Tag: Cholesterol

• PCSK9 Gene – Reduces Cholesterol and Heart Disease Mortality

  High levels of cholesterol and LDL-cholesterol are associated with a higher risk of heart disease.

  Popular commentators frequently claim that cholesterol is irrelevant in causing heart disease and suggest that diets high in carbohydrate such as rice, potatoes, wheat (including whole-grain wheat), yams, millet and buckwheat are responsible.

  PCSK9 is a gene that reduces the life-time level of cholesterol. PCSK9 is an abbreviation for "proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9 serine protease" gene which is why it is much more convenient to refer it as the PCSK9 gene.

  The authors' conclusion is the "data indicate that moderate lifelong reduction in the plasma level of LDL cholesterol is associated with a substantial reduction in the incidence of coronary events."

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  28 March 2024

• Is It Healthy? What are we Comparing

  When we ask the question Is it Healthy?, we need to consider is it healthy compared to what.

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  1 January 2022

• The PURE Study Myths

  Dr James Muecke is the Australian of the Year in 2020 which was awarded for his work as an eye-surgeon and his work in preventing blindness.

  Muecke believes that we should be eating more eggs, cheese, meat and dark chocolate to minimise diabetes, its associated blindness (diabetic retinopathy) and diabetic neuropathy. Peripheral diabetic neuropathy is nerve damage of the limbs that is caused by diabetes. 50% of adults with type 2 diabetes have peripheral neuropathy. It can result in pain, numbness and an increase in sensitivity. Diabetes account for more than 80% of amputations.

  Muecke cites the PURE Study to justify his low-carbohydrate, high-fat, animal-based diet.

  The PURE Study is an observational study in 27 countries that examined 225,000 people. The study period is 20 years.

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  3 September 2021

• Lyon Diet Heart Study

  The Lyon Diet-Heart Study was a

  “randomized, single-blind secondary prevention trial aimed at testing whether a Mediterranean-type diet, compared with a prudent Western-type diet, may reduce recurrence after a first myocardial infarction.”

  The study consisted of 605 patients who had recovered from a myocardial infarction at a hospital in southern France. The experimental group emphasised “more bread, more root vegetables and green vegetables, more fish, less meat (beef, lamb and pork to be replaced with poultry), no day without fruit, and butter and cream to be replaced with margarine” which was high in alpha-linolenic acid (an omega-3 fatty acid).

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  23 June 2020

• Harvard Researchers Paid to Support Sugar

  A recent story that has been appearing on the internet is that Harvard Researchers Paid to Support Sugar and this is the reason why sugar and carbohydrates have been exonerated in their role of causing heart disease. Fats and saturated fats have unfairly blamed for the obesity and heart disease epidemic.

  The article states that, "Early warning signals of the coronary heart disease (CHD) risk of sugar (sucrose) emerged in the 1950s."

  "By the 1960s, 2 prominent physiologists were championing divergent causal hypotheses of CHD: John Yudkin identified added sugars as the primary agent, while Ancel Keys identified total fat, saturated fat, and dietary cholesterol. However, by the 1980s, few scientists believed that added sugars played a significant role in CHD, and the first 1980 Dietary Guidelines for Americans [4] focused on reducing total fat, saturated fat, and dietary cholesterol for CHD prevention."

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  6 March 2020

• Moderation is a Fatal Thing

  Everything in moderation is a near unanimous response by health professional, health support organisations and media commentators to solving our health crisis.

  The same argument was used in in the 1950s and 1960s to convince people to reduce smoking. After all, you would not want to deprive people of the “solace, relaxation and enjoyment to mankind” that smoking has provided for more than 300 years. These days, doctors do not suggest that people reduce smoking but to stop.

  One problem is that moderation cannot be defined. One person may consider a hamburger or packet of cigarettes a week as being moderate. This can easily become two hamburgers a week or just one more cigarette.

  Doing things in moderation does not change a habit. To change a habit requires consistency and commitment over a period of several weeks or months.

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  5 January 2019

• The Evidence Against Eric Westman and William Yancy

  Eric Westman and William Yancy are medical doctors associated with Duke University School of Medicine in North Carolina, where they are associate professors.

  They are prolific authors associated with ketogenic and high-fat, low-carbohydrate diets. They have both received funding from Robert C. Atkins Foundation which supports research into low-carbohydrate nutrition.

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  22 November 2018

• How do Your Genes Affect Obesity and Diabetes

  The purpose of the DIETFITS Trial was "to determine the effect of a healthy low-fat (HLF) diet vs a healthy low-carbohydrate (HLC) diet on weight change and if genotype pattern or insulin secretion are related to the dietary effects on weight loss".

  It a popular area of research to determine if there are genetic causes of obesity, diabetes, heart disease, autoimmune disease, depression and any other illness or condition that is plaguing our society.

  This area of research ignores the fact that often our genetics does not determine health outcomes.  Ignoring this will not solve the problems of our society's rapidly failing health.

  The conclusions of this paper are:

  In the 12-month study, there was NO significant difference in weight change between a healthy low-fat diet compared with a healthy low-carbohydrate diet.

  Neither of the 2 hypothesized predisposing factors [genotypes] was helpful in identifying which diet was better for whom.

  Frequently the problem is not that complicated.

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  7 November 2018

• Letter to Diggers – October 2018

  In the Spring 2018 edition of Diggers, Bel P claims that What The Health has been “expertly torn to pieces”. No effort has been made to justify this claim. What The Health web site has listed approximately 300 references for the movie with the elapsed time that the information was presented.

  In the absence of a valid critique of What The Health, I will present some evidence presented by the movie for the health benefits of a whole-food, plant-based diet. All references provided are from primary sources for which I have the paper or electronic copy.

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  29 October 2018

• Big Fat Myths by Ruben Meerman

  Ruben Meerman and Professor Andrew Brown from the School of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences, University of New South Wales published a paper in 2014 When somebody loses weight, where does the fat go? 

  Meerman has a physics degree and is known as the surfing scientist and has appeared in a number of television shows including ABC's Catalyst program. and he is the author of Big Fat Myths, a book that expands on the previous paper. The original paper and later book explains how every molecule of fat escapes the human body during weight loss.

  He believes that his research shows that weight loss is best achieved by "eating less and moving more".

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  9 September 2018