Tuesday, August 20, 2019

"Bad" cholesterol is not that "bad"





Now a days, every one knows about cholesterol and heart attack. People eat only white of egg and give the yellow part to maid servant (good for her health).

Then came the entry of 'zero' cholesterol cooking oils and people were impressed. They abandoned the traditional cooking oils in favor of these 'zero' cholesterol oils. 
  
In fact, every cooking oil is 'zero' in cholesterol.
Cooking oil comes from plants and plants do not know how to synthesize cholesterol.

Animals synthesize cholesterol and all the animal products have ready made cholesterol (milk,cream, egg,cheese, meat)




Every one knows about 'statins". Many adult males are taking statins for many years and never stop it.

We know that bad cholesterol should be less than 100 mg for protection from heart attack. After taking statins for many years, the 'bad' cholesterol level falls to around 45 -50 mg.which is very low. 

At this stage, it is wise to stop statin for 2- 3 months, and start it only if the cholesterol goes above 100. If it is still below 100, no need to start it again. You should be happy. But the patients are not ready for this. Once on a statin, you cannot stop it and nobody tells them to stop. 

A patient aged 90 years came to me for some minor illness. He is taking a statin for the last 25 years and does not want to stop it. He is still worried about a heart attack (at the age of 90) I said jokingly "look, now you will need some reason to die. Isn't it.  So stop the statin now"  He was not impressed. 


Bottom line:

Cholesterol is a risk factor, but it is not the only one..

There are many other risk factors like diet, lack of exercise, high BP, diabetes, and depression, We ignore them and
focus only on cholesterol.

Role of cholesterol in heart attack is still controversial

No comments:

Post a Comment

How I was dragged into homeopathy

I am Dr. Yadunath Joshi. I passed MBBS from Goa Medical College in 1971 and started my general practice in a suburb of Mumbai (Bhandup) ...