Another Piece of the Puzzle

[Biologist]

From page 122 from "Reverse Heart Disease Now" by Dr. Sinatra:

"Low HDL is a serious risk factor for heart problems. It is the component of cholesterol that picks up harmful oxidized LDL and transports it back to the liver for removal."

He may actually mean "oxidized cholesterol" rather than "oxidized LDL", but he is trying to keep it simple for people. But here the point: This explains why HDL is so important. It is not that cholesterol or LDL is necessarily too high and HDL is their to remove it, it is just that the Oxidized Cholesterol needs to be removed since it is what causes the problems. LDL delivers fresh cholesterol to the cells. HDL removes the stale cholesterol.

I decided to buy another copy of Uffe Ravnskov's book. Looks like the old ones should be considered collector's items now. Look at the price!

*http://www.amazon.com/Cholesterol-Myths-Exposing-Fallacy-Saturated/dp/0967089700/ref=sr_oe_2_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1238468745&sr=1-2

And look at the price of the remaining hard cover versions:

*http://www.amazon.com/Cholesterol-Myths-Exposing-Fallacy-Saturated/dp/0967089719/ref=sr_1_1/190-6903953-2388230?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1238657600&sr=1-1

My doctor will not be getting that one, or even one of their useds ones!

Here's his new one. I ordered it instead:

*http://www.amazon.com/Fat-Cholesterol-are-Good-You/dp/919755538X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1238469099&sr=1-1

Biologist

[Biologist]

By the way, reading one of the reviews of Uffe Ravnskov's original major book (cited above), which was written in the year 2000, it appears that Ravnskov was not sold on the Predictive Powers of "high" or "low" (as deviating from the norm) HDL levels for heart disease. It is still unclear to me if there is actually a cause and effect relationship (as suggested by Dr. Sinatra). It will be interesting to see if he elaborates on this more and has some new thoughts based on the scientific evidense accumulated since the first book. What interests me is the new concept (at least new to me) that the PRIMARY role of HDL may be the specific removal of damaged HDL, a concept of which may not be at odds with the issue of causation. Here's the reviewer's quote:

"Dr. Ravnskov went on to show that higher levels of high-density-lipoprotein (HDL, "good" cholesterol) are not protective against CHD, and that lower levels of low-density-lipoprotein (LDL,"bad" cholesterol) are not beneficial, although the expected associations of each with CHD are present. Here again, conclusions at odds with the researchers' own data were presented. Intimations that there are “manyâ€Â