High Cholesterol Doesn't Cause Heart Disease | Debunked
High Cholesterol Doesn't Cause Heart Disease | Debunked
A look inside our arteries at the well documented mechanisms of how high cholesterol starts and fuels heart disease and atherosclerosis in general.
- Links and Sources -
Tiny House Channel: / @tiytinyityourself7733
https://www.patreon.com/micthevegan
https://www.facebook.com/micthevegan
https://www.instagram.com/micthevegan - @micthevegan
https://plantspace.org
Dr. Hyman ‘Cholesterol levels don’t matter’: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-mark…
Kresser: “Diets high in saturated fat and cholesterol don’t cause heart disease” https://chriskresser.com/heart-disease/
“How Does Cholesterol Cause Heart Disease?”
https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/reso…
Fatberg articles:
http://www.sfchronicle.com/weird/arti…
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/20…
“Cholesterol oxidation products (ChOx) have been reported to cause acute vascular injury in vivo…”
http://atvb.ahajournals.org/content/1…
Causes of artery wall injury study:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti…
Macrophages / Foam Cell study:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti…
“The crystals appeared as needles…” http://www.jlr.org/content/35/1/93.fu…
“Minimally modified LDL can lead to cholesterol crystallization” http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/…
Crystals rupturing / piercing lesions study:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti…
Lipemia hypoxia study: https://www.karger.com/Article/ShowPi…
Lipemia from high cholesterol and sat fat diet: https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/…
Nitrates and artery health study: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti…
Vegans lower inflammation study:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2…
Optimal LDL 50-70 mg/dl.
http://www.onlinejacc.org/content/acc…
Dr. Esselstyn’s Clinical trial:
http://dresselstyn.com/JFP_06307_Arti…
Vegan Hypertension Lower Reference:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti…
Content
0.4 -> Hey, it's Mic here and today:
high cholesterol and heart disease.
3.9 -> It appears that most people today now believe that
high cholesterol does not play a role in heart disease,
9.5 -> that that's just old thinking, that's the old way,
12.1 -> and it makes sense because a quick Google search will yield
a ton of results reinforcing that belief.
18 -> You have low-carb doctors like Dr. Hyman telling you that
20.7 -> "...the real concern isn't the amount of cholesterol you have"
23.4 -> and low-carb Chris Kresser telling you that
25.8 -> "✓ Diets high in saturated fat and cholesterol
don't cause heart disease."
30.2 -> Let's go to Burger King!
31.3 -> Or you can stay and watch while we look at the science,
look into our arteries at how heart disease starts and progresses,
37.7 -> then we will see if basing your dietary choices off the idea that
41 -> high cholesterol just doesn't matter is a good idea or not.
44.3 -> Low-carb educators present themselves as
sort of renegades going against the authorities
49.1 -> on the grounds that the authorities are wrong
51.9 -> with an authority like the National Institutes of Health's
Heart, Lung and Blood Institute,
56.8 -> who outright just says that high cholesterol causes
heart disease by building up on the artery walls.
62.3 -> So is the NIH and a variety of other health authorities
with the same view around the world just out of touch?
68.8 -> We will see.
69.8 -> Now at this point, I could pin population studies observing that
higher cholesterol is associated with higher heart disease
77.6 -> against dairy industry and egg industry funded
other observational studies saying the opposite,
84.1 -> but people probably just say:
85.5 -> correlation isn't causation...
88.6 -> and then just outright deny everything I say.
91.4 -> So instead I want to look directly at
the well-documented mechanisms,
94.8 -> in which high cholesterol causes and furthers
the development of heart disease.
100 -> We're going inside the artery.
101.8 -> Ms. Frizzle! Get your school bus.
104 -> To start let's familiarize ourselves with
what cholesterol actually is.
108 -> Cholesterol is essentially little packages of fat in
protein lipo or fat proteins, lipoproteins.
115 -> These are waxy, gooey, sticky particles.
117.9 -> Just using some logic, the more waxy, sticky, gooeyness you have,
the harder it is for things to move.
124.4 -> We know this...
125.4 -> from life!
126.3 -> This is especially a problem in pipes
like our arteries, fats clogged them.
131 -> Looking at a more human scale example of this,
134.2 -> all of the fat that we flush down the drain and poop out
clogs our plumbing systems.
