In a message dated 6/22/03 4:40:04 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:

> both high and low levels.

How do you determine what is too high or too low?  Depending upon who you
ask, you will invariably get different answers.  Also, take a look at thincs.org
and you'll find that stress before having blood drawn will alter cholesterol
numbers.  Apparantly they can fluctuate for a variety of reasons.  I wouldn't
worry about cholesterol numbers unless you can find compelling connection
between them and health.  I have not found any credible evidence of cholesterol
levels being connected to coronary heart disease.  Check out Anchell's book Steak
Lover's Diet for a revealing look at how the American Heart Association kept
lowering the recommended cholesterol level without a shred of scientific
basis.  There's also info on this on Barry Grove's (auther of Eat Fat Get Thin)
website <A HREF="http://www.second-opinions.co.uk/">http://www.second-opinions.co.uk/</A>
"Too low" cholesterol numbers are allegedly correlated with higher cancer
rates and generally increased mortality rates but perhaps if one has cancer, it
causes their cholesterol to drop.  Therefore, perhaps the low numbers are an
effect rather than a cause.  Who knows?  I doubt anyone ever will.  Sometimes I
think testing can create more problems than it's worth.  I use the woman at my
old job as an example.  She was told she had mildly elevated cholesterol
levels and directed to immediately take statins.  No suggestion was made to alter
her diet.  After taking the statins, she complained of muscle pains/weakness
(likely from depletion of co-Q10), gained more weight and looked like hell --
literally, I've never seen such awful dark circles under a person's eyes.
However, her cholesteral numbers were now in range and her doctor was thrilled.
This is insanity to me.  On the flipside, you get doctors telling millions of
people that their thyroid lab numbers are "within the normal range" and that
therefore, they cannot try even a short trial of thyroid medication to see if
their symptoms are alleviated.  In other words, people are told to just ignore
what are often times debilitating symptoms because their lab numbers are
"normal".  This in my view is equal insanity.

In refererence to your liver post -- if there's anyone on this forum who
lives in NYC -- where do you get lamb liver?  I've never seen it in the stores
here -- just calf and chicken liver.