From Ravnskov's site:

#2 Many studies have shown that people whose blood cholesterol is low become
just as arteriosclerotic as people whose cholesterol is high.

#4  There is no evidence that too much animal fat and cholesterol in the
diet promotes atherosclerosis or heart attacks.  For instance, more than a
dozen studies have shown that people who have a heart attack haven't eaten
more fat than other people, and degree of atherosclerosis is unrelated with
the diet.

#5 The only way effective way to lower cholesterol is with drugs, but
neither heart mortality or total mortality have been improved with drugs the
effect of which is cholesterol-lowering only.  On the contrary, these drugs
are dangerous to your health and may shorten your life.

When we talk about the HGs cholesterol level we are talking about an
"AVERAGE"  and there are going to be deviations on the high side and the low
side.  This is true of any characteristic in any population; it is depicted
by the Bell Curve.   It is ridiculous to assert that everyone (or expect
that you yourself) should have some "IDEAL"  cholesterol level.  That would
be like saying that everyone should have the same fingerprint, height,
weight, shoe size or eye color.  There inevitably are individual variations.

IMO, one of the problems with Western Medicine is the belief that everyone
should fit into the same size, and then the attempt to "fix" them (make them
conform to the average) with drugs.

Btw:  to the best of my knowledge there is no convincing proof that the
average HG cholesterol level is the best level to have.  There is in fact
some evidence that higher cholesterol is associated with reduced total
mortality and greater longevity.   For example:

1.  Several studies have shown that people with higher cholesterol levels
have lower overall mortality.  For example, Lancet 1997; 350: 1119-23,
recording what Dutch researchers found tracking 724 men and women over 85,
for 10 years.  24% of subjects had so called "normal" cholesterol levels of
less than 200 ml/dl.  48% had "moderately high" cholesterol between 200 and
250 mg/dl.  The rest had cholesterol levels higher (about 28 % of them).
Those with moderately high cholesterol levels were 22% less likely to die
and those with high cholesterol levels were 38% less likely to die during
then 10 year study.  Those with lower mortality had less risk of dying of
cancer and infection.

NOTICE:  These people had a distribution of cholesterol levels that fits the
Bell curve, just what you will find in any population--i.e. about 50% with a
cholesterol level between 200 and 250, 25% with a level below this range and
25% with a level above it.  No matter what diet is implemented, we will
always find a distribution like this.  The range may differ, but the Bell
shaped distribution will not.   Note also that those who interpreted the
data decided that the bottom 25% was "normal", any thing above that was thus
not normal.  This is a wrong interpretation.  The normal is the mid range
wherein the 50% fall, i.e. 200 to 250.  In this study, below 200 was a below
normal cholesterol.

 2.  In addition, some of the modern nations with the highest longevity also
have among the highest average cholesterol levels (>200, e.g. Austria,
Canada, Sweden, and the U.S.).   Meanwhile some of the nations with low
average cholesterol levels (<200) have poor longevity (e.g. India and
China).

I do not know if the data has been collected, but it would be extremely
interesting to know the range of cholesterol levels in HG groups, and the
range of cholesterol levels of the oldest people in typical hunter-gatherer
groups.  Perhaps among them the people with the higher cholesterol levels
(i.e. higher than their average) have reduced mortality rates and greater
chance of living to old age.


Don