139.7 -> Our actual sewers, from the San Francisco Chronicle:
142.8 -> "Just as cholesterol can slowly constrict human arteries,
145.5 -> the fat buildups can go unnoticed until they constrict the sewer
with catastrophic or at least disgusting consequences."
152 -> These buildups are called fatbergs, which are essentially
the plaques of our sewer systems arteries.
158 -> All right, back to the body,
159.1 -> let's look step-by-step at our heart disease and
artery disease in general progresses,
164.2 -> starting with step number 1: an injury.
167.5 -> It has to start with some damage to the lining of our arteries,
170.8 -> and many things can cause this injury
just like how many things can injure your skin.
175.8 -> A major one is reactive oxidative species
or free radicals particles that are unstable.
182 -> They need another electron,
183.2 -> and they might just pull that electron out of
the lining of your artery and cause some damage.
187.4 -> Oxidized LDL or bad cholesterol particles are one of
these reactive particles that is well established as a cause.
196.6 -> From this horrible study that killed rabbits:
199.4 -> "Cholesterol oxidation products have been reported to
cause acute vascular injury in vivo..." or live subjects.
206.2 -> The higher your LDL, the more likely it is to oxidize
and do damage and other causes of artery wall injury
213.2 -> including bacterial or viral infection, hypoxia which is low oxygen,
turbulent blood flow and shear stress,
219.9 -> environmental irritants such as tobacco, and hyperlipidemia,
which is high cholesterol and triglycerides.
225.6 -> Next up, we have step 2: a response to that injury.
229.6 -> We have a buildup of white blood cells, which traps
passing-by cholesterol and essentially forms a zit.
237.2 -> In particular, we get white blood cells known as macrophages,
240.8 -> which are designed to engulf the threat and neutralize it,
245.1 -> but instead they indiscriminately also engulf the cholesterol
and create what is called a foam cell.
251.3 -> From this study,
when these macrophages eat that cholesterol:
254.8 -> "...there is little negative feedback of uptake
and thus these cells become grossly engorged with lipids."
260.6 -> They just don't know when to stop eating.
262.2 -> No matter what here, having lower levels of cholesterol
makes the situation better, and higher levels make it worse.
267.8 -> With less cholesterol flying by, the injury has
a better chance of just healing and not being a threat.
273.5 -> It's simple logic like having more cars drive over
a pothole is gonna make it worse,
278.2 -> or repeatedly hitting your scab on your knee
is gonna prevent it from healing.
282.2 -> The more fat you have going through your blood,
the more fat there is to build up.
286 -> We're talking about fatty streaks,
not sugary streaks or salty streaks.
290.3 -> Now to the final step, step number 3: a rupture.
293.7 -> This is the main cause of heart attack death,
it's not slow buildup.
298.42 -> It's that inflamed area rupturing and breaking off and
blocking off your artery entirely in the form of a thrombosis.
306 -> Back to this study: "Dying macrophages (those immune cells)
release their lipid contents and tissue factor,
311.7 -> leading to the formation of pro-thrombotic necrotic core,
315.8 -> a key component of unstable plaques
that contributes to their rupture
318.9 -> and the ensuing intravascular blood clot that underlies
myocardial infarction and stroke," that's heart attack and stroke.
326.1 -> But does cholesterol actually contribute to this rupture?
328.8 -> Yes, in fact, it does.
330.6 -> As liquid cholesterol becomes solid inside your artery wall,
it can form cholesterol crystals.
337.7 -> From this study: "The crystals appeared as needles..."
341.1 -> and from the journal Nature: "Minimally modified LDL
can lead to cholesterol crystallization...."
347 -> From this study, listen to this:
348.8 -> "...crystalline cholesterol is found as
a hallmark of advanced atherosclerotic plaques."
354.3 -> Look at these guys! They're brutal.
You do not want these in your arteries.
358.3 -> Yes, these cholesterol crystals are considered
a major cause of a rupture
362 -> because they have a unique ability to pierce your artery wall.
366 -> They literally pop off that fibrous cap on your artery wall lesions,
370.8 -> they essentially pop that zit from the inside out,
a bit like the movie alien.
375.8 -> Gross, I know.
