DEBUNKING THE CHOLESTEROL MYTH

Cholesterol Myths


So how confused are you with the whole issue of cholesterol. If you are like most people and are concerned about your health you have most likely been told to watch your levels of “good” and “bad” cholesterol. We have been erroneously led to believe that there exists such a thing as good and bad cholesterol and that cholesterol-lowering drugs are the answer when cholesterol levels get too high.

Is this really true or is this just misinformation or marketing strategies designed by pharmaceutical companies to sell more drugs? In this BLOG I will offer information that debunks 3 myths surrounding this cholesterol confusion.

Myth #1: There is “good” and “bad” cholesterol.
In reality there is no such thing as bad or good cholesterol. There is just cholesterol. We are led to believe that LDL equals bad cholesterol and that HDL equals good cholesterol. Well nothing could be further from the truth. LDL which stands for Low Density Lipoprotein and HDL stands for High Density Lipoprotein. These molecules are protein, not cholesterol. Cholesterol is a fatty waxy molecule that is produced in the liver. It is not water soluble, which means that it cannot be transported in blood vessels by itself. It is transported from the liver to the rest of the body by…guess who? LDL. Guess who transports cholesterol from the rest of the body back to the liver to be recycled…? You guessed it, HDL. Cholesterol is not bad. In fact, it is essential. Cholesterol is the precursor to steroid hormones such as testosterone, oestrogen, and cortisol. It is also a key component in cellular membranes. So, it plays an important role in healing and cellular replacement. You need cholesterol to make new cells. One valid concern surrounding LDL is not its quantity in the blood, but its particle size. Small LDL particles can become lodged between tiny gaps in blood vessel walls. If they remain there they become oxidized and turn rancid which results in inflammation, which leads me to…

Myth #2: High cholesterol causes cardiovascular disease.
It is not the cholesterol, but the small LDL particles that get stuck in the arteries, become oxidized, turn rancid, and result in inflammation that lead to cardiovascular disease. It is this chronic inflammation that leads to plaquing or scarring of vessel walls. The high cholesterol levels are really your body trying to heal damaged tissue by cellular replacement, which requires cholesterol. Larger LDL particles pass freely through blood vessels transporting cholesterol without becoming stuck. LDL particle size is not routinely tested for, nor do cholesterol drugs regulate particle size. The only way to ensure that your LDL particles are of the larger variety is through proper diet.


Myth #3: Cholesterol Lowering Drugs reduce your risk of heart disease.
There is no doubt that cholesterol-lowering drugs are successful at lowering cholesterol. However, results are mixed as to whether or not they actually prevent heart disease. Some say yes, while others report that these drugs may actually increase risk of heart disease. What physicians commonly overlook is that patients taking cholesterol-lowering drugs such as Statins become depleted of Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) which leads to fatigue, soreness, muscle weakness, and heart failure. Regardless of whether or not a drug decreases the risk of heart disease associated with cholesterol, the fact is that people don’t develop heart disease because they have a lack of statin drugs in their bodies. Outside of a small percentage of people with a genetic disorder called hypercholesterolemia, which requires medication to control, most can achieve optimal cholesterol levels, LDL particle size, and eliminate the associated inflammation through healthy lifestyle choices. Follow these recommendations from Dr. Joseph Mercola if you want to truly normalize your cholesterol levels and decrease inflammation:

o Normalize your insulin levels by decreasing or eliminating sugar and grains from your diet.
o Start taking a quality fish oil supplement that is full of beneficial Omega 3 fatty acids.
o Have your iron levels checked. Excess iron can cause oxidative damage to blood vessels and is a contributing factor to cancer risk.
o Get regular exercise.
o Reduce emotional stress
o If you are a smoker, stop today. No excuses!

Whatever you do, don’t fall victim to the false belief that cholesterol is the most important risk factor for cardiovascular disease and that you must have drugs to manage it. Instead, let your body regulate your cholesterol the way that it was designed to do. Your body depends on you to make the right lifestyle choices to keep it healthy and fit. Please share this message with friends and family. It may very well save a life. If you have health concerns or need help with developing a healthier lifestyle, please contact us.

Chiropractic is so simple

“YOU CANNOT SOLVE A PROBLEM WITH THE SAME LEVEL OF THINKING THAT CREATED IT.” ~Albert Einstein


The premise behind Chiropractic is so simple yet so effective!
Your nervous system is responsible for coordinating and controlling the function of all tissues, organs, and cells in the body.

Interference to the nervous system decreases the ability of the body to heal itself.
Chiropractors REMOVE nerve interference known as Subluxation or spinal misalignments!

By removing subluxations, chiropractors maximize the body’s ability to heal itself by affecting the central nervous system (CNS)

So what Causes Subluxations
• Physical Stress – Birth Trauma, Falls, Accidents, Chronic bad posture, Chronic sedentary lifestyle, Repetitive motion
• Biochemical Stress – Food additives, environmental toxins, lack of proper nutrients
• Psychological Stress – Increased stress hormone levels


So the goal of chiropractic is to allow your body to function without interference and create more balance. In essence, the role of chiropractic care in your life is to allow you to heal better, not just feel better. If you have subluxations, they will be dimming your potential and hindering how you cope and adapt to the daily stresses and strains.

