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How High HDL Cholesterol (“Good” Cholesterol) Causes Blindness
Shocking
results from a new study published in the journal Nature Communications reveals how high HDL cholesterol
level (the “good” cholesterol)
can cause partial or complete blindness.
This
is especially alarming since you’ve been given advice for decades to raise it
and millions of people are taking prescription drugs aimed at boosting high HDL
cholesterol
level.
The
researchers were examining the consequences of high and low body mass index,
waist to hip ratio, cholesterol, triglycerides (circulating fat), and blood pressure when they made this discovery.
They
went about it in a particularly clever way by using genetic information to
exclude the interference of environmental
factors.
Think
about it: if you want to find out whether high cholesterol causes cancer, you can analyze the information of
thousands of people, find those with high cholesterol, and check whether they
are more likely to have cancer than those with low cholesterol.
But
there is a problem with this kind of study. People with high cholesterol may
not only have high levels of cholesterol in common, but also particular eating habits and lack of exercise.
In
this case, how can researchers tell whether the cancer is caused by high
cholesterol or by poor diet or lack of exercise?
To
get around this problem, scientists often use the genetic variant previously
established to cause high cholesterol, rather than high cholesterol itself, to
establish a link with cancer rates. Presumably, since people are born with a
genetic variant, this excludes dieting,
exercise, and other environmental factors from the equation.
That
is what the researchers in the Nature Communications study did.
They
took the genetic variants related to cholesterol, blood pressure, and the other
conditions listed above from participants in two studies, overall, just over
160,000 people.
They
then listed the diseases from which each of these people suffered, and compared
the two lists with each other.
There
were many unsurprising findings, such as that those prone to obesity were more
likely to have type II diabetes and arthritis,
and that those with high cholesterol were at risk of coronary artery disease.
But
the interesting discovery was that, together with protecting against diabetes,
hypertension, and cardiovascular disease, high HDL cholesterol (commonly called
good cholesterol) increases our risk of developing age-related macular
degeneration.
Macular
degeneration is a more common cause of blindness than cataracts and glaucoma.
It
happens when the cells that make up the middle part of your retina, called your
macula, deteriorate and die. This causes the central part of your visual field
to become blurry and later dark.
If
these studies are right, it means that you should never try to increase your
HDL levels artificially using medications.
The
key is to create a balance between good (HDL) and bad (LDL) cholesterol, using
simple lifestyle changes.
Watch
this Video – Best Cardiologist in NYC Dr. Steven Reisman, talks about Cholesterol and Macular Degeneration
This post is from the
Oxidized Cholesterol Strategy Program created by Scott Davis. He once suffered
from High Cholesterol so much that he even had a severe heart attack. This is what
essentially led him to finding healthier alternatives to conventional
medication.
The program is highly
focused on eliminating one simple ingredient you consume every single day, an
ingredient you had no idea you were even putting it your body. What’s
scary is that this ingredient isn’t even listed on the label of many common
food choices. It’s terrifying stuff! So, this system starts you off with
valuable information about this one simple ingredient, what it’s doing to your
body and what you can do about it. But it doesn’t end there.
The Oxidized Cholesterol Strategy goes on to teach you a wide range of diet, fitness,
lifestyle, exercise, sleep and eating tips that will help you maximize your
results. More importantly, these tips will help completely clean out any plaque
build-up in your arteries.
