What’s the Real Deal with Cholesterol? Ask Dr. Mercola

Cholesterol is a substance which is essential for life. Like the air you breathe and the water you drink, your body needs cholesterol because it is a structural constituent of your body’s cell walls and a precursor of many biological molecules, including hormones.

So why does cholesterol get a bed rep?

Unmasking the Cholesterol Myth

Lowering cholesterol for a healthy heart has been a core principle of cardiology for decades and was accepted by doctors and ‘Big Pharma’ to secure quick approval for cholesterol-lowering statin drugs.

But did you know that drastically lowering cholesterol actually increases your risk of death? Your liver makes about 75 percent of your body’s cholesterol, without which your body cannot form cells and produce vital hormones, osteopathic physician Dr. Joseph Mercola explains.

Marketing campaigns produced by drug companies for their statin drugs blame cholesterol as one of the main risk factors of cardiovascular disease to create a multi-billion dollar market for their products while avoiding one of the root causes of the condition: chronic inflammation.

Inflammation is your body’s complex protective biological response to foreign threats, such as bacteria and viruses.

For example, if you suffer damage to your arteries, inflammation will cause your blood vessels to constrict and your blood to thicken. The damage you sustain will be patched by a protective scar known as plaque.

Because no cell in your body can form without cholesterol, your liver produces more cholesterol to help replace damaged cells during inflammation.

The plaque, along with the thickening of your blood and constricting of your blood vessels increases your risk of high blood pressure and heart attacks, Dr. Mercola points out.

There is no scientific evidence that cholesterol, even in moderately elevated concentrations, causes damage to blood vessel walls and causes atherosclerotic plaques and heart attacks if the blood vessel walls are structurally intact.

The Folly of Using Statin Drugs

Cholesterol-lowering drugs are the bestsellers of the global pharmaceutical drug industry. Sales of statin drugs have topped $200 billion dollars per year. This segment of the drug industry is built on the fear that cholesterol causes heart attacks.

However, numerous studies have revealed that cholesterol-lowering drugs are mostly ineffective, have no medical benefits and have dangerous side effects!

Cholesterol-lowering drugs, such as Lipitor and Torvatin, work by inhibiting an enzyme necessary for the  cholesterol production in your liver. However, these drugs also impair important bodily functions and drain your supply of the coenzyme CoQ10, which leads to fatigue, muscle weakness, soreness, and heart failure.

High cholesterol is an “invented disease” and an unnecessary worry because you don’t need to take statin drugs to address your cholesterol concerns. Click here for more cholesterol-related health articles and to find out how to naturally lower your cholesterol levels .

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Tags: Big Pharma, cholesterol, Dr. Joseph Mercola, health articles, inflammation, statin drugs