The cholesterol myth
huffingtonpost.com
The cholesterol myth
1–10 of 23 posts
Re: The cholesterol myth
#2If you go in there, don't forget to wear your critical thinking cap, some goggles, and hip-waders. You're going to need them.
Re: The cholesterol myth
#3As someone who's trying to sort through the frequently-conflicting information out there on health and diet, I found a lot of this article interesting, though I felt sometimes like the author was trying to sell me something more than he was trying to educate me.
Then this caught my attention:
> Address your emotional challenges. I particularly love the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) for stress management.
Curious about what that was, I googled it and ended up getting an overview from wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emotional_Freedom_Technique):
> Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) is a form of alternative psychotherapy that purports to manipulate the body's energy field by tapping on acupuncture points while a specific traumatic memory is focused on, in order to alleviate a psychological problem.
Further reading makes that technique appear more and more pseudoscientific to me. I realize that advocating pseudoscience in one respect doesn't mean he's advocating it in another, but it does not engender trust.
Edit: more on this author: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Mercola http://www.quackwatch.com/11Ind/mercola.html
Re: The cholesterol myth
#4If you go in there, don't forget to wear your critical thinking cap, some goggles, and hip-waders. You're going to need them.
HuffPo bills itself as "the internet newspaper" but it's really an internet tabloid, and their health and living stories doubly so.
Re: The cholesterol myth
#5My research focuses on the human genetics of lipoproteins (casually referred to as cholesterol, though in truth they are soluble cholesterol-fatty-acid-protein-vitamin globs). I'm happy to address questions people may have on this.
Though he makes some true statements, I feel that his thrust is misleading, and I'll plan to expand on this in another post. For example, you do need cholesterol to transport fat-soluble vitamins (K,A,D,E) - but the amount of cholesterol that you need is so extremely miniscule that there is no way, short of a Mendelian lipid disorder, to get your cholesterol low enough to worry about vitamin transport.
Re: The cholesterol myth
#6My research focuses on the human genetics of lipoproteins (casually referred to as cholesterol, though in truth they are soluble cholesterol-fatty-acid-protein-vitamin globs). I'm happy to address questions people may have on this. Though he makes some true statements, I feel that his thrust is misleading, and I'll plan to expand on this in another post. For example, you do need cholesterol to transport fat-soluble v…
As a fellow molecular bio guy, I agree with you. I like a healthy degree of skepticism, and I think cholesterol is altogether too taboo in the US (to the point where people won't eat eggs, even though it's been shown that people do not absorb almost any cholesterol from eggs) BUT this guy uses a lot of misdirection in his post and I'm left with a bad taste in my mouth.
This article amounts to saying "cholesterol is not always bad" (true) and "all of your cells need cholesterol" (true), therefore "most cholesterol is good for you" (probably false), and "don't try to lower your cholesterol using modern medicine" (too absolute a statement for me to buy).
My take?
1. Physicians do need to question what they learn about medicines and their actual uses/usefulness. They need to avoid the temptation to latch onto medical zeitgeists and bandwagons, instead thinking through what they know and don't know about drugs they prescribe.
2. Skepticism is good, but it needs to be responsible skepticism. Especially with regards to complex medical issues, honesty and humility (not pre-conceived notions) are most important.
Re: The cholesterol myth
#7Please be aware of this dubious source. Not only is HuffPo basically a bastion for crackpots with outrageous anti-establishment medical claims, but Dr. Mercola is on a sort-of one man war for crazy.
For example, he believes that Aspartame is surely a deadly neurotoxin that EVERYONE uses daily: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-mercola/aspartame-health-ri... And also, pasteurized milk is surely bad, right? http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-mercola/dairy-free-avoid-th... (nevermind the other issues at play!) (and milk in general is a deadly cancer-causing toxin! http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2000/07/3...)
This guy has some extremely fringe and poorly supported claims, has a vanity domain name offering health advice, and sells health products direct over the internet (including known scams like Acai berry extract, "bioTHIN", and even a line of "healthy cookware!").
In other words, he has all the red flags of a Kevin Trudeau that hasn't been caught yet. He's selling magic light lamps (http://products.mercola.com/himalayan-salt/himalayan-salt-la... ) for pete's sake!
Re: The cholesterol myth
#8As someone who's trying to sort through the frequently-conflicting information out there on health and diet, I found a lot of this article interesting, though I felt sometimes like the author was trying to sell me something more than he was trying to educate me. Then this caught my attention: > Address your emotional challenges. I particularly love the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) for stress management. Curious…
One thing I've found interesting in my readings is that sunscreen beyond ~SPF15 (Zinc and/or Titanium dioxide only, no benzene chemicals) are directly correlated with skin cancer. As the sales of sunscreen go up, so do the rates of skin cancer, why? #1 the main chemical used to 'protect' our skin actually has a breakdown chain to benzene, think all the fuss over Potassium/Sodium benzoate in Coke/Pepsi, but absorbed into your bodies largest organ in considerably larger quantities. #2 Vitamin D is known to boost our immune system, decrease heart disease, etc.
Vitamin D decreases heart disease? Cholesterol + Melanin + UV radiation = Vitamin D. So not only does vitamin D decrease your cholesterol, it also strengthens our immune system, which can actively remove plaque from our arteries.
Low cholesterol diets are dangerous for many reasons, mainly because cholesterol is a key element in synthesizing myelin. Myelin is the insulation on nerve cells, which is why women should never be on cholesterol-reducing drugs while of fertile age and will cause a fetus to develop no viable nerve cells causing still birth or mental development problems.
Similarly, children shouldn't be on low-cholesterol diets until about 25 (when mental development -relatively- stops) or they're at risk of developing serious conditions. Sunscreen again should probably be avoided unless they're going to get way too much sun.
Re: The cholesterol myth
#9Please be aware of this dubious source. Not only is HuffPo basically a bastion for crackpots with outrageous anti-establishment medical claims, but Dr. Mercola is on a sort-of one man war for crazy. For example, he believes that Aspartame is surely a deadly neurotoxin that EVERYONE uses daily: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-mercola/aspartame-health-ri... And also, pasteurized milk is surely bad, right? http://www.h…
For a slightly less fringy defense of this view, check out the International Network of Cholesterol Skeptics: http://www.thincs.org/news.htm
Re: The cholesterol myth
#10Please be aware of this dubious source. Not only is HuffPo basically a bastion for crackpots with outrageous anti-establishment medical claims, but Dr. Mercola is on a sort-of one man war for crazy. For example, he believes that Aspartame is surely a deadly neurotoxin that EVERYONE uses daily: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-mercola/aspartame-health-ri... And also, pasteurized milk is surely bad, right? http://www.h…
Nonsense! Why just look at mercolaquack.com, which helpfully tells you how he's totally not a quack, merely a victim of a massive smear campaign!
Because THEY are out to get YOU, and only HE stands in the way to stop them, by selling you thing which are "not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease."