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Offsite Articles on Nutrition by Chris Masterjohn
A compilation of some of my articles that are not available on this site.
Myth: High Cholesterol Causes Stroke
Some authors argue that high cholesterol causes stroke and should therefore eat a diet low in cholesterol-rich foods like butter, liver and egg yolks in order to avoid this disease. The truth, however, is that high cholesterol increases the risk of ischemic stroke but decreases the risk of the more deadly hemorrhagic stroke. Moreover, cholesterol-rich animal foods are associated with a decrease in the risk of stroke.
Myth: Cholesterol-Rich Foods Raise Blood Cholesterol
The myth goes something like this: arteries are like pipes; cholesterol is gooey, sticky gunk. When you eat cholesterol, it winds up in your blood. If the cholesterol level in your blood gets too high, it starts caking up the pipes. Thus, if you don't want your pipes clogged, don't eat foods rich in cholesterol.
In reality, dietary cholesterol has little or no effect on the cholesterol levels of over two thirds of the population. In the other third, dietary cholesterol does increase cholesterol levels, but makes the cholesterol packaged more safely into large and buoyant lipoproteins that are resistant to oxidation and stay in the blood where they belong and out of the vessel wall.
Cholesterol Synthesis and the Activation of Rho
Much of the illusion that cholesterol causes disease may have to do with a chemical called Rho. Inflammation increases it, cholesterol correlates with it, and statins inhibit it.
Ron Paul for President 2008 -- Protect Our Health Freedom!
Ron Paul is the only candidate running for president who has a consistent record of standing up to the FDA for our freedom to pursue health and true information about health. He is an outstanding and principled spokesman for liberty, for the rule of law, and for fidelity to the Constitution of the United States. And he has my wholehearted endorsement!
Cholesterol-And-Health.Com Special Reports Is Now Available -- Subscribe Today!
I will offer each Special Report individually for $15.00 but by subscribing for a year you can obtain four Special Reports -- a $60 value -- for only $30. The first report, available now, is entitled, "Thyroid Toxins: The Double-Edged Swords of the Kingdom Plantae." It is 25 pages long with 66 references and contains six figures and one table. It covers goitrogens in soy, millet, cruciferous vegetables, and foods containing cyanogenic glycosides such as cassava, lima beans, flax, almonds, and fruits and fruit pits and seeds of the Rosacea family. It includes details about how different methods of processing increase or decrease the goitrogenicity of these foods and clarifies many common misconceptions about the effects of such processing.
Chris Masterjohn Responds to T. Colin Campbell Regarding the China Study
According to Dr. T. Colin Campbell of Cornell University, author of The China Study, I am numbered among those who "are mischievously posing as qualified scientists" and have demonstrated "a serious lack of understanding not only of the fundamentals of scientific research but also of the principles of statistics, epidemiology andnutrition," by superficially citing uncorrected crude correlations" that I have selected "to reflect an alternative agenda or bias that has nothing to do with objective science." You can now read my response here.
Myth: One High-Saturated Fat Meal Can Be Bad
An Australian study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology by a group of researchers led by the Sydney, Australia Heart Research Institute's Dr. Stephen J. Nicholls was widely heralded as having shown that consumption of a single meal high in saturated fat harms the functioning of our arteries and promotes inflammation. In realtiy, the study showed nothing of the sort.
Cholesterol Is the Precursor to Vitamin D
Cholesterol is intimately tied to vitamin D -- a vitamin with many functions in addition to its traditional role in maintaining calcium metabolism and bone health, such as cancer-prevention, immunity, blood sugar regulation, mental health, and more. Cholesterol is the precursor to vitamin D when we make it ourselves through exposure to sunlight, and cholesterol-rich foods tend to be rich in vitamin D. This article tells it all. Food Composition Table: Distribution of Coenzyme Q10 in Foods Added 10/15/05 Our coenzyme Q10 article has now been updated with the most comprehensive food composition table showing the distribution of coenzyme Q10 in foods available on the internet. The information is drawn from only two studies, and when I am able to obtain more information it will be updated. It currently shows the coenzyme Q10 content of 98 different foods. Statins Kill Your Brain -- Amnesia and Other Side Effects Added 09/13/05 A review of Statin Drugs Side Effects and the Misguided War on Cholesterol by former NASA astronaut Dr. Duane Graveline, MD, who discovered and was the first to publish the link between cholesterol-lowering statin drugs and transient global amnesia, when he noticed this phenomenon occurring in himself as a result of taking Lipitor, a drug he now refers to as the "Thief of Memory." Cholesterol Guidelines Turn Healthy People Into Patients Added 09/07/05 Article by Dr. Uffe Ravnskov, MD, PhD. Cholesterol Is the Precursor to All Steroid Hormones Added 09/02/05 Cholesterol is the precursor to all steroid hormones. This makes it important for the regulation of blood sugar, inflmmation, mineral balance, and blood pressure, the maintenance of libido, the building of muscle mass, athletic performance, and more. Cholesterol Is Necessary For Digestion Added 09/02/05 Cholesterol is the precursor to bile acids, which are necessary for the digestion of fats. This article shows a picture comparing the structure of cholesterol to the common bile acid, cholic acid, and describes how bile acids are synthesized, converted into bile salts, transported, and why they aid the digestion of fats. Search Cholesterol-And-Health.com Using the Google Search Box! Added 09/02/05 You can now search Cholesterol-And-Health.com with Google's search box by clicking on the above link. This will allow you to search both the site and the back issues of our free newsletter for topics you are interested in. The Hidden Truth About Cholesterol-Lowering Drugs Added 09/01/05 A review of Shane Ellison's Hidden Truth About Cholesterol-Lowering Drugs. Statins Inhibit Isoprene Synthesis Added 08/31/05
The cholesterol-lowering drugs known as "statins" (Lipitor, Crestor, Mevacor, Zocor, Pravachol, Leschol, etc) not only inhibit the synthesis of cholesterol, but also inhibit the synthesis of all isoprenes. Isoprenes are a wide class of compounds that include the side-chain to coenzyme Q10, as well as many other compounds that anchor important proteins to cell membranes and play many other functions in the human body.
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