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<?xml-stylesheet type="text/xsl" href="http://articles.mercola.com/utility/FeedStylesheets/rss.xsl" media="screen"?><rss version="2.0" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:slash="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/slash/" xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/"><channel><title>Here's How Cholesterol Damages Your Heart</title><link>http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2007/10/13/here-s-how-cholesterol-damages-your-heart.aspx</link><description>High blood cholesterol is known to contribute to atherosclerosis, or hardening of the arteries, which in turn increases your risk of heart attack and stroke. Now, researchers from the Saint Louis School of Medicine have found out how it does this. The</description><dc:language>en</dc:language><generator>CommunityServer 2008.5 SP1 (Build: 31106.3070)</generator><item><title>re: Here's How Cholesterol Damages Your Heart</title><link>http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2007/10/13/here-s-how-cholesterol-damages-your-heart.aspx#18090</link><pubDate>Tue, 06 Jan 2009 11:28:25 GMT</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">24451277-a5aa-4add-96dc-64081bfd86fa:18090</guid><dc:creator>healthfoodjunkie</dc:creator><description>&lt;p&gt;I thought Calcium is to blame for atherosclerosis not Cholesterol. And that is why we need D3 to place Ca in right parts of our body instead in arteries.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;img src="http://articles.mercola.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=18090" width="1" height="1"&gt;</description></item><item><title>re: Here's How Cholesterol Damages Your Heart</title><link>http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2007/10/13/here-s-how-cholesterol-damages-your-heart.aspx#18088</link><pubDate>Sat, 20 Oct 2007 23:20:38 GMT</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">24451277-a5aa-4add-96dc-64081bfd86fa:18088</guid><dc:creator>dressagefreak</dc:creator><description>&lt;p&gt;My mother's drug salesman--er, doctor--has her on 2-3 different pills, including Lipitor for high cholesterol. In addition, she takes 5 (yes, 5!) Aspirin a day because a dr. that she saw in the E.R. recommended so (I'd like to find this &amp;quot;dr&amp;quot; and have a word with him!...Probably wouldn't do any good though :-( ) I tried telling her she's killing her liver with all of that Aspirin, but she tunes me out, I guess because a &amp;quot;doctor&amp;quot; said so. And when I start discussing the cholesterol issue, it's even worse--she looks at me like I'm a raving lunatic. :-(&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Seeing as I haven't had any luck getting her to quit using Aspartame, I don't see her stopping the Aspirin regimen, much less confronting her doctor about Lipitor any time soon. My mother is 56 years old, works her ass off, NO exersize whatsoever, crap diet, and the aforementioned drugs and I know she's on the fast track to death and there is apparently nothing I can do to save her. :-( Does anyone have any suggestions as to how to help her? I'm an only child, so my parents are the only 'close' family I have. I worry sick about them. My dad (age 71) has the same crap diet and lack of exersize, but fortunately he only takes one drug (I think.)&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;img src="http://articles.mercola.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=18088" width="1" height="1"&gt;</description></item><item><title>re: Here's How Cholesterol Damages Your Heart</title><link>http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2007/10/13/here-s-how-cholesterol-damages-your-heart.aspx#18087</link><pubDate>Mon, 15 Oct 2007 22:15:51 GMT</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">24451277-a5aa-4add-96dc-64081bfd86fa:18087</guid><dc:creator>Freedom</dc:creator><description>&lt;p&gt;The New Labour British government together with the British Heart Foundation are intent on lowering the nations Cholesterol even lower and are going to ask doctors to push more Statins onto the nation.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;A well known UK margarine manufacturer; FLORA MARGARINE sponsors the world renowned London Marathon........a nation running on a product that is one molecule from being Tupperware; or so I read in one report about margarine compared to dairy butter.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;So.........what is going on here ?