Defending drug revenues, dogma and orthodoxy really hurts us.

Cholesterol is vital – lowering it is crazy – ldl is raised by sugar!

An excellent summary of the  erroneous demonisation of saturated fat and cholesterol. Medical dogma and orthodoxy lose out to facts and better studies. Please take the time to watch this.

Catalyst: Heart of the Matter Part 1 – Dietary Villains – ABC TV Science

Well done Dr Aseem Malhotra and thanks Zoe Harcombe for the link

Eating fat is good for you: Doctors change their minds after 40 years | Health | News | Daily Express

Leaked memo from industry bodies reveals strategy to combat calls by regulators to force companies to publish results

Big pharma mobilising patients in battle over drugs trials data

From Dr Stephanie Seneff’s Blog Pages

The skin produces cholesterol sulfate in large quantities when it is exposed to sunlight. Our theory suggests that the skin actually synthesizes sulfate from sulfide, capturing energy from sunlight in the form of the sulfate molecule, thus acting as a solar-powered battery. The sulfate is then shipped to all the cells of the body, carried on the back of the cholesterol molecule.

Evidence of the benefits of sun exposure to the heart is compelling, as evidenced by a study conducted to investigate the relationship between geography and cardiovascular disease (Grimes et al., 1996). Through population statistics, the study showed a consistent and striking inverse linear relationship between cardiovascular deaths and estimated sunlight exposure, taking into account percentage of sunny days as well as latitude and altitude effects. For instance, the cardiovascular-related death rate for men between the ages of 55 and 64 was 761 in Belfast, Ireland but only 175 in Toulouse, France.

Cholesterol sulfate is very versatile. It is water soluble so it can travel freely in the blood stream, and it enters cell membranes ten times as readily as cholesterol, so it can easily resupply cholesterol to cells. The skeletal and heart muscle cells make good use of the sulfate as well, converting it back to sulfide, and synthesizing ATP in the process, thus recovering the energy from sunlight. This decreases the burden on the mitochondria to produce energy. The oxygen released from the sulfate molecule is a safe source of oxygen for the citric oxide cycle in the mitochondria.

So, in my view, the best way to avoid heart disease is to assure an abundance of an alternative supply of cholesterol sulfate. First of all, this means eating foods that are rich in both cholesterol and sulfur. Eggs are an optimal food, as they are well supplied with both of these nutrients. But secondly, this means making sure you get plenty of sun exposure to the skin. This idea flies in the face of the advice from medical experts in the United States to avoid the sun for fear of skin cancer. I believe that the excessive use of sunscreen has contributed significantly, along with excess fructose consumption, to the current epidemic in heart disease. And the natural tan that develops upon sun exposure offers far better protection from skin cancer than the chemicals in sunscreens.

Cholesterol Sulphate and Heart Disease

Quote from Chris Kresser

The healthy user bias is the scientific way of explaining the phenomenon I described above, where people that engage in one behavior that is perceived as healthy (whether it is or not) are more likely to engage in other behaviors that are healthy. (7, 8) Of course the flip-side is also true: those that engage in behaviors perceived to be unhealthy are more likely to engage in other unhealthy behaviors. The healthy user bias is one of the main reasons it’s so difficult to infer causality from epidemiological relationships. For example, say a study shows that eating processed meats like bacon and hot dogs increases your risk of heart disease. (9) Let’s also say, as the healthy user bias predicts, that those who eat more bacon and hot dogs also eat a lot more refined flour (hot dog and hamburger buns), sugar and industrial seed oils, and a lot less fresh fruits, vegetables and soluble fiber. They also drink and smoke more, exercise less and generally do not take care of themselves very well. How do we know, then, that it’s the processed meat that is increasing the risk of heart disease rather than these other things—or perhaps some combination of these other things and the processed meat? The answer is, we don’t. Good studies attempt to control for some of these confounding factors, but inevitably some will not be controlled for. And one of the most important potential confounding factors that is never controlled for is the gut microbiome.

Red Meat: Another Red Herring?