Nutrition

Integrative Medicine

What do you think has made the Great Cholesterol Myth resonate so strongly with readers and health professionals?

The Great Cholesterol Myth: Challenging Medical Authority

What do I think has made the great cholesterol myth, that's the book that I wrote with cardiologist Steven Sinatra, and the question is why do I think it's resonated so strongly with readers and health professionals? You know, I think because people suspect that they're not being told the whole truth by the medical industrial complex, if you will, that they're kind of tired of being bullied by doctors who say, oh, your total cholesterol is 206, you need to be on a statin, with no discussion, no willingness to look at the research that suggests otherwise. And I think it's not so much the specific contents of the book that resonated, but it's the emperor's new clothes feel to the book, in which we say, you know, this party line, these talking points that you've just been force-feeding us since 1986 about cholesterol, good and bad cholesterol, and total cholesterol is a crock. Or it's certainly, if not a crock, filled with a lot of holes, and it needs a re-examination, and I think people are just tired of being dictated to by medical doctors who kind of think they're God and know everything, and are unwilling to look at anything that might question some of their most sacred-held positions.

The Great Cholesterol Myth has resonated strongly with readers and health professionals because people are tired of being dictated to by doctors who won't consider any evidence that may challenge their beliefs. The book's appeal lies in its willingness to expose the flaws in the traditional view of cholesterol, which has been force-fed to the public since 1986.

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I believe the Great Cholesterol Myth has resonated strongly with readers and health professionals because it addresses a suspicion that people have about not being told the whole truth by the medical industry. Many are tired of being pressured by doctors who prescribe statins based solely on total cholesterol levels without considering alternative research. It's not necessarily the specific content of the book that resonates, but rather the feeling that the established narrative about cholesterol is flawed or incomplete. The book challenges the conventional wisdom surrounding good and bad cholesterol, as well as total cholesterol, and calls for a re-examination of these widely held beliefs. People are weary of being dictated to by doctors who may come across as all-knowing and unwilling to question their long-held positions. The Great Cholesterol Myth provides an alternative perspective that appeals to those seeking a more critical approach to medical advice.

Can you describe what a particle test is and why it's important for assessing heart disease risk?

Particle Test: The Key to Assessing Heart Disease Risk

So the question is can I describe what a particle test is and why it's important for assessing heart disease risk. So particles are lipoproteins and what you need to know is that cholesterol doesn't just travel in the bloodstream it has to travel in containers and we know of everybody knows of two major classes of those containers high density lipoproteins and low density lipoproteins. There's actually also intermediate density lipoproteins, IDLs, and very low density lipoproteins VLDL. So there's all these different kinds of lipoproteins and the particle test measures how many lipoproteins are in circulation. Why does that matter more than just LDL and HDL? Because if you're managing traffic you want to avoid a traffic accident. What do you want to know? You want to know how many cars are on the road. That's the most important piece of data because the more cars on the road the more likelihood of a crash and the more lipoproteins in circulation the more likelihood one of them is going to get stuck in the endothelial wall and start plaque formation. So we need to know the number of lipoproteins and that is what a particle test tells us. It doesn't just say good and bad cholesterol that's the cargo it tells us about the bolts those are the lipoproteins and how many of them are are in there and what size they are and that stuff is very important for predicting heart disease risk.

A particle test measures the number of lipoproteins in circulation, which is important for predicting heart disease risk since the more lipoproteins there are, the more likely it is that one will get stuck in the endothelial wall and form plaque.

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A particle test measures the number and size of lipoproteins, which are containers that transport cholesterol in the bloodstream. These lipoproteins include high density lipoproteins (HDL), low density lipoproteins (LDL), intermediate density lipoproteins (IDL), and very low density lipoproteins (VLDL). While most people are familiar with LDL and HDL cholesterol, it's important to look beyond these classifications. The particle test provides essential information by revealing the quantity of lipoproteins circulating in the blood. This is crucial because it's comparable to managing traffic on the road – knowing how many cars are present helps prevent accidents. Similarly, understanding the number of lipoproteins is vital as an increased amount raises the risk of one becoming lodged in the endothelial wall, leading to plaque formation. By examining lipoprotein numbers and sizes, a particle test helps predict the likelihood of heart disease. It goes beyond simply categorizing cholesterol as good or bad and provides valuable insights into lipoprotein count and composition, which are crucial factors in assessing heart disease risk.