377 -> So the higher your LDL is, the more there is to modify into
these little cholesterol death spikes.
383.6 -> And looking to other causes of rupture,
everything from stage 1,
387.5 -> that injury should apply here
because after all, it's still your artery wall.
392.1 -> Now to one of the reasons I eat the diet that I eat,
394.8 -> a whole food vegan diet intercepts
every stage that we've talked about.
400.5 -> Step 1: the injury.
401.8 -> It keeps a high antioxidant status
which buffers against those free radicals,
407.4 -> and vegans on average have way lower LDL than
meat eaters and vegetarians, so you have less oxidizable LDL.
415.7 -> It also prevents that hypoxia or low blood oxygen,
which can be caused by postprandial or after meal lipemia,
424.4 -> which, from this study, can be induced
by high animal fat consumption.
429 -> Also the high nitrate content of plant foods boosts
the nitric oxide output of your artery walls,
435.7 -> it releases gas, which essentially creates
an anti-friction surface and prevents injury.
440.2 -> Then to step 2: that injury response.
442.4 -> Vegans have lower levels of LDL, which means
they have less for those macrophages to eat up.
448.7 -> And they also have lower levels of
hypertension or high blood pressure
452.3 -> about 50-75% on average depending on the study,
456 -> so that's less pressure, less friction
to increase the inflammation there.
461.03 -> Speaking of this study, put people on a vegan diet,
and their inflammation markers lowered by 1/3,
465.9 -> and that certainly helps throughout this entire process.
468.8 -> Then number 3 again, less LDL means
less cholesterol crystallization, less likely to pop that zit.
475.7 -> And we just have lower blood pressure
and less lipids flowing by
479.7 -> exerting pressure on and potentially rupturing that artery lesion.
483.7 -> So it's no wonder that Dr. Esselstyn's whole food vegan trial
486.9 -> on people with advanced cardiovascular disease
showed rapid artery clearing,
492.6 -> and about 100 times lower incidence of heart attack and stroke
in those that stuck on the diet
498 -> compared to those that didn't over a 12-year period.
501.2 -> But wait, in low-carb Dr. Hyman's article, he said:
"75% of people who have heart attacks have normal cholesterol."
508.2 -> So that means no matter what your level is,
cholesterol is going to do the damage anyway?
512.1 -> Nope, we are just looking at a sick population
where normal is actually high.
517.9 -> A normal LDL or bad cholesterol is between 100 and 129,
and a low level is just under 100.
526.1 -> We are best off with the levels of newborn babies and primates,
which is an LDL of about 50 to 70.
534.2 -> This is how many studies are able to demonstrate that
lower cholesterol does not lower heart disease
539.3 -> because they're still going from high to high.
542.4 -> There's still everything you need to create
oxidation artery wall damage and cholesterol crystallization.
548.6 -> In summary, high cholesterol causes heart disease.
551.139 -> It's not the only cause,
552.6 -> which is a fact that many people use to divert attention away from
how dangerous cholesterol is in high amounts,
559.3 -> but it is one powerful trigger, and it certainly drives
the progression of atherosclerosis and heart disease.
565.6 -> It causes artery wall injury,
it causes an artery wall injury response that is worse,
571.8 -> and it pops that artery zit that eventually kills us.
576 -> Finally, a whole food vegan diet combats
all 3 of those stages through things like
580.8 -> a higher level of antioxidants, a lower LDL
and lower inflammation and more.
587.7 -> So don't believe, the hyped diets
high in cholesterol do cause heart disease,
591.4 -> and we can reverse it, which is the awesome part.
593.7 -> Alright, that's it for today.
594.7 -> A quick reminder: I do partake in another YouTube channel,
which is Tiny It Yourself, a tiny house channel.
601.5 -> It's all about doing things DIY,
603 -> we have a bunch of cool videos coming up like 3D printing
for a tiny house and cool stuff like that,
608.2 -> so go check it out and subscribe if you're interested,
and also subscribe here if you haven't already hit that notification bell.
613.9 -> Also let me know down below if you still think that
cholesterol has nothing to do with heart disease,
619.1 -> and feel free to share this
if somebody is trying to argue with you about it.
622.5 -> Alright, feel free to like the video, and I will see you next time.
626.3 -> Thank you for watching.
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MsFWeC-DeLo