Cholesterol – an evergreen of our time

Increased cholesterol is today becoming an almost regular laboratory finding, and not just in adults but now even in small children. Nourishment and stress undoubtedly play their role, but it might perhaps also be because 30 years ago the cholesterol “standard” was 50% higher. Whoever now thinks whether “the level of cholesterol” is by chance (not) lowered in proportion to the level of the turnover of pharmaceutical companies, then such a person deserves great credit! “Standards” are constantly being regulated so that few people meet them. Times are changing, but people remain the same, says one Chinese proverb. Only sometimes we let ourselves be scared by doctors and use drugs from pharmacies, as actor Jaroslav Dušek so fittingly points out. But we are not by far so bad when it comes to cholesterol that it could get worse. And if “according to the latest findings of modern science”, which are successfully sponsored by the pharmaceutical lobby, laboratory “standards” will be further regulated (guess to whose benefit?), and not just of cholesterol, but for example also of thyroid gland hormones. Perhaps we will keep our common sense and the natural order of things otherwise we will get scared…

Military laboratory medicine

The difficulty lies in the fact that on the one hand the doctor must provide treatment according to “the latest scientific research of current medicine which is based on proof” (proof here represents those “made-to-measure studies” of pharmaceutical giants when occasionally a question tends firstly to be answered and only then asked, just as at some tender proceedings in our country…). This treatment is called lege artis, or according to the letter of the law. However, at the same time, every doctor should, when taking the Hippocratic Oath at graduation, also follow its principles, while one of the most important is Primum null nocere, i.e. First Do No Harm! And the next principle says In dubio mitius, or if in doubt about the diagnosis treat gently and carefully. So where did the comrades (doctors) make their mistake? as you would say in the film spirit. The general view of the patient as an all-in human being is disappearing, unfortunately, however, on the contrary the importance is stressed of one pathological value which, moreover, is torn out of context and raised above everything else. We are today towed along a bit by all sorts, sometimes even superfluous laboratory tests – and one way or another, sooner or later, something would have to be found that would not fit into a “standard”, be it already in the sense of plus or minus. The more tests the greater the chance of finding the culprit (in our case finding a deviation from the “standard”). This would-be “care” will certainly turn a healthy person into a patient since every drug has a reaction and not just in our body, but  interacts with other drugs that are taken, and it is then difficult to distinguish which disorders arise from drugs and which from the “actual” disease. However there are few who deal anymore with the overall objective condition of the patient, let alone his subjective disorders which do not correlate at all with randomly found pathological values. There is simply no time to rack one’s brains, the order was clear – in case of exceeding the “standard” 2 (large) doses… This film message probably best depicts our current (sometimes) so-called military laboratory medicine.

At this opportunity it is good to recall the renowned and esteemed internist, professor and academician, Jaroslav Charvát, who in the 1970s during doctor’s visits, when an assistant reported that a patient’s condition had got worse, exclaimed the famous words: Pass me the case record and lead pencil (meaning a pen). Then he crossed out all the drugs to leave a maximum of 2 types, whereupon the patient began in a short time, as if by a miracle, to get better again. Today it seems almost like sci-fi, thanks to the unwillingness of the patient to do something for himself and endure something, thanks to complaints made by patients and their lawyers, thanks to the alibism of doctors, etc. A similar example is the almost realistic contemporary joke is: 2 doctors standing over a patient and one doctor says to the other doctor: “Shall we treat the patient or let him live?”

A canon for a mosquito

Sometimes this really resembles a situation when we make a mountain out of a molehill and sooner a camel will pass through the eye of a needle than the present approach will change of doctors to fear and treatment. What always applies is that every drug causes changes in us and the longer we take it the greater the changes logically are.

Chemical anti-cholesterol drugs called statins have a whole number of so-called side effects which, on the contrary, become the main effects finally dominanting all others. Independent studies appear from the US (e.g. www.mercola.com), which attribute to these drugs a leading place in the hypothetical death scale of “side” and adverse effects of drugs. Paradoxically it is for cardiovascular disease as a consequence of taking these drugs. These prevent liver enzymes from creating cholesterol, but at the same time destroy the coenzyme Q10, which may even result in a heart attack. The further negative effects of these drugs are displayed in the increased occurrence of polyneuropathy (painful damage to nerves in the limbs making it more difficult to move), carpal tunnels, muscular weakness and pain, fatigue, dizziness, reduced immunity, depression, liver disease, worse memory and damage to brain functions… Let us not be brainwashed and manipulated by the media in a “guaranteed scientific” advert, let us not be unnecessarily frightened and scared by doctors. We need to know how to find our way well and correctly through the flood and sometimes even literally through the jungle of information so that we can still see the forest for the trees. So, let us not be scared by doctors and take no notice of the amount!

