THE CHOLESTEROL MYTH
MY PRIMARY DOCTOR, bless his heart, prescribed a Statin drug to lower my elevated blood cholesterol. I asked him why, at my age, would I want to reduce my liver’s production of cholesterol — which is what Statin drugs do — rather than address the cause of these elevated essential lipids, which is inflammation? Especially in light of the fact that we require more cholesterol as we age.
His answer didn’t surprise me — at least what I heard — which was, basically, there’s no treatment protocol for inflammation as the underlying cause of elevated blood cholesterol. In other words, medical doctors are not free to go outside their scope of practice and design natural alternative protocols other than those the “literature” recommends — or dictates. For elevated cholesterol, the remedy is to drug the liver in order to reduce its production of this essential lipid . . . the brain and nervous system left to fare for themselves and suffer the side effects — and they do, with leg aches and clouded thinking. Your brain and nervous system depend on cholesterol for repair and maintenance.
His answer also supported what I already knew about Modern Medicine, and that is Modern Medicine does not address the cause of disease but only manages it by treating its symptoms . . . and that’s partly because it’s what patients want and have come to accept and expect from doctors . . . and it’s what doctors of medicine are taught in medical school, pharmacology being the primary subject when it comes to treating the symptoms of disease. They would have to study subjects such as nutrition, healthy lifestyles, diet, exercise and stress reduction, just to mention the key factors affecting blood cholesterol levels. These subjects are not taught, to my knowledge anyway, in med school.
Cholesterol — both High Density Lipid-proteins (HDL) and Low Density Lipid-proteins (LDL) — is produced by your liver, partly as a patch material for damaged and scared blood arteries, done primarily by high levels of sugar-bearing insulin and adrenalin (cortisol), just to mention one of its purposes. Other purposes served by cholesterol in the body, as mentioned above, relate to the brain and nervous system, which are made of and maintained by this lipid, and for the billions of tissue cells to build and maintain their protective cell walls. So, cholesterol is an essential lipid (fat) in your body. Needless to say, I opted out and declined to take his prescribed drug.
Again, I ask: “Why would I want to inhibit my liver’s production of this essential lipid? Why indeed?!
Now, for the harmful side effects of Statin drugs: have you ever looked them up on the internet? Likely not. It’s just so much simpler and easier to take a pill every day. Lifestyle changes can, after all, be uncomfortable and require critical thinking, an arduous task for some.
Modern Medicine uses harmful chemicals (prescription drugs) to subdue the symptoms of malfunction in the body, commonly of its immune system.
The Hippocratic Oath, which all MD’s take upon graduation from medical college, states as one of a doctor’s ethical commitments, “First do no harm.” This is supposed to be the first duty of a doctor of medicine. The oath doesn’t say “First do not intend harm.” No doctor intends harm. It clearly states “do no harm.” When my primary doctor prescribed a Statin drug to treat the symptom of chronic inflammation in my body — which is what elevated blood lipids is — his intention was to do good. But his good deed included doing harm. His good intentions, as well as his prescribed treatment, had harmful side effects . . . which, by the way, he failed to list . . . until I asked about them.
I once handed my cardiologist a book written by an MD on the “myth” of cholesterol as a cause of heart disease and Statin drugs as a remedy for elevated blood lipids. He avoided the topic altogether and referred me to one of his PA’s — whom I came to love and respect for her open-mindedness and actual interest in my more wholistic and natural approach. She’s been willing to work with me. After all, the health of the patient is of utmost concern and not our discipline and methodology. That’s up to our patients’ to decide which approach they wish to make in dealing with their health issues.
Doctors have to follow medical protocols, and “alternative” naturally supportive methods and protocols, including nutritional therapy, are simply not taught in med school. So, I don’t fault my primary doctor. His intentions are noble. It’s his treatment that is grossly limited when it comes to addressing the cause of his patients’ illnesses.
In Chiropractic college we used to actually feel sorry for them, as all they had between them and their patients was a prescription pad, whereas we had all of Mother Nature’s cornucopia of natural supportive therapies and cures . . . for which blessing I am most thankful, as have been my patients all those fifty years of offering them real health care, as opposed to disease management . . . which, I will add, plays an essential role in our modern day lifestyles and toxic environment.
I will also allow here that reducing the symptoms of pain and other symptoms may offer a reprieve to the body where it can rest and get a better grip on a diseased process and its malfunctioning system(s). Not all medicines are “bad” for you. Vaccines and antibiotics, as well as several symptom-reducing drugs, are essential in dealing with our toxic environment, nutrient-poor diets, and busy lives. But I don’t think taking drugs long term to subdue symptoms without addressing the causes as well is an exercise in wisdom. Yes, we live in a toxic world — in more ways than physical and chemical. All the more reason I feel we should abandon our current approach to disease with still more poisonous concoctions, especially in light of the abundance of more natural approaches that have become available to us over the past several decades.
Why can’t modern medicine embrace wholistic healthcare and incorporate it into its methodology of symptom and disease management? Well, the answer, which I need not mention here, is painfully obvious and unfortunate for our species. Natural substances cannot be patented and included in pharmacopoeia, nor covered by health insurance. Money is the god of this modern civilization.
As a closure and an attempt at a little humor, my doctor, and good friend whom we love dearly, chuckled while he joked that he had to find a reason to prescribe some “poison” for me to take! He only said that to humor me because of my more natural and drugless approach to healthcare. We’re in the same healthcare arena doing what we were each given to do to alleviate suffering in those who come to us in hopes of adding years to their lives. God bless and guide us both, and all doctors and healthcare providers.
I trust you have gleaned some helpful information from this post. Until I return to address another health issue, take care of your best friend, you body, along with your mind and heart. Love life and live love.
Anthony Palombo, DC
Email: tpal70@gmail.com