&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;img src="http://articles.mercola.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=18087" width="1" height="1"&gt;</description></item><item><title>re: Here's How Cholesterol Damages Your Heart</title><link>http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2007/10/13/here-s-how-cholesterol-damages-your-heart.aspx#18086</link><pubDate>Mon, 15 Oct 2007 05:19:23 GMT</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">24451277-a5aa-4add-96dc-64081bfd86fa:18086</guid><dc:creator>astrolenn</dc:creator><description>&lt;p&gt;Katee, don't know if you have ever heard of EFT, but this could really help you with your energy. &amp;nbsp;By doing the affirmations involved with the process you can help yourself greatly and the greatest thing about working with the EFT is that you do it when you want for whatever length of time. It has come to the point where the first thing I try when my body gives me a problem is this technique. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt; &amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp;Lenn&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;img src="http://articles.mercola.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=18086" width="1" height="1"&gt;</description></item><item><title>re: Here's How Cholesterol Damages Your Heart</title><link>http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2007/10/13/here-s-how-cholesterol-damages-your-heart.aspx#18085</link><pubDate>Sun, 14 Oct 2007 03:25:01 GMT</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">24451277-a5aa-4add-96dc-64081bfd86fa:18085</guid><dc:creator>skippa</dc:creator><description>&lt;p&gt;Acid is to blame for plack buildup in your arteries ,not &amp;nbsp;cholesterol.Your arteries are lined with muscles to assist &amp;nbsp;your heart with blood ciculation.Once your body ph drops below a healthy 7.4 it becomes a corrosive acid that will irritate the arteries (note:never the veins,no mucsles there) Once the irritation becomes &amp;nbsp;an injury the body sends cholesterol to repair the hole caused by the acid.If the damage is not repaired you would bleed to death. Thank God for cholesterol. You must alkalize your body now !&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;img src="http://articles.mercola.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=18085" width="1" height="1"&gt;</description></item><item><title>re: Here's How Cholesterol Damages Your Heart</title><link>http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2007/10/13/here-s-how-cholesterol-damages-your-heart.aspx#18082</link><pubDate>Sat, 13 Oct 2007 20:43:19 GMT</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">24451277-a5aa-4add-96dc-64081bfd86fa:18082</guid><dc:creator>Russ G.</dc:creator><description>&lt;p&gt;Man, am I glad this site exists! &amp;nbsp;And we should point our loved ones and friends here for all of their health related questions and issues - BEFORE they start jamming synthetic chemicals down their throats for every little physical complaint. &amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Dr. Mercola's mention of Dr. Rosedale (not the first time) is quite reassuring to me. &amp;nbsp;I've read Dr. Rosedale's book, &amp;quot;The Rosedale Diet&amp;quot; (possibly at Dr. M's recommendation) and found it to be very enlightening.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;He focuses on two key systemic indicators for health and disease - leptin and insulin. &amp;nbsp;He touches a little on leptin's counterpart, ghrelin, which causes us to feel hungry. &amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;But mainly, he breaks down in detail (and in terms we all can understand) the relationship between leptin and insulin and how an imbalance in one tends to lead to an imbalance in the other. &amp;nbsp;And how they work together to self-perpetuate either health or lack of health. &amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Not so much a diet book as a &amp;quot;life&amp;quot; book, after reading it you'll know for certain why America and other Westernized countries are experiencing such an epidemic of obesity and diabetes - starting with younger and younger people each year. &amp;nbsp;Do yourself a favor and read it!&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I don't know about you, but lately when I'm watching the tube, I mute all the commercials. &amp;nbsp;Between the overly-loud (how did &amp;quot;they&amp;quot; ever get permission to jack-up the volume on ads?) car commercials and the plethora of over-hyped drug ads, I'm just fed up.