In one of my Facebook migraine groups, I constantly get new members getting their required laboratory blood tests, which I ask for to get an idea of their general heath and vitamin/mineral needs. One of the tests I ask for is their cholesterol. I primarily ask for this to judge where their metabolic health is, since in our modern understanding, it is the ratio of triglycerides and HDL that provide a reasonable estimate of metabolic health, as well as clearly a risk index that can be used to judge cardiac health. There are countless articles on this, here are two for your reference: here and here.
The general guideline (using mg/dL cholesterol results) is that this ratio is:
- Ideal between 0.6 -< 1
- Great between 1 -< 2
- Acceptable 2 -< 3
- And cardiovascular risk if >3
In the community of low carbers, meaning people who eat any of the low carbs/no carbs ways: LCHF (low carbs high fat), Keto, or CD (carnivore), we simply don’t see anyone with cardiovascular risk factors once they have been on one of these ways of eating. Why not? Because carbohydrates are responsible for high triglycerides—see example literature on this here. And we know that HDL is the good cholesterol because it helps remove cholesterol fragments and spent LDL, you can read about this here. Note that neither LDL nor total cholesterol is part of the cardiovascular risk factor evaluation at all!
Here is a sample evaluation tool (created for nurses) for cardiovascular disease, and here is one for type 2 diabetes… in which do you see Cholesterol even mentioned?
So Why Do Doctors Still Prescribe Statins to Lower Cholesterol?
The following is a post I made in response to a migraineur who has just posted her lab blood test in my group. I tried not to fume, but I likely did (not at the migraineur, but at the doctor who wants to place her on statins):
“…In terms of your cholesterol:
There is zero problem with high cholesterol! The whole science on cholesterol is based on a single fake study, which has also placed us on vegetable oils, lots of cereals, sugars, and margarine [see the origination of the heart health hypothesis here]! Are you sure you believe that science???
There has NEVER been a study showing that high cholesterol is unhealthy! Never! It’s a fake industry to sell drugs, which was started by Ancel Keys and is alive still today simply because it makes so much money for doctors and pharma [all studies only looked at if cholesterol was lowered by statins but not if this lowering had any long-term cardiovascular benefit at all, so it has never ever been proven that lowering cholesterol was a good thing, see a critic here].
Let me explain a little bit about cholesterol:
1) You brain is 85% fat and cholesterol! (Are you sure the reducing your brain size and activity is a good thing?)
2) Every single cell’s membrane is made of fat and cholesterol! (Are you sure that reducing cholesterol–therefore your cells membrane and increase their vulnerability is a good thing?)
3) Cholesterol is the way your hormones are created, including male and female sex hormones, all steroids, even insulin. These hormones run your body! (Are you sure that it’s a good thing to reduce your body’s ability to create these hormones?)
4) In the middle of processing cholesterol, a substance called CoQ10 is created, which is an essential element in the creation of ATP, the energy each of your cells use and the mitochondria creates. (Are you sure you want to damage/destroy your mitochondria and reduce your energy?)
5) LDL–the so called “bad cholesterol–carries ALL of your fat-soluble vitamins and minerals, such as A, D3, E, K2. (Are you sure that reducing these vitamins in your body is a good thing?)
6) 85% of the human energy is coming from non-esterified free fatty acids (not glucose). These fatty acids travel in the LDL [LDL is not a cholesterol but a “boat” (lipoprotein ball) that carries cholesterol as well]. If your body doesn’t have enough of these fatty acids to use for energy, it will start using glucose. The heart almost exclusively uses fat. If is has to use glucose, within a very short time there will be lactic acid buildup. In order to clear the lactic acid, the heart must stop… ummmm STOP. (Are you sure you want your heart to use glucose and then stop? This is also called a heart attack!)
So, as you see, your doctor is following rules that are based on the current medical guidelines, which are based on absolutely false hypothesis, which to this day–after 60 years–is still called a “Diet Heart Health HYPOTHESIS“… it’s a hypothesis. A hypothesis that has been proven wrong. Please resist your doctor and bad science. There is absolutely nothing wrong with high cholesterol!
So please feel free to increase your meat (essential for survival) and fat (essential for survival) and reduce your carbs (not needed at all for survival). The biggest health risk is carbs (including grains, starches, sugar), veg/seed oils, and processed foods. Be sure you eat none of those.”
Phew. Thanks for letting me fume a bit.
Questions and comments are welcomed, and are moderated for appropriateness, as always.
Angela
Clueless Doctors & Scientists 
My doctor has prescribed pravastatin for me to take, but after researching I am afraid to take it, because of the terrible side effects.
