Breath and Heart sounds

LOW CHOLESTEROL KILLS MUSCLE STRENGTH

Now there's a new study that shows that low levels of cholesterol can actually reduce muscle gained from exercising. 

The study looked at 55 healthy men and women in their 60s. Overall, the study concluded those with the higher cholesterol intakeir.gif ¬ had the most muscle strength gain. What's more, the test subjects who were taking cholesterol-lowering drugs showed lower muscle gain than those who were not. 

"Needless to say, these findings caught us totally off guard," said lead researcher Steven Reichman, a professor of health at Texas A&M University. 

If you think you're doing yourself a favor by taking statins or cutting out burgers and eggs, well, think again. The latest studies show that increasing your saturated fat intake is the healthy way to go. But that's another whole article for later.

Big Pharma wants you to think that you have bad cholesterol. They recently cut the bad cholesterol numbers a few years ago from 250 down to 200 to get more money from statin sales. Remember when a cholesterol level of 240-260 was considered ok? 

More and more alternative health doctors these days consider a cholesterol level between 200 and 300 to be within the normal range. Once it's above 300, the elevated levels are simply a sign that protective measures must be looked into to fix whatever is getting ready to break. 

HDL is the good cholesterol, and is needed for your body to function properly. It helps keep the bad cholesterol, LDL, from sticking in your arteries and causing blockages. In fact, recent studies show that no matter what your LDL is, as long as your HDL is in the proper range, your cholesterol will not stick to your arteries. Still, it's best to keep your LDL as low as possible.

I remember a few years ago, my doctor put me on a statin because my cholesterol was 203. Within 2 months it had dropped to 144 and he took me off the statins right away: my numbers were now too low, he said. Nowadays, my numbers are hovering around 203-206 and he still wants me on a statin, but I refuse to take one, now that I know what's really going on

In all actuality, the total cholesterol number is not nearly as important as the actual HDL and LDL numbers. An HDL cholesterol between 40 and 60 mg/dL or higher and an LDL cholesterol of 150 mg/dL or lower is considered good.