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Have you ever stopped to count how many drug ads are FED to you during every hour of TV you watch? &amp;nbsp;And the types of drugs in relation to the type of show being aired? &amp;nbsp;And the presentational techniques being used - male/female, cartoon, music, length of ad, etc.? &amp;nbsp;If you haven't consciously done it yet, you should. &amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;My recent most-hated commercial is the Dr. Robert Jarvik Lipitor spot. &amp;nbsp;What a SELLOUT, is all I can think of that guy. &amp;nbsp;Yeah, maybe he dedicated his life to the study of the heart way back when, but apparently not anymore...&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Be well,&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;img src="http://articles.mercola.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=18082" width="1" height="1"&gt;</description></item><item><title>re: Here's How Cholesterol Damages Your Heart</title><link>http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2007/10/13/here-s-how-cholesterol-damages-your-heart.aspx#18080</link><pubDate>Sat, 13 Oct 2007 14:25:48 GMT</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">24451277-a5aa-4add-96dc-64081bfd86fa:18080</guid><dc:creator>SugaRant</dc:creator><description>&lt;p&gt;Further to 12PSTreet &amp;amp; others' wondering about cholesterol, I'd say it isn't necessary or useful to make levels a prime cause for concern. Cholesterol's needed by the body, which will actually be forced to MAKE it if you don't eat enough! The only effective way to lower it is to use statin drugs (like the infamous Lipitor) - but since your brain's partly made of cholesterol &amp;amp; uses it to function, statin drugs have very nasty effects on your memory, &amp;amp; also cause muscle damage (&amp;amp; isn't the heart 1 big muscle?). If you haven't heard of Dr Duane Graveline, a former NASA astronaut, I'd highly recommend his book &amp;quot;Lipitor: Thief of Memory&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Cholesterol tests aren't reliably accurate; shown by two reporters (Trump &amp;amp; Dearsly) for the UK newspaper &amp;quot;The Sunday Times&amp;quot;, who on 6-Mar-2005 published a story telling how over a 2 day period they each had 3 or 4 tests and got mmol/Litre cholesterol readings of 4.77, 5.42, 5.02 &amp;amp; 6.44; the second reporter's results were 3.8, 4.1 and 6.1. This is ridiculous - doctors are making drug prescriptions in relation to something they cannot even measure accurately!&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Here are some of the best books on understanding cholesterol, that the food, medical and drug industries would rather you don't read:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;* &amp;quot;The Great Cholesterol Con&amp;quot; by Dr Malcom Kendrick (2007) - easy to read and humourously written: a great introduction to the subject&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;* &amp;quot;Cholesterol and the French Paradox&amp;quot; by Frank A Cooper (2006) - written by a man with Familial Hypercholesterolaemia (his body can't regulate cholesterol levels, which are very high indeed - yet he's in perfect health and has had relatives with the same genetic complaint live into their mid 80s.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;* &amp;quot;The Great Cholesterol Con&amp;quot; by Anthony Colpo (2006) - has over 1400 medical references, &amp;amp; shows the flaws in cholesterol research &amp;amp; examines alternative medical studies on what causes heart disease.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;* &amp;quot;The Cholesterol Myth&amp;quot; by Prof Uffe Ravnskov, MD, PhD (2000) - examines the start of the fraud in the 1950s.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;img src="http://articles.mercola.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=18080" width="1" height="1"&gt;</description></item><item><title>re: Here's How Cholesterol Damages Your Heart</title><link>http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2007/10/13/here-s-how-cholesterol-damages-your-heart.aspx#18079</link><pubDate>Thu, 27 Sep 2007 20:01:35 GMT</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">24451277-a5aa-4add-96dc-64081bfd86fa:18079</guid><dc:creator>Blobby</dc:creator><description>Cholesterol repairs damage in the arterial walls. &lt;br&gt; The biggest cause of raised cholesterol,therefore arterial damage,is stress and inflammation. &lt;br&gt; Reduce the stress and inflammation and cholesterol will drop. &lt;br&gt; Low cholesterol causes all sorts of diseases including cancer. &lt;br&gt; Ingested cholesterol ,in foods such as eggs, has NO effect on blood cholesterol levels whatsoever. &lt;br&gt; Conclusion: Statin Drugs are one of the biggest scams ever. &lt;img src="http://articles.mercola.