Unraveling the Mystery: The Power of Randomized Double-Blind Studies

What's a randomized? Double-blind study. Great question. So, if I want to find out if something works, whether it be a drug, a supplement, a diet, a method of learning the violin, whatever it is, I want to test it and I can't just take the first 10 people. I meet in the street and say, well, you try this and the second ten people I meet in the street and say, you try this because we have no idea if maybe the first 10 people I see on the street are all men and the second 10 just came from the hospital and they're all in wheelchairs. You've got to make sure your Comparing apples to apples, and oranges to oranges. So the first thing you do in a randomized, double-blind study, is you take a population of subjects that you're going to study something on and you make sure they're as equal as possible. What you're really looking for is the human equivalent of Lab Rats where every single genetic factors been controlled in their diets, been controlled in their history has been controlled. So with people, you make sure it's the same sex, the same age, basically the same medical history and stuff like that so that you have pretty much too. Equal groups of people and then you get one of them to treatment and the other doesn't get the treatment and at the end you see whether or not there's a difference. Now what makes it blinded is that we know that there's a lot of confirmation bias has a lot of people's expectations that implements results. So we don't tell people whether they're getting the drug or they're getting the placebo. It's blinded you as a subject are either taking a placebo, which is an inert substance or you taking the drug but you don't know which is which so your Ins cannot influence the results and the double bond part is that the experimenter doesn't know which one you got. So when the people are looking at, at the end of the experiment, they're coding the behavior. They're looking at the results, they don't know, which group got the drug, and which God droop got the placebo. It's double blind in that the people doing the study, don't know which one they got and the people coding it. And and and evaluating it. Don't know which people got which Mint. And that's how you can really compare oranges to oranges and apples to apples, and know that you've minimized. The effect of expectations and confirmation bias,

A randomized, double-blind study is a method of testing something by taking a population of subjects and making sure they are equal in terms of sex, age, and medical history. The study then gives one group the treatment and another group a placebo, without either group knowing which one they are receiving. This helps to minimize the effect of confirmation bias and expectations on the results.

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A randomized double-blind study is a method used to determine if something, such as a drug, supplement, diet, or learning method, is effective. In this type of study, it is important to ensure that the subjects being tested are comparable to each other. This means controlling factors like gender, age, medical history, and other relevant variables. The goal is to have two equal groups of subjects, with one group receiving the treatment being studied and the other group not receiving it.

The study is double-blind because neither the subjects nor the experimenters know who is receiving the actual treatment and who is receiving a placebo. This is done to prevent biases and expectations from influencing the results. The experimenters who evaluate the outcomes also remain unaware of which group received the treatment and which received the placebo. This ensures that the evaluation is unbiased.

By conducting a randomized double-blind study, researchers can compare similar groups and minimize the impact of expectations and confirmation bias, allowing for more accurate and reliable results.

How does the historic work of Ancel Keys relate to contemporary recommendations for healthy eating?

Ancel Keys' Historic Work: A 50-Year Impact on Healthy Eating

Whoever wrote this question must be like, how can we plug in Jonny Bowden? Okay. How does the historic work of ancel keys? Relate to contemporary recommendations for healthy? Eating ancel Keys. Got us on the wrong path and he screwed us up for the last 50 years because we've been following this idiotic advice ever since he first came out with it. So ancel keys for those who don't know, wrote a very famous and often referred to study called the seven countries study in which he Time to show that heart disease was directly related to how much saturated fat you consumed. So there's no way I can take this on in a minute and a half. Let me just say dr. Sinatra. And I wrote a book called The Great cholesterol myth. We go into all of the fallacies of ancel keys work. I'm not the only one who wrote a book like that the Big Fat Surprise by Nina tie, cloak is a great book. Good calories, bad calories by Derek Gary. Taubes. They all tell the story of the Miserable fact that ancel Keys, proselytizing for a low fat? No, saturated fat. Diet has done to our health, you can see the results, just look around you in America, we have an epidemic of diabetes city, which is a combination of diabetes, see, diabetes, and obesity and all the other metabolic illnesses that have come largely. Because we followed this cockamamie low-fat diet because we believed saturated fat raises cholesterol and cholesterol causes heart disease. They are not true. They have been disproven. We've got 212 references in our book that you can look at and Nina's got even more in her book. So it has continued to Emma to impact the recommendations of the government. The food pyramid, what we feed in hospitals and schools in the Army. All of that stuff with this low-fat idiocy and it is all really. We can put at the at the feet of dr. Ansell keys.

Ancel Keys is largely to blame for the prevalence of low-fat diets in America, which has caused an epidemic of diabetes and other metabolic illnesses. His work and recommendations have been disproven but his ideas still influence the government's dietary advice.

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The historic work of Ancel Keys, unfortunately, has had a significant impact on contemporary recommendations for healthy eating. Keys conducted a study called the Seven Countries Study, which claimed that heart disease was directly linked to saturated fat consumption. However, this study and Keys' subsequent promotion of a low-fat, low-saturated fat diet have been widely criticized and debunked.

Numerous books, such as The Great Cholesterol Myth by Dr. Sinatra and Jonny Bowden, The Big Fat Surprise by Nina Teicholz, and Good Calories, Bad Calories by Gary Taubes, have exposed the fallacies in Keys' work. These books highlight the negative consequences of following a low-fat diet, including the epidemic of metabolic illnesses like diabetes and obesity that we see today.

Despite the evidence against Keys' theories, his recommendations continue to influence government guidelines, the food pyramid, and the diets provided in hospitals, schools, and the military. The misguided emphasis on low-fat eating has had detrimental effects on public health.

In conclusion, Ancel Keys' work has had a lasting impact on contemporary recommendations for healthy eating, but it is important to recognize the flaws in his research and the negative consequences of following his low-fat ideology.

