Change Your Brain Every Day - Busting The Cholesterol Myth - Why It's Not ALL Bad with Dr Mark Houston

Episode Date: March 27, 2017

Cholesterol it seems has been demonized and most of the times painted like a monster, but the truth is, it's not as bad as you think it is. Today, we're going to find out exactly when it's good and when it's bad for you.

Hi, I'm Donnie Osmond, and welcome to The Brain Warrior's Way, hosted by my friends Daniel and Tana Amon. Now, in this podcast, you're going to learn that the war for your health is one between your ears. That's right. If you're ready to be sharper and have better memory, mood, energy, and focus, well then stay with us. Here are Daniel and Tana Amen.

Welcome back to the Brain Warriors Way. Tana and I are here with Dr. Mark Houston. We are learning so much. Mark, we are just so grateful for your time and your knowledge and sharing it with the Brain Warriors Way community. Today, we're going to talk about the most controversial thing we've talked about yet, which is cholesterol. And cholesterol has been demonized. People are worried about it. They put it on health packages, no cholesterol. So I have to say, it was actually your module that really opened my eyes. So again, I mean, having you here, even today, I've learned more than I did even in your module, but his module on cholesterol was fascinating.

So it was really good. Well, as a psychiatrist, one of the things I started paying attention to 15, 20 years ago was low cholesterol is associated with depression, suicide, homicide, and death from all causes. And I'm like, uh-oh, we have to talk about this. But doesn't a lot of it have to do with what kind of cholesterol you're making, right? So as far as numbers, isn't the number not the only thing we're looking at these days? Yeah. So the cholesterol myth is probably the worst myth that's out there. Most of the therapeutic regimens are cholesterol centric, which meaning if I get the cholesterol down, specifically the LDL cholesterol, everything's going to be okay. Well, here's the real story with cholesterol. The cholesterol, if it's in your body in a native form, is not atherogenic.

It's only when the cholesterol is modified into an atherogenic form, which means oxidized or glycated or some other form, it becomes a foreign protein. And the foreign protein, which is the modified LDL, is attacked by the immune system because it's supposed to do that. So the defensive mechanism that your body mounts against a foreign protein is correct. And it's usually acute and it takes care of the problem. You get rid of whatever the insult is. In this case, it may be oxidized LDL cholesterol. But when it becomes a chronic problem, the body continues to attack it. And then the blood

vessel becomes sort of the innocent bystander in the process. So the collateral damage. Yeah. So here's what I want your audience to understand. Cholesterol in the concept that is promoted in public health has been like a public number enemy. When it really is not an enemy, you have to have cholesterol for function. I mean, it's your membranes, your vitamin D, your sex hormones. And at some point, you get too low in the LDL cholesterol or total cholesterol, you're going to have some health detrimental effects that have to be balanced against the bad effects of a modified LDL. So here's the story. LDL cholesterol is not the enemy. It's the process by which LDL is attacked by your body, which is inflammation, oxidative stress, and vascular immune dysfunction. That is

the etiology of coronary heart disease. And there's huge numbers of ways to look at that. The other myth is this. How many of your patients, not your patients, but patients who are seen, go into their office to their doctor and they say, well, your LDL cholesterol is elevated. Without even thinking about why it's elevated, they put them on a statin. Now, the story needs to be a lot deeper. You need to ask three questions. What's your micronutrient and macronutrient intake? Look at your dietary stuff.

Everybody gets that one. But the two they never ask, are you toxic, heavy metals or pesticides, and you have some chronic subclinical or active infections. All three of those are the primary etiologies of dyslipidemia. In fact, 70% of dyslipidemia in this country is due to one of those three things. No one even asked the questions and checks for it. So if you go back and remove those insults, a lot of people's cholesterol becomes normal without having to specifically treat them with either a drug or even a nutrient for that matter. So diet, toxins, infections. So I just want to recap really quickly. So the cholesterol itself is not the problem. It's what your body is doing to change the cholesterol or how the cholesterol has changed in your body that is the problem, which in some cases can be altered by your lifestyle. Maybe in some cases

not. I know in my case with some thyroid issues I had, I'd struggle with my numbers being a little bit high. When I went in, my doctor, I finally got this amazing doctor. He said, you're always going to struggle with your cholesterol numbers, but what you do for it is really helpful because you've got this thyroid issue and you've had your gallbladder removed. So sometimes our history, right? And it's not just what we're eating, but sometimes your history fights against you a little bit and you have to work a little harder. Is that true? Yeah.