Your future health lies in the balance of the decisions you make from this day forward. Something you think, say, or do today could change your life and the lives of many forever.

SO WHAT EXACTLY IS HEALTH?

Well according to 2 well respected sources health is:-

A state of optimal physical, mental, and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. Dorland’s Medical Dictionary

“A condition of wholeness to which all of the organs are functioning 100% of the time.” Webster’s Dictionary

In other words Health is about function not feeling!

To survive we need 4 essential things

1) Food:- consists of proteins, fats, carbohydrates, vitamins, and minerals.
A balanced diet is essential for optimal health. The quality and quantity of the foods that we eat affects our overall health potential. Food is the fuel and building block for growth and reproduction of cells and tissues.

2) Water:- your body is 75% water; all your cells, tissues, and organs are primarily water. If you drink unhealthy fluids or not enough fluids it will decrease your health potential. Drinks with caffeine, alcohol, additives, dyes, and sugars cause imbalances in body chemistry which can be harmful as nearly all activity in your body is affected by chemical messengers.

3) Oxygen:- is used in almost every reaction in the body and is carried by the pulmonary and circulatory systems. Exercise, deep breathing, massage, chiropractic care, acupuncture, yoga, and many other methods help to increase the oxygen levels in our tissues. If oxygen levels are decreased, so is your health potential.

4) Nerve Impulse:- is the most commonly overlooked essential for life and optimal health. In reality we can survive for a limited period of time without the first 3 essentials, however without a nerve supply we cannot function at all. The nervous system is the master system of the body. The nervous system controls and coordinates every tissue, cell, and organ in your body.

Our nervous system is made up of 2 parts:
1) Central nervous system 2) Peripheral nervous system

It is the only organ system that is protected by a bony structure, the spinal column. If the quality of nerve impulse is diminished, so is your health potential.

So what would happen if there was interference in your nervous system?
Your brain and body would lose the ability to communicate properly.
You would have decreased function and decreased health potential.
You may have no symptoms until the damage becomes permanent.

So Nerve Interference is BAD! It causes:-
Dis-ease or lack of balance and ease of function leading to disease and symptoms such as degenerative arthritis, organ disease, decreased energy, impaired immune function, restlessness, and decreased ability to concentrate.

How does this interference occur? Well the most common form of nerve interference to the nervous system is due to Vertebral Subluxation.

A subluxation is a fixation or mis-alignment of a spinal vertebra that creates imbalance or interference to your nervous system. Doctors of Chiropractic are the only doctors that are trained to detect and correct Vertebral Subluxation.

So if you haven’t had your spine and nervous system checked recently, call us.

“Nothing is, unless our thinking makes it so”-Shakespeare

“We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts we make our world.” ~BUDDHA


c) Think Well
Science has provided incontrovertible evidence that your state of mind profoundly affects the state of your body and vice versa. Scientists talk of the mind body spirit connection. Simply positive brain thoughts promote health whilst negative thoughts promote ill health and disease.

A great illustration of this was a very famous case in the US where a patient was diagnosed with a terminal disease and given 6 months to life. Well 6 months passed and sure enough the patient died, well on autopsy what did they find the patient died from? Nothing! There was absolutely nothing wrong with them! There had been a huge mistake in the original diagnosis. He had literally thought himself dead!

That is quite an extreme case but it perfectly illustrates the importance in the Mind Body connection. You take away hope and you are left with nothing. My own father in law, who had motor neuron disease, is another example he was told he had 12 months to live, and when did he die, 12 months and 1 day after his diagnosis.

As Gandhi said “A man is but the product of his thoughts. What he thinks he becomes.”

So negative thoughts are toxic and result in stress and illness. Positive thoughts, on the other hand, push you towards health.

Why is it that our thoughts can be so powerful? The answers lie within Quantum physics – reason being is that everything is energy including your thoughts and as with the basics laws of physics: like attracts like. Your thoughts become your words, your words become your actions and your actions become your habits.

What is also very important is that your brain cannot process a negative, so if I tell you not to think about a blue car what are you thinking about? Exactly, you are thinking about a blue car. Another classic example of this is with kids, you tell them “don’t fall” and what do they do? They fall. Their brains cannot understand a negative. Or learning to drive, don’t hit the kerb, crash!

So always focus on positive things such as health NOT sickness. If you are continually telling yourself “I will never be rid of this back pain.” You are exactly right!

Your mind is like the Genie from Aladdin and the Lamp – Your wish is my command! Energy flows where attention goes!

Henry Ford once said “Whether you think you can or think you can’t, you are right”. It is so true! There are so many examples in the literature of patients literally thinking themselves well.

We all have so much stress in our lives yet so much of it is needless! So many of us live our lives either in the past or in the future! Well living in the past is much like driving a car from Fermoy to Cork by continually looking in the rear view mirror. How far would you get? Exactly, not far! Whereas constantly living in the future is living in never ending anticipation. Yet the time is now so live life now!

