By request of a good friend, this will be a quick review of this video (below) by Dave Feldman, where he is asking for participants for a study on cholesterol and plaque build-up. While his intention might be good, he has no idea of what he is doing and is mixing pseudo-science into his own hypothesizes.
This all goes back to the “doctors” (charlatans) Brown and Goldstein, who allegedly saw a patient that in their words, “determined the scientific course of the rest of our lives.”
This patient was a little girl with an alleged “disease” they call “Familial Hypercholesterolemia” (FH), which simply means very high levels of cholesterol. They claim that the odds of getting this “disease” is one in a million, and the girl died of a heart attack at age 6. Now, those who are stupid and make nonsensical associations, would say that the high levels of cholesterol gave her a heart attack. That is of course pure nonsense. Let me explain this as easily as possible.
This abnormality, with ‘odds’ being “one in a million,” is simply a disorder where the body, for some reason, is unable to synthesize the carrier protein for cholesterol. This is why you see high levels of cholesterol in the blood, because it is not being transported, absorbed, and used by cells. And we know that your body manufacture cholesterol since it’s needed by all cells (all cells are partly made from cholesterol), especially the brain and the heart, but also for repair, and especially repair of the blood vessels. That is why we see higher cholesterol levels in those where their body is trying to repair itself.
So, what is actually happening is that people with this “disorder” are dying from cell-starvation of lack of cholesterol since they can’t absorb it. The levels of cholesterol in the blood have ZERO to do with it. The cells in the heart were unable to continue function from lack of cholesterol, thus a heart attack ensued and the poor girl died. Simple logic. So, let’s carry on.
The charlatan Goldstein then claimed that:
“this little girl had only an elevated LDL… Her only risk factor for having a heart attack at age 6 was this high level of LDL.”
No, this Dr Goldstein made the most fundamental and gravest errors in analyzing data that one is able to make. What is the first thing you learn? Yes, association does not establish causality! Yet, this crackpot Goldstein goes ahead and does just that single thing, without any regard to human physiology. Again, her cells could not repair on maintain themselves because she could not transport the cholesterol to her cells. Her cells broke down and died from lack of cholesterol.
Then this Dave Feldman shows a study of ‘associations’ from 2017 made by a group of pseudo-scientists who gave themselves some silly title. And looking at their conflict of interest, they have associations with pretty much every Medical Company known to man, and have received grants from companies including Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Novo-Nordisk, Unilever, Kowa, Sanofi, Lilly, Merck, and Amgen to mention a few. It’s all rubbish.
Now, on the other hand, you have established studies like “LDL-C does not cause cardiovascular disease: a comprehensive review of the current literature,” by Uffe Ravnskov, et al from 2018.
Then Dave goes on to present his Lean Mass Hyper-Responder (LMHR) hypothesis, where he states that cholesterol scores can be higher in those who are lean and/or athletic on a “low carb diet.”
This is not a surprise, because a “low carb diet,” as in a ketogenic diet or carnivore, is our species appropriate diet. Our bodies need a lot of cholesterol for cell health, cell repair, and making hormones such as testosterone. So, when you eat according to your species need, the “cholesterol levels” or “score” will be slightly higher, where it should be for your specific physiology.
Then he goes on about “risk factors,” something that has never been established, they are only hypotheses. As for low cardiovascular risks, he mentions “low triglycerides” and “high HDL cholesterol,” factors that almost has no associations even in the literature.
Then he mentions “High Risk Factors,” as in “cause and effect,” something that has never been established anywhere. These are also hypotheses. And in this column, he mentions, “High LDL-C / LDL-P / ApoB.”
So, what does “high LDL” mean? Is that the lipo-protein carrier or the estimated cholesterol that has been delivered to the cells around the body by the LDL? Because these has never been measured in a lab. When you get a blood test and a LDL value, that is an estimate and not a measurement.
Then he goes on about his “eligibility criteria” for his own study of his LMHR hypothesis.
1. Have been on their current diet for two years or longer.
Ok, you are relying on people being honest about their eating habits. That is not scientific.
2. Had an LDL cholesterol of 160 mg/dL or below before adopting a low carb diet.
Again, blood samples are an estimate and they can fluctuate widely. They only look for the lipo-protein carriers of cholesterol, or rather the existence of them in your blood. So, how many lab results should be needed to establish a range? How confident are you in these results? Is one blood test taken at any given time and under any given circumstance good enough for your criteria?
3. have seen an increase of 50% or more in their LDL cholesterol to at least 190 mg/dL or above since adopting a low carb diet.
Again, does this relate to the estimate of cholesterol or the concentration of lipo-protein?
4. Have HDL cholesterol at 60 mg/dL or above.
5. Have Triglyceride levels at 80 mg/dL or below.
That’s it? No criteria that people on, for example, idiotic cholesterol-lowering statin medications will be excluded?
Then he goes on and tell us about the participants, how they will be flown in, checked into a hotel room, trying to get the 12 to 16 hours of fasting before next morning when they will take scans and blood work. And then fly them back home. Yeah, these blood tests will not be accurate after travelling, sleeping at a hotel and stressing about to get it all done in just one day. Then they will have a new appointment in “roughly” a year later. Very scientific…
The scan is looking for “plaque” buildup and is to be referenced to the blood work to measure “plaque progression.” That is, referenced to the bloodwork that will be a total mess from the stress of travelling.
Then he concludes that nobody will know how the “plaque” progression looks like until this study is done.
Well, we already know the answer. There is no need for this study. If you adopt a low carb species appropriate diet, the risk for cardiovascular disease will be minimal. Perhaps you are trying to prove it. Unfortunately, your study as formulated above will be useless, because it does not meet scientific methods or standards. Still, it seems that you Dave, think that LDL cholesterol can be harmful because that is what you mention in the interview that comes next in your video. And that only special “LMHR” individuals following a special diet will be at “low risk.” That is not true. Same with the “professor” being interviewed stating that HDL is still a good predictor for cardiovascular disease, which is it not. Total misrepresentation of the available data in the literature. Elevated HDL is no more protective than elevated LDL is damaging. Neither causation has been established. Both are false.
These people have been brainwashed with false science since Brown and Goldstein, so I guess it’s hard for them to re-learn and let their ego go and admit that everything they have thought and practiced has been totally wrong.
The level of cholesterol, and thus the level of lipo-proteins, is managed by your own body, depending on your physiological needs – as long as your body have enough resources to manufacture it or it’s provided by the food you consume. If you consume more cholesterol that your body need, it will be excreted in your feces. In other words, there is never any danger to consume too much cholesterol. Your body is designed to absorb and use what it needs and what it can, and to get rid of what it can’t and doesn’t need.
LDL and HDL are both carriers of cholesterol, protein, phospholipids, and triglycerides. They exist in various variants because that is how they will fit with different cells that need them to function. Different cells have different needs, so there are of course different types of carrier lipo-proteins. It’s not more complicated than that.
And cholesterol has nothing to do with any kind of disease, that is baseless speculation from not understanding how to separate association with causation, it’s pseudo-science. It’s only if you deprive your body of external sources of cholesterol that it will not be able to keep up and manufacture its own, and that spells disaster. A lack of cholesterol will slow down the repair process, it will hamper brain function as seen in Alzheimer, it will shut down hormone production, especially testosterone, as seen in vegan soy-boys becoming skinny-fat non-genders. And a lack of cholesterol will eventually kill you. The same way as it killed the little girl who could not transport and absorb cholesterol.