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=18079" width="1" height="1"&gt;</description></item><item><title>re: Here's How Cholesterol Damages Your Heart</title><link>http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2007/10/13/here-s-how-cholesterol-damages-your-heart.aspx#18073</link><pubDate>Thu, 27 Sep 2007 13:41:38 GMT</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">24451277-a5aa-4add-96dc-64081bfd86fa:18073</guid><dc:creator>12PStreet</dc:creator><description>My experience is that when I do go in for treatment of an ailment (which is rare),&amp;nbsp;my health care providers have focused on my high cholesterol levels instead of what I want help with, in spite of&amp;nbsp;other markers being o.k.&amp;nbsp; I went in for back pain&amp;nbsp;a year 1/2&amp;nbsp;ago now and the&amp;nbsp;MD wanted to give me 3 different prescriptions to lower my cholesterol (which I didn't fill), after another year of living with the back pain,&amp;nbsp;I went to an ND who&amp;nbsp;recommended mass doses of fish oils and Niacin (which I did for a few weeks)&amp;nbsp;and a low cholesterol diet (which I didn't do),&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;after 3 months more of&amp;nbsp;back pain, I went to a DC who is&amp;nbsp;now treating&amp;nbsp;my back pain with good results (he found&amp;nbsp;two ribs that had been broken some time ago&amp;nbsp;that had healed over and caused scar tissue and other complications I don't entirely understand).&amp;nbsp; The DC largely stays away from the cholesterol issue.&amp;nbsp; I don't always understand where to go for help and give up a little too easily sometimes.&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;I am also following the protein type nutritional plan with good success.&amp;nbsp;I read Mercola a lot&amp;nbsp;and belong to&amp;nbsp;WAPF.&amp;nbsp; I&amp;nbsp;have done a lot of reading on cholesterol and it gets pretty confusing for people like me who are not&amp;nbsp;educated in healthcare, same with the Vitamins A &amp;amp; D discussions.&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; For a while I was wanting to get my cholesterol levels retested to see if there was an impact due to the chiropractic treatment and diet but&amp;nbsp;I've decided to just let it go for now.&amp;nbsp; I find&amp;nbsp;practitioners to be&amp;nbsp;resistant to give&amp;nbsp;you the tests&amp;nbsp;YOU request, like vitamin D levels.&amp;nbsp; Anyway, I'd just like to feel well while I'm&amp;nbsp;here and at this point I feel much better, in fact, pretty good, in spite of high cholesterol.&amp;nbsp; &lt;img src="http://articles.mercola.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=18073" width="1" height="1"&gt;</description></item><item><title>re: Here's How Cholesterol Damages Your Heart</title><link>http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2007/10/13/here-s-how-cholesterol-damages-your-heart.aspx#18072</link><pubDate>Wed, 26 Sep 2007 23:06:48 GMT</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">24451277-a5aa-4add-96dc-64081bfd86fa:18072</guid><dc:creator>Rivkah_203</dc:creator><description>I'm pleased to announce that after following the protein type diet with liberal amounts of coconut oil (a physician family friend said I was "killing" myself) for&amp;nbsp;six months,&amp;nbsp;my cholesterol at my last physical was 210 and my HDL was 66. My Dr. was impressed. &lt;img src="http://articles.mercola.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=18072" width="1" height="1"&gt;</description></item><item><title>re: Here's How Cholesterol Damages Your Heart</title><link>http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2007/10/13/here-s-how-cholesterol-damages-your-heart.aspx#18070</link><pubDate>Wed, 26 Sep 2007 17:24:55 GMT</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">24451277-a5aa-4add-96dc-64081bfd86fa:18070</guid><dc:creator>qtface</dc:creator><description>What garbage. Cholesterol rises because of inflammation. Reduce the
body's inflammation and cholesterol levels drop. I won't take that
statin drug poison. I dropped my cholesterol by walking, fish oil, and
greatly reducing grains &amp;amp; processed food in my diet. What if
elevated cholesterol is a misunderstood&amp;nbsp; protective mechanism in