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Jonell, I am not an MD so cannot recommend anything to you but you need to do more than just to accept and pop a pill. You need to ask these questions:
1) Does the food I eat increase or decrease the chances of a cardiovascular disease? What are the foods that increase the risk of cardiovascular disease? Those that cause inflammation, and these are: sugar, starches, ultraprocessed foods, seed/veg oils, grain, high carbohydrate diet. If the food you eat is of this kind of diet, and want to keep eating this way, I recommend you take the statin. If you don’t want to take it, you need to change your diet to zero sugar, zero ultraprocessed foods, zero starches, zero seed/veg oils, zero grains, and zero of low levels of carbohydrates only. Increase meat in your diet, especially red meat and eggs. On a low carbohydrate diet there is zero need for statins.
2) Has your doctor checked your cholesterol (NMR and CAC scores) or just looked at the vehicle numbers in which cholesterol is carried (LDL, HDL–aka standard lipid panel). Because if only your total cholesterol, triglycerides, LDL, and HDL were checked, your doctor knows nothing about your cholesterol.
3) Based on your name I presume you are female. A female, in my opinion, should never, under any condition, be prescribed statins. Some studies have shown that higher cholesterol females live longer and healthier and reduce chances for dementia.
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There is a theory of heart disease common in South America called the Myogenic theory of heart disease. Basically it says your heart needs nutrients called cardio tonics to survive. And much heart disease (heart attack and heart failure) is caused in part by not getting these nutrients. Dioxin is a cardio tonic as is magnesium. A cardio tonic is a steroid.
But never fear, they human body makes cardio tonics — guess what from. Go ahead and guess… CHOLESTEROL.
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Thanks Emily. It is very interesting! Thanks for mentioning “Myogenic theory of heart disease”. Looking this up (using good old Dr. Google), I didn’t find exactly what you referred to, but I found many articles discussing the Myogenic response, which is explained as follows by one article:
“The mechanism by which coronary resistance vessels alter their diameter in response to pressure changes is the myogenic response. We aim to synthesize the relevant existing data for coronary myogenic responses and autoregulation” from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5974144/
And another definition:
“By definition, the myogenic response is the contraction of a blood vessel that occurs when intravascular pressure is elevated and, conversely, the vasodilation that follows a reduction in pressure.” from https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/1415587/
But I couldn’t find anything to read up on the the specific theory. Would you have any links? It woudl be very interesting to learn more about it. 🙂
Best wishes,
Angela
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https://www.westonaprice.org/health-topics/what-causes-heart-attacks/
Don’t look for this theory on mainstream sites. They are not going to admit a south America doctor is right. But, look up the facts. Mainstream is also not going to admit that we make our own Cardiotonic agents. But Cardio tonics keep your hear healthy and it is a steroid — just like Vitamin D (also made from Cholesterol).
If you want proof just look on amazon for products that have “natural” cardio tonics — certain herbs are… for heart issues. 5 stars reported.
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Thanks Emily. I am positive we will not find too many articles on anything because pharma won’t let things published.. only what they think is the right solution.
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Hi Angela,
Re: “The general guideline is that this ratio is:” Are these values based on mmol/L?
Just checked. My triglycerides/HDL ratio for values in mmol/L is 0.634 and for values in mg/dl it’s 1.38
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Hi Roald,
No, these ratios are in Imperial, so mg/dL, so you need to convert. I use this site to convert fast and accurately: https://www.omnicalculator.com/health/cholesterol-units
There is a different formula for the metric but I forget what it is.
Glad to hear from you!
Angela
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The ratios I sent you came from the site you’re using. As you can see, depending on using mmol/L or mg/dl, the outcome is different. Like I already wrote, my mg/dl ratio is 1.38 while the mmol/L is 0.634
Why the difference?
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Because there is a different conversion number from mmol/L to mg/dl for triglycerides than for HDL and LDL. That’s why you need to use that link I posted earlier, convert to mg/dL and then use the division on that. For using it in mmol/L there is one addition number in the formula but I forgot what that was. The clear division: trig/HDL is only valid for the mg/dL
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As I wrote, I used your link already before you mentioned it. My triglycerides was 131 mg/dl. My HDL was 95 mg/dl. So according to your link that leaves me a ratio of 1.38. Which according to you is great, right?
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Yes, it’s great. 🙂 Nothing to worry about. It would be best if your triglycerides <100, which is what's normal for low carbs dieters… mine changes between 56-80 depending on what way I eat, but it never goes over 80.
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The data I sent you were from Januari 2021. My last blood test, though, was done in April, and guess what? Triglycerides were 82 ☑️
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Awesome! That’s a boy! 🙂
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