2008-02-27

Of Health, Science and My Cholesterol

The human body is one confusing entity.

For years I was a fitness freak. I played sports on a regular basis and maintained a wicked healthy diet. To the point I deprived myself of Fun Dip and espresso. But boy did I know my fruits. I was taking flax seeds and eating special breads back when they were hard to come by.

Despite all my efforts, I had persistent borderline high cholesterol for years. I was confused given I was in excellent shape ( I ran 10km (6.2 miles) in 48 minutes). I was told it was genetic and therefore there was little I could do to lower it. Damn that DNA.

Finally, my doctor suggested a few years back I take Crestor to lower it. I did for one year and it did work with zero side effects.

Boy, that's a lot of 'I's in this post.

Anyway, that was back in 2005. In 2003, I blew out my knee in a soccer match tearing my ACL. Combined with certain changes in my life and the injury, I never quite got back to the health level I was once at.I could not get past the psychological problem of fearing another knee injury. I just could not bear a third injury.

My plan has been to shift and refocus and choose new sports to participate in and that is coming shortly. In the meantime, I went for another round of blood tests.

Guess what?

Everything is fine including my cholesterol.

Go figure. I now drink wine and espresso on a regular basis, pay attention less to what I eat (though I maintain an excellent) and don't exercise like I used to.

Yet, my cholesterol is now normal?

There has been a debate in the medical community that centered around the fact that doctors really don't know for certain what causes cholesterol and if it indeed leads to heart disease.

My personal experience seems to confirm we don't know indeed.

Already, I was suspicious of all these trendy diets like Atkins that hit society. It was comical to see all these people who never went for a walk panic and jump on all these questionable diets.

It seems the list of things to eat and not eat were growing everyday. Drink coffee, don't drink coffee. Stay away from wine, drink one glass. Eat chocolate, don't eat it. Cinnamon can help cholesterol, eggs are not good for cholesterol and so on.

We...just...don't know. Sometimes anyway.

The trick is to keep things in darn moderation. Don't eat ice cream every day. Or if you do, make sure you're active or at the very least maintain a proper diet to compliment it. Then again, you can do nothing but drink espresso, eat gelato, smoke and still out live a health fanatic or herbalist. I remember years ago a gentleman I knew who was in exquisite shape. He ran marathons and always had an apple in his hands (much like me). He died suddenly of a heart attack.

The truth is that we should ignore what is reported in the media (notice words and phrases they use like "may cause" and "a new study suggests" to report a new study) and treat with suspicion what we read or see on television about what constitutes a healthy diet.

What we've done is allow strong suspicions or perceptions pass for hard science.

Always best to remember one thing:

Cui bono?

3 comments:

  1. Anonymous2/27/2008

    Cholesterol has always been about diet, eating healthy natural diet composed of foods you bake with, no pre-made foods, which many have higher cholesterol, and not eating the obvious higher cholesterol foods, such as eggs and shrimp.

    I can't stand taking medicine if I can help it to overcome health situations. "Food (most of the time) is the medicine of choice, with a little knowledge".

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  2. I can't disagree with anything you've written. However, there is a genetic component that is independent of diet - so I was told. That's why my doctor suggested Crestor. There were limits to my diet and exercising. Even the pharmacist agreed.

    As for the herbalist alternative versions and explanations: Been there done that and it didn't work.

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  3. ...then again I came across this quote: "When little is known in medicine, hereditary is invoked as a cause." Jastrow, 1936.

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