our bodies? My father-in-law died at 89 of Alzhiemers. His cholesterol
levels were below 160 and the doctors still told him to "watch your fats". I'd rather die of a heart attack than die of
Alzhiemers, it's torture. &lt;br&gt; &lt;img src="http://articles.mercola.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=18070" width="1" height="1"&gt;</description></item><item><title>re: Here's How Cholesterol Damages Your Heart</title><link>http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2007/10/13/here-s-how-cholesterol-damages-your-heart.aspx#18066</link><pubDate>Wed, 26 Sep 2007 13:40:57 GMT</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">24451277-a5aa-4add-96dc-64081bfd86fa:18066</guid><dc:creator>tjohan</dc:creator><description>This post was deleted because it violated &lt;a href="http://v.mercola.com/Termsofservice.htm" target="_blank"&gt; our Terms Of Use &lt;/a&gt;: &lt;br&gt; Abuse, harass, humiliate, deceive, threaten, impersonate, intimidate or engage in any other abusive behaviors with those who comment on Mercola.com.&lt;img src="http://articles.mercola.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=18066" width="1" height="1"&gt;</description></item><item><title>re: How Does Cholesterol Damage Your Heart?</title><link>http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2007/10/13/here-s-how-cholesterol-damages-your-heart.aspx#18060</link><pubDate>Tue, 25 Sep 2007 15:33:27 GMT</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">24451277-a5aa-4add-96dc-64081bfd86fa:18060</guid><dc:creator>Katee Roux</dc:creator><description>&lt;div&gt; &lt;SPAN&gt; Sounds like junk science,  &lt;SPAN style="text-decoration: underline;"&gt; again &lt;/SPAN&gt; , to me. &lt;/SPAN&gt; &lt;/div&gt; &lt;div&gt; &lt;br&gt; &lt;/div&gt; &lt;div&gt; &lt;SPAN&gt; Human bodies are incredibly complex.  Which is why lowering cholesterol alone does not make a significant difference to actual mortality rates.  It upsets the balance in the body &amp;amp; problems form in other areas.  I'm shocked this article would state that statins  &lt;SPAN style="text-decoration: underline;"&gt; lower &lt;/SPAN&gt;  cancer rates, when the truth is statins  &lt;SPAN style="text-decoration: underline;"&gt; increase &lt;/SPAN&gt;  cancer rates by supplying new capillaries to the tumors. &lt;/SPAN&gt; &lt;/div&gt; &lt;div&gt; &lt;br&gt; &lt;/div&gt; &lt;div&gt; &lt;SPAN&gt; The fact that this study discovered that transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-beta) &lt;SPAN style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 13px;"&gt;   &lt;/SPAN&gt; contributes to hearth health means very little as we still have only grasped one piece of the puzzle.  Our science has a history of finding two puzzle pieces &amp;amp; find they "fit" (or force them two) &amp;amp; state they've "solved" the puzzle of heart disease or cancer, overlooking that the puzzle has another 498 pieces!   &lt;/SPAN&gt; &lt;/div&gt; &lt;div&gt; &lt;br&gt; &lt;/div&gt; &lt;div&gt; We are much more complex than this.  And, as Dr. Mercola's nutritional types indicate:  there is not just one way to eat that works for everyone.  In the same way, i don't believe there is just one set of cholesterol numbers that tell the story for every person.  (Come to think of it, neither do the drug companies, as they keep lowering the numbers for diabetes.)  What may be healthy for someone at a cholesterol of 220, may be terribly unhealthy for someone else.  This is opinion, but i believe it has to do with one's lifestyle, food choices, exercise, &amp;amp; other decisions, as well as family history for cardiovascular disease &amp;amp; cancer are factors as well.   &lt;/div&gt; &lt;img src="http://articles.mercola.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=18060" width="1" height="1"&gt;</description></item><item><title>re: How Does Cholesterol Damage Your Heart?</title><link>http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2007/10/13/here-s-how-cholesterol-damages-your-heart.aspx#18059</link><pubDate>Tue, 25 Sep 2007 15:10:33 GMT</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">24451277-a5aa-4add-96dc-64081bfd86fa:18059</guid><dc:creator>Phantom O Banjo</dc:creator><description>I wonder what they consider to be high.&amp;nbsp; 200 is considered high since they have drugs for it now.&amp;nbsp; I have heard people talk about doctors say oh thats great your cholesterol is 160. &lt;br&gt; &lt;img src="http://articles.mercola.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=18059" width="1" height="1"&gt;</description></item></channel></rss>