So what else can you do to help you think well? Basically anything that exercises your mind! Science has shown that reading, crosswords, playing scrabble all these past times are healthy pursuits. Learn a foreign language! Do a night class. Just exercise your mind and SWITCH OFF THE TV!

And also like your body your mind needs adequate rest. Anyone who says they can survive on less than 6 hours sleep a night is deluding themselves - Ronald Reagan or Margaret Thatcher, both suffered from dementia and other mental diseases. So get adequate sleep.

You are what you eat!

b) Eat well
Considering all the cells in your body, including your brain cells renew themselves every 6 to 12 months and some, like your skin cells renew themselves every month, your body must have healthy food to enable these repairs and what we know about food is that it is as powerful as any medicine that science can design. Yet we insist on feeding our bodies with rubbish – we are the fast food generation!

But think about it if you were a car and you put in dirty fuel what would happen well you would get a cough and a splutter and eventually a big bang. Well your body is no different you will get the cough and the splutter and eventually the big bang when they close the coffin lid! It is exactly the same except you are a lot more valuable than a car.

I was reading an article a few weeks ago that valued your body at 38 million dollars – it was taken from insurance and medical sources. It is a staggering amount well it is time we started treating our bodies as if we truly believe that it is worth that much!

Just imagine if you owned a horse worth that amount – would you let it smoke, stay up late, drink alcohol, take drugs, not exercise and sit watching telly all day? In an answer no you wouldn’t; you would make sure it had the best of everything the best organic food; it would have the best care, the best of everything. We are living an incongruent life folks!

Just look how we are raising our children, is it any wonder that the majority of children have had at least 5 courses of antibiotics by the time they are 5? Childhood obesity is reaching endemic proportions along with all the health risks that it brings!

So what can you do to eat more healthily? Well firstly keep it simple and secondly add to your diet first before taking things away. Quite simply diets do not work – 90% of people who go on weight loss programmes have regained their original weight plus an extra 2 pounds within 2 years!

You eat things for a reason, so for example if you love chocolate you are eating it because it causes a particular reaction in your body. May be you eat it when you are stressed. Well if you just stop eating it the next time you get stressed the craving will return! And that is why diets do not work.

It is against human nature to seek pain or avoid pleasure!

Instead you must add things to your diet until you no longer need the other stuff. So to eat healthier you simply need to add 1) more fresh fruit, 2) more fresh vegetables preferably home grown or organic, 3) drink more water and 4) take a fish oil supplement because our diets lack certain vital essential fatty acids and 5) eat organic meat! And that is that! Not a big ask but I can guarantee you it will make a difference. So if you simply start eating one piece of fruit a day, you will move towards better health.

SPINAL MOVEMENT

Move as if your life depended on it!

So let us look at the 3 simple steps to better health!
a) Move Well

Quite simply we evolved from 4 legged creatures to up right bipedal humans for a reason - to allow us to move. Yet the majority of people don’t move nearly enough, they get up in the morning, sit and have breakfast, drive to work, sit all day at work, drive home and sit in front of the TV before going to bed? If they are lucky they may be on their feet for at most maybe 30 minutes in the day. As the title of this post suggests you need to move as if your life depended on it – because it does. It has been proven that physical inactivity contributes to most illnesses. Studies have shown that up to 50% of all cases of Type 2 diabetes, coronary heart disease and many cancers were prevented by 30 minutes of moderate exercise each day in middle aged women.

So why is movement so important? Well
1) our bodies are filled with toxins (poisonous chemicals) from the air we breathe and the food we eat and our health depends on moving them out of our system?
2) it increases the blood supply to the brain which can make you smarter!
3) it stimulates the brain. The brain is like a muscle, and it is a case of use it or lose it! According to Roger Sperry the 1981 Nobel Peace Prize winner, 90% of the stimulation and nutrition to the brain is generated by movement of the spine. This would be analogous to a windmill generating electricity. For instance, if you put a cervical collar on someone after a car accident the parts of the brain that deals with the neck very quickly starts to shrink. This shrinkage can be clearly seen on functional mri scans.
That is why Chiropractic care is so important. It keeps your spine supple and flexible which keeps your brain more healthy! Think about it, how do you feel if you sit around all day? No doubt you would feel tired, which is somewhat of a paradox since you did not expend energy! But what happens if you move around, expending more energy, do you feel more tired? No you feel more energised. So if you energise the brain you can change its function, form and structure.
I hope you get how powerful this concept really is because it can change your life? And,

4) It improves the communication of your nervous system. Your nervous system controls every single part of you and like a mobile phone conversation if you are passing through an area of poor coverage the message can get distorted and you miss out on vital words or indeed sentences. Well the same occurs in your body, spinal misalignments where the spine twists out of position interferes with proper nerve flow and problems arise; whether that be restricted movement or pain but it can also be higher blood pressure, heart burn, colic in babies, ear infections, headaches etc etc.

So, regular exercise, along with regular chiropractic care is critical. According to PR Newswire (Wellness & Alternative Healthcare) “Chiropractic care clearly can help improve the overall wellness of the aging population…”