"Total Cholesterol Is An Outdated Concept"
Via Dr. Eades, Dr. William Davis at Heartscan blog sets the record straight on cholesterol numbers:
What does a total cholesterol reading of 220 mg/dl really mean?
There's a good chance your doctor still goes by the outdated thinking that the total cholesterol number matters -- meaning if it's high, you're about to die. Mine thinks that way. I ignore her ideas on diet and exercise and just use her for tests.
More from Dr. Eades on the bogus science underlying "the lipid hypothesis."
When you say that your doctor "goes by outdated thinking", do you mean that she doesn't separate the number into LDL and HDL? (I know that one of those is bad and one is good, but I can never remember which is which.) That seems strange; every doctor I've had in the last 15 years has made that distinction.
Rex Little at June 4, 2011 10:48 AM
My doctor, like many doctors, is clueless about evidence-based dietary science (as opposed to "science"). She, for example, thinks high cholesterol is a bad thing. I, on the other hand, know that high cholesterol seems to be protective in women and that what matters are triglyceride levels and whether your LDL particles are large and fluffy (good!) or small and dense (bad!).
Just to name one example.
Amy Alkon at June 4, 2011 11:18 AM
Amy Alkon
http://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2011/06/04/post_13.html#comment-2216042">comment from Amy AlkonShe also recommends a high-carb/low-fat diet and is rather plump herself.
Amy Alkon at June 4, 2011 11:25 AM
It's only fair to point out there's something else vastly distorting this information market.
Lawyers and lawsuits.
If your doctor gets the religion that the lipid hypothesis is bullshit - before it's accepted by the government and (I forget the wording, but basically, "the consensus of how you treat this"), they'll be financially raped in open court in a malpractice suit.
Some insurances won't even cover costs if you don't do what's the generally accepted practices, for that reason. Many hospitals will suspend privileges if the doctor isn't following the accepted protocols.
And that does have a huge influence on how doctors prescribe, predict, diagnose, etc. If they don't do what's generally accepted, they'll have to explain why, and basically argue against the "known science". That's got a horrible track record in jury trials.
So if you have a heart attack, and she doesn't have documentation that she's TOLD you and tried to give you the cholesterol drugs, she's ripe for losing a lawsuit from you on her malpractice.
My doctor hasn't completely come around on lipids, but he did agree with me when I was nastily dismissive of the current cholesterol BS (promoted on a CCTV in his practice's waiting room) and my observation that every time we get a new drug, the "approved" level drops 20 mg/dl. That said, I pretty sure that when someone comes in with "high" cholesterol, he follows the "Government Guidelines" - at least making notes that he "advised" them of such.
Unix-Jedi at June 4, 2011 11:51 AM
"That's got a horrible track record in jury trials."
(Self-edit)
That is, as a defense, when the plantiff pulls out all the "experts" and protocols that show how it "should have been done".
Not following them is almost always a big loser if you're sued.
Unix-Jedi at June 4, 2011 11:52 AM
like! like! like! oh wait. this isn't facebook. my bad. yeah. i agreed to a cholesterol test from my doctor only because i'd been argumentative on everything else....it's not like i'm going to do anything about it if it's "high". and when average needs to be defined as pathological because "high" doesn't fit your "science" - that's a problem.
me at June 6, 2011 12:08 AM
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