Paula H. wrote:

>Debby,
>
>I am not as well versed in the science as Todd is, but I am not sure that
>cholesterol does matter with heart disease.
>
>Have you read The Cholesterol Myths by Dr. Uffe Ravnskov?  Have you read the
>Eades?  They have a graph of deaths from all causes plotted against total
>cholesterol levels.  IIRC, deaths from all causes are lowest in the 160 -
>220 cholesterol range.  Too low a level of cholesterol causes the death rate
>to rise.
>
>Everyone's experience is different.  For me, after I had eaten low carb for
>awhile my cholesterol dropped from 199-201 to 165.  My HDL is 63 and my HDL
>is 94, triglycerides are 42.  I do not restrict sat fat consumption.  I eat
>all the fat on my meats - visible and otherwise.
>  
>

I've read Ravnskov and the Eades.  In fact, it's from the Eades that I 
first learned about the small-dense LDL theory.  Ravnskov concedes that 
there is a weak correlation between cholesterol and heart disease in 
certain groups--notably men between 40 and 60, if I remember.  He 
argues, convincingly, that the correlation is too weak to indicate that 
cholesterol is *causing* heart disease.  In my own case, no amount of 
paleo dieting has ever brought my cholesterol below 260, and when I 
first started, it shot up to 320.  On a low sat-fat Zone diet, it went 
down to about 220.  I haven't had it tested in a few years, so I don't 
know what it might be right now.

Todd Moody
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