Facts about cholesterol

Western medicine considers cholesterol to be the main cause of cardiovascular diseases such as heart attack, stroke, angina pectoris, thrombosis, embolism and further vascular diseases. However in reality cholesterol is a naturally occurring fat which is totally essential for our health. It is part of cell membranes, contributes to the formation of male and female sexual hormones, adrenal hormones, steroids and bile acids (which are essential for fat digestion), in the skin cholesterol is transformed after exposure to sunlight into essential vitamin D. Cholesterol is produced by the liver always in such quantity which is desired for the immediate function of the body, so intake from the outside in the form of food is far less important. Diagnosis based on a blood sample applies exclusively to cholesterol travelling in the blood and not cholesterol deposited in a vessel wall. The cause of the pharmaceutical fight against cholesterol was the massive increase in cardiovascular diseases, which came about in the last 50 years. The examination of people who had died from cardiovascular disease showed vessels blocked by fatty plaques with a high share of cholesterol. Since that time doctors have been attempting to reduce cholesterol in the blood with various drugs without dealing with the question why this occurs. An explanation of this phenomenon was given by Nobel Prize holder Dr. Carl Pauling. According to him the vessel walls, just as the other cells in our body, are exposed to the action of free radicals, i.e. substances appearing as waste when burned up by the metabolism. The more “we eat badly” or “badly burn up” the greater the appearance of free radicals which are truly worthy of their name and radically attack our body from all sides. Free radicals are sometimes also called oxidants or popularly as a condition of over-acidity or clogging up of the body with toxins, in Chinese medicine these represent an excess of YANG, i.e. excess of internal heat (according to TCM his internal heat comes not just from nourishment, but mainly from emotion, therefore even thin women are no exception, often vegetarians, but with a high level of cholesterol…). Our vessel walls are therefore in a constant state of change and repair. For this repair they need a constant supply of new collagen ligament consisting among other things of vitamin C. In case there is a lack of this vitamin (as a consequence of our “over-acidified” nourishment where fats and sugars predominate over vegetables) sufficient collagen cannot be formed and therefore the damaged vessel walls cannot be repaired. Our body then looks for an alternative solution – it uses cholesterol, which “patches up” the damaged places on the blood vessels, just as in a destroyed asphalt road after winter. It thereby prevents possible serious bleeding with all its consequences. In case of a chronic lack of vitamin C and further antioxidants (i.e. alkaline substances, which remove the harmful free radicals) cholesterol continues to be deposited in the blood vessels, and their passage gets narrower until they become completely clogged up and could put us to sleep for good. According to Pauling’s theory, the increased level of cholesterol and its deposit in the blood vessels is merely a sign of the problem but not its cause. This is the so-called over-acidity of the body as a consequence of the lack of vitamin C which should enter our body best of all in a natural way in the form of vegetables. According to TCM vitamin C cools down the internal heat in the blood and secretes the hot toxins, just as “green” vegetables and green tea, particularly Essention of five stairs (code 850). This is also currently the best prevention against obesity and “cholesterol diseases” (the so-called metabolic syndrome includes today’s diseases of affluence such as obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, gall and kidney stones, angina pectoris, gout, increased level of fat and cholesterol…). However Pauling’s theory was rejected by doctors and the pharmaceutical industry (why not?), and preference was given to a simple equation which is that cholesterol in nourishment automatically means cholesterol in the blood.

Elaborately produced artificial problem

So where has such anti-cholesterol hysteria come from which is responsible for the demonization of an entire group of foods such as eggs, natural fats such as lard and butter, full-fat milk and dairy products? Behind all this, as is the custom not just in our countries, is the invisible hand of the market, which incidentally a perceptive reader has long since come to understand, since these advocates are concerned, as they often stress, mainly and above all about health (money only comes in first place). Apart from prescribing drugs against cholesterol there is also the interest of the food industry to product low-fat (so-called light) foods with low fat and cholesterol content, which in both cases is unquestionably, to be polite, a good business plan, since people spend the most on food and drugs. However the problem with this is that it is not just the drugs that have “side” effects, but these light foods are totally unnatural for our body, foreign, artificial and rightfully also create a whole series of “artificial” diseases, ranging from allergies beginning with diabetes, autoimmune  diseases to cardiovascular disorders. All these light and ultra light foods are truly ultra for our body, however ultra heavy and difficult to digest and remove. In addition, these foods contain excess unnaturally concentrated sugars and artificial hydrogenated fats which paradoxically significantly increase the risk of cardiovascular diseases. Try to dissolve vaseline (from margarine) in the sun and try to dissolve lard – lard will not leave even a greasy spot, but vaseline will stay compact and will perfectly conserve our body, see Mercy for fatty foods, which fats are best to use, by visiting for example www.margit.cz/mazani-a-smazeni). Generally refined foods really do behave in a “refined” way in our body. Instead of refined oils, it is recommended using unrefined cold pressed oil, instead of artificially hydrogenated fats lard and butter are the most natural for us, instead of sugar the least harmful is barley malt sweetener Sladěnka or Sladovit from health food shops, etc. Far worse today than cholesterol is sugar in all forms, for example this latest study.

