Conclusions from document at
http://www.medicaltruth.com/pdf-files/CholesterolMyth.PDF - Marilyn

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What the Data Really Show

THE EVIDENCE ON CHOLESTEROL SHOWS: First, while the dangers of high
blood-cholesterol levels have frequently
been exaggerated, no evidence suggests anything desirable about levels above
roughly 240 mg/dl. Among young and
middle-aged men such elevated cholesterol levels have been convincingly
associated with a greater risk of heart attack.
But this relationship cannotbe found among the elderly, who experience a
majority of the deaths from heart attack,or
among women before menopause.

Because the important cholesterol compounds in the blood are synthesized
inside the human body, the link between high
blood-cholesterol levels and diet is tenuous and indirect. A diet rich in
saturated fat, cholesterol, or calories does not
necessarily lead to high blood-cholesterol levels (though it may be
unhealthful for other reasons). Moderately severe
dieting, even for years, does not produce a measurable reduction in the risk
of dying from a heart attack, as MR. FIT, the
government's biggest trial involving diet, convincingly demonstrated.
Individuals vary widely in diet response. Some can
consume large amounts of cholesterol and saturated fat - or diet drastically
- without producing any effect whatever on their
blood-cholesterol levels. At the other extreme, about one in seven people
may be highly sensitive to diet; dieting can either
elevate or decrease the blood cholesterol level of such a person by 10
percent or more.

Drugs lower blood-cholesterol levels more consistently and by larger
amounts. But the drug the government now
recommends - cholestyramine - produced disappointing results when it was
tested. Daily treatment of nearly 2,000 men
with severely elevated cholesterol for seven and a half years may have
lowered the chances of a nonfatal heart attack from
eight to seven percent. And while cholestyramine might have reduced the
incidence of heart attacks, it did not improve life
expectancy at all. The new drug Lovastatin achieves even larger reductions
in blood cholesterol, but neither its long-term
safety nor its ability to prevent heart attacks has been tested.

Laboratory reports on cholesterol are seldom dependable, because of
variation within individuals and inadequate quality
control in clinical laboratories. The best way to get dependable information
is through repeated cholesterol
measurements using a laboratory machine known to be calibrated to a
standardized national sample.

For most of the people most of the time, the advice of Eliot Corday may be
helpful. "Cholesterol should be checked only if
there are sound clinical indications," he wrote last February in the Journal
of the American College of Cardiology. "A mixed
diet low in calories and saturated fat should be recommended along with some
physical exercise. . . . It is irresponsible to
force the public into a costly cholesterol-reducing program without firm
scientific evidence of the effectiveness of that
intervention."