Philip:
> | Ray Audette stated on p. 186 of NeanderThin (1999 paperback) that
> | "Obviously, excessive blood cholesterol is undesirable...." Yet he 
> | then stated on p. 188 that "Dr. De Bakey found no definite 
> connection
> | between atherosclerotic disease and high blood
> cholesterol...." This
> | seems to be a contradiction. Can anyone explain this?

Janice Frasche:
> I haven't read Audette but there is no conflict in the above 
> statements as I see it.
> 
> Cholesterol is a component of many desireable hormones in the 
> body. It also serves an anti-inflammatory agent. Thusly, the 
> higher the amount of inflammation in the body (such as that 
> which CRP levels measure) the likelihood of of the body to 
> increase cholesterol to battle that inflammation is there. 

Thanks for your response, Janice. So a higher level of cholesterol indicates
a higher level of systemic inflammation (as does CRP) which is generally
accepted as an indicator of potential atherosclerotic disease (hardening of
the arteries). This would explain why Audette said high blood cholesterol is
undesirable, but it doesn't explain his quoting De Bakey saying there is no
connection between blood cholesterol and atherosclerotic disease. So I think
Ray was making a different point.

Ray doesn't mention CRP in the relevant section (nor anywhere else in the
book that I can find), but he does mention insulin and glucose on p. 185:
"High cholesterol is typically the body's response to high blood insulin and
glucose levels resulting from a high-carbohydrate diet." From your words and
Audette's, I'm guessing that Ray was trying to say that high cholesterol is
an indicator of high blood insulin and glucose, but not of hardened
arteries. That still doesn't explain why high blood cholesterol itself is
bad, only that it is the body's response to other bad things. So I think he
was trying to say "excessive blood cholesterol is an indicator of other bad
things (high blood insulin and glucose), but it is not bad in itself,"
instead of "excessive blood cholesterol is undesirable." Thus, high blood
cholesterol would not be a concern as long as blood insulin and glucose were
under control and there would be no need to measure LDL, only blood glucose
and insulin. Do you get that sense?