So, I mean, obviously our genetics are important, but most of our diseases are environmental. 80% of our diseases are environmental. So we talk about dyslipidemia. It's a rare patient that has a genetic disorder in lipids. It's usually an environmental story. And it's one of those three things we talked about that you need to measure, correct. And if you do that, sometimes the LDL will come down dramatically and you don't even have to treat it.

But LDL cholesterol modified form through the three processes of inflammation, oxidative stress, and immune function is really the etiology of coronary heart disease. And that's where we need to attack the treatment. So what's the best way to look at cholesterol? Because most people, they get total cholesterol, HDL, which people think of as good, and LDL, which is bad, which is way too simple. But is it to get those numbers and then fractionate the LDL into big fluffy A particles versus little tiny demon B particles?

And if you have the big fluffy A ones, don't worry about it so much. What do you look at? So I'll give you a dyslipidemia 101 nutrition course. And what I think is a present state of the art, the old lipid panels, which you just mentioned, measuring total levels are obsolete. You can't determine in an individual anything related to those. Now, as a population, yeah, you can get statistical analysis. So you have to do advanced lipid testing.

Now, advanced lipid testing is basically measuring particle number and particle size of everything, HDL, LDL, and VLDL, which is your carrier for triglycerides. And within that, the particle number of LDL, LDLP, is the driving risk for coronary heart disease and myocardial infarction. And it's very closely tied to apolipoprotein B, which is the carrier for LDL cholesterol. So that's the bad half. The other half is the oxidized or acetylated or glycated form of that particle. The protective side has always been said to be HDL. Well, HDL total tells you nothing. You have to look at particle size and HDL particle number. But now it's even more complicated.

It's whether it functions. So that's called HDL functionality. And so if you measure even the advanced lipid HDL, if you don't know that it's working, you still don't know the protective risk. So there are tests we have available to measure HDL functionality. One of the best ones is myeloperoxidase or MPO. And soon, we'll be able to measure actually what's called reverse cholesterol transport. That's the ability of HDL to take the bad stuff, the LDL, out of the cell through one of the new labs that's going to be

doing that for clinical use. So advanced testing is important. Particle size, particle number, and functionality of HDL. That's the key. So based on what is available now to people, what do you think is the best test people should ask for or get? So tell your doctor to order an advanced lipid test. And there's about six or eight labs across the country that do that. They're all very good. And you just get one that's cost effective in your area that you can read. So are the words extended profile or

fractionated the same thing? Yes. Extended, fractionated, or advanced are all similar terms. Okay. So again, we have many of our patients say that their doctors say that that's a waste of time or they don't do that. I just want to make it very clear. We are talking to one of the world's most renowned cardiologists right now, and he is suggesting that you get this done. We highly recommend it as well. So one more question. What about eggs? I'm glad you asked that one. Another myth, another myth. Just reviewed that literature as well. There is no data that eating one egg a day increases serum cholesterol. That's number one.

So if you eat seven a week, no problem. Number two, there is no association between eggs, corny heart disease, or myocardial infarction. Yes. And the reason is because eggs are mixed fats with protein. That does have cholesterol, obviously, but it's got a little saturated fat. It's got some monounsaturated fats. It's got some omega-3s.

It's one of the most balanced foods out there. So the egg myth is really an egg myth. You can have eggs. The only situation that is even questionable is in a type 2 diabetic. Yeah, that's what I've heard. So there's like, isn't there like 25% of the population that does convert weird? But otherwise, not an issue.

So for most people, if they start the morning with scrambled eggs and spinach with a cup of blueberries, it'd be all right. Yeah, just don't fry your eggs. Yeah, no. We are so happy to hear that

because we like eggs for breakfast. We travel. It's one of the easiest foods when you travel. So, okay. Organic poached eggs. All right. Dr. Mark Houston, author of What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Heart Disease. His website is hypertensioninstitute.com. I just can't tell you how grateful we are for your friendship and for you helping to educate our community. Thank you so much.

Thank you. Thanks for having me on your show. It's been a pleasure. Thanks, Mark. Thanks for listening to today's show, The Brain Warrior's Way. Why don't you head over to brainwarriorswaypodcast.com. That's brainwarriorswaypodcast.com, where Daniel and Tana have a gift for you just for subscribing to the show. And when you post your review on iTunes, you'll be entered into a drawing where you can win a VIP

visit to one of the Amen clinics. I'm Donnie Osmond, and I invite you to step up your brain game by joining us in the next episode.