Can you describe the major misconceptions about cholesterol that existed at the time you wrote The Great Cholesterol Myth?

Breaking Down Cholesterol Misconceptions: A Time Capsule

Can I describe the major misconceptions about cholesterol that existed at the time that we wrote The Great Cholesterol Myth? Well, we wrote the first edition in 2012. I'd say the biggest misconception was that cholesterol causes heart disease. It was a very simplistic way of seeing a very complicated, multi-layered, multi-factorial process. And all of that was getting lost because people were just looking at cholesterol, and worse, they were looking at total cholesterol, which, let me quote the great Peter Atiyah, total cholesterol has about as much to do with your risk for heart disease as your hair color does. So that's kind of where people were back in 2012. I think that's beginning to change, although there's still a tremendous amount of emphasis on those standard measures. And that was kind of the time at which we tackled that issue. Fat was still being very demonized. Nobody was on keto diets except, you know, crazy people that were following Atkins. Fat didn't have the acceptance it has now as a dietary macronutrient. People certainly weren't trying to get more fat into their diet. And I don't think people truly understood how absolutely dangerous metabolically and every other way sugar was when we wrote that book. The sugar industry bought itself a pass in terms of PR, and that's a well-known story, but not for this format right now. And people weren't really looking at sugar as much as they are now. So those were some of the things in the zeitgeist at the time that we wrote the first edition.

In 2012, when we wrote The Great Cholesterol Myth, the biggest misconception was that cholesterol causes heart disease. People were still demonizing fat and not realizing how dangerous sugar was.

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The major misconceptions about cholesterol at the time we wrote The Great Cholesterol Myth in 2012 were primarily centered around the belief that cholesterol causes heart disease. This oversimplified view neglected the complex, multi-factorial nature of the process. Moreover, the focus was often on total cholesterol levels, which, as Peter Atiyah famously stated, has little correlation with heart disease risk compared to factors like hair color. Fat was still heavily demonized, and the acceptance of fat as a dietary macronutrient was limited. Keto diets were not widely adopted except by a few enthusiasts following Atkins. The dangers of sugar were not fully understood, and its metabolic and overall health implications were underestimated. The sugar industry had successfully managed its public relations image during that time. However, since then, there has been a shift in awareness and attention toward the detrimental effects of sugar consumption. These were some prevailing ideas and trends in the zeitgeist when we addressed these topics in our book's first edition.

Can you describe the ApoB test and how it relates to the particle test?

APOB test: A reliable surrogate for advanced lipid profiling

The question is, can I describe the APOB test and how it relates to the particle test? The particle test is an advanced lipid profile, for want of a better word, a better cholesterol test. It tells you information like how many lipoproteins you've got in circulation. That's a very important metric that the HDL-LDL test doesn't tell us. However, the APOB tells us that information almost as well, if not exactly as well. The reason is that every LDL particle in your system, in your body, in your circulatory system has a protein wrapped around it called an APOB protein. And if you count the APOB proteins, you're basically counting the number of particles. So it's a very good surrogate for the harder to get particle test.

The APOB test is a type of advanced lipid profile, which is a better cholesterol test. It measures the number of APOB proteins in your system, which is a good measure of the number of lipoproteins in circulation, giving similar results to the particle test.

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The APOB test and the particle test are related in terms of assessing lipid profiles and cholesterol levels. The particle test is an advanced lipid profile that provides more comprehensive information compared to the traditional HDL-LDL test. It reveals data about the number of lipoproteins present in circulation, which is a crucial metric not covered by the HDL-LDL test. On the other hand, the APOB test acts as a reliable surrogate for the particle test. It measures the presence of APOB proteins, which are wrapped around LDL particles in the body. By counting these APOB proteins, one can estimate the number of particles in circulation. Therefore, the APOB test serves as a valuable alternative to obtaining information about particle levels when a full particle test is not available or necessary.

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Jonny Bowden, PhD, CNS answers your Integrative Medicine questions. See all the advice Jonny Bowden, PhD, CNS has and get answers to your own Integrative Medicine questions.

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Jonny Bowden began his career as a jazz musician, studying under Herbie Hancock and at Juilliard before earning degrees in music & psychology from NYU. He found his passion for nutrition while working as a pianist for Alvin Ailey Dance Theatre. Bowden changed careers and earned 6 personal training certifications, a psychology masters, and a nutrition PhD. He was the Dean of the Equinox Fitness Training Institute for 4 years and became a board-certified nutritionist. Bowden has penned 15 books, including best-sellers "The Great Cholesterol Myth," "Living Low Carb," and "150 Healthiest Foods on Earth”. He's a worldwide speaker, has appeared on every major network (ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, Fox, MSNBC), has been interviewed on dozens of podcasts, and featured in The NYT, Men’s Health, Woman’s World, Forbes Online, GQ, Cosmo, Self, Prevention, InStyle, Shape, and O, The Oprah Magazine. Known as The Nutrition Mythbuster™, Bowden is committed to debunking health myths and speaking truth to power.