

Links:  The supporting references to published research are contained in my conference paper  ‘The High-Cholesterol Paradox’ which was especially requested to make facts and history widely accessible.

The ‘High Cholesterol’ Paradox

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For some people, being told they have ‘high cholesterol’ suggests a decline, for others it is a sign of healthy longevity. What is really going on?

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The real story is the way in which high dietary levels of refined sugars such as Fructose can adversely modify our lipid-protein-labels and break the fatty nutrition cycle supplying all our organs.

Normally high lipid levels with good ratios of LDL (larger nutrient packages) and HDL (returning ’empty’ packages for recycling) are seen in people with healthy long life prospects. 

When the LDL package address (protein marker) is sugar-damaged (glycated) LDL backs up in the blood and less HDL is recycled. The blood lipids are up but the organs can’t use it. e.g The brain is starved of vital fat-soluble nutrients. Taking medication to block cholesterol production will lower blood lipids BUT…. the brain, muscles etc. are  still starved of vital fat-soluble nutrition and the outcome worsens.

The HbA1c test for sugar-damage in the blood protein hemoglobin looks likely to be a great indicator for sugar damage in general so..

‘High Cholesterol’ with good HbA1c levels is a healthy sign.

‘High Cholesterol’ with poor HbA1c levels is a very unhealthy sign.

THE REAL STORY IS SUGAR-DAMAGE