A boiler and its fuel

Natural nutrition is what is natural and its own to our body. It is like burning good dry wood, perhaps real beech, in a boiler designed for burning wood. This is optimum heating and its heating power is adequate. The boiler cannot even tolerate a chimney that does not release pungent fumes and there is also a minimum of ash waste which can be used in garden beds, etc. Here natural nourishment means everything that is not industrially and synthetically processed and later passed off as “food”, in the worse case even as healthy beneficial nourishment! These are unrefined, unpasteurised, non-emulsified, unfermented, non-aromatised, colour-free, unseasoned, uncondensed, unsterilised, unconserved foods… As can be seen, the best foods are those that go bad quickly and are directly from the source, not loaded with these chemical processes. Not everyone can eat 100% like this, but it is in everyone’s interest who is interested in their health to give maximum priority to the consumption of these healthy foods and, on the contrary, try to limit the intake of artificial foods as much as possible
Unnatural nourishment is such that is artificially created for us. It is like starting to burn “artificial” fuel in a boiler designed for burning wood. All sorts of things look like wood, but are in fact perfect artificial imitation. Or, on the contrary, burning waste impregnated with paints and oils which not only place a burden on our chimney, but above all literally poison our air and our body, not to mention other non-flammable materials, rubber, plastic, PET plastic bottles filled with soot and waste oil, etc. Then the stove does not burn or, on the contrary, overheats, occasionally we have to throw a bit of oil or petrol into the dying fire so that the difficult to burn matter can be rekindled, the inadequately burnt waste from plastic materials then sticks like mucus to the wall of the boiler and blocks the chimney, which smokes so that it is not just the neighbours that smell these fumes. Obviously it is just a matter of time before the boiler breaks down and problems arise, in our case disease. The ash waste also cannot be used since it is toxic material – only perhaps can be stored in a hazardous waste dump, i.e. in our body … Occasionally there are also boilers whose burning is accelerated, and whatever you feed them with everything burns up, which amazes the surrounding fatties that “put on weight from the air”. However this is nothing to envy as these boilers “burn through” quickly and their service life decreases substantially. Needless to say, unnatural nourishment is the exact opposite of the abovementioned natural nourishment – and artificial substances (additives) in nourishment increase the risk of obesity which is confirmed, for example, by the article HERE.

Composte restaurante

Today imitation wood in the form of foods is represented by technologically modified foods particularly so-called trans (formed) fats and sugars which are the most high-risk in terms of nutrition. The ingredients are found in a whole range of foods – it is enough to recall milk in a carton which looks like milk or long-life yogurts which “do not go off” even after 2 months, not to mention the ingredients used in smoked meats. Grilling and frying is unnatural since this gives rise to harmful so-called oxidised cholesterol which is damaged by a high temperature (e.g. fried eggs or escalope in breadcrumbs from a deep fryer). If fried food then the most natural preparation using lard and slowly baked in an oven, and only for special occasions. As a consequence of eating in fast food restaurants offering monotonous fried meals, chips and roast meats, etc., our body (according to Chinese medicine) experiences gradual food stagnation, which sooner or later is transformed into the condition of damp and hot (compost) which, together with hot toxins (from difficult to process foods), is deposited in a so-called central fireplace (stomach, bowels, pancreas, spleen, liver, gallbladder, kidneys). Today this condition causes the so common and unwelcome state of obesity. A good supplement for removing these negative effects is to drink herbal tea from five-leaf ginseng called Essention of five stairs (code 850), which removes food stagnation, improves our “burning” and reduces the over-acidity of the body. In addition, it is very tasty. A similar effect can be obtained from an herbal mix in tablets with the apt name of Grace of a Slender Gazelle (code 025), which is taken with this tea in case of that extra weight. Most important, do not forget to have breakfast in the morning, and best of all have Beverage of Chinese Sages (code 900), ideally with millet porridge. It is also good to have lime with olive oil as a healthy stiff morning drink – Lime Wings. Nobody can provide you with an exact list of foods, what to eat and what not to eat. That is not possible. You will always get more general rules and basic recommendations, and then it is just up to your creativity and non(laziness) as to what you do with them. But what always applies is to eat frugally, with variety and regularity so that after every meal you always feel better than before.

Why should we not be happy when …

A person never feels better physically and mentally than when losing a bit of extra weight (sometimes 1 – 2 kg is enough), which is a cause of discomfort in every day life than would originally appear. Whoever has experienced this feeling at least once, knows all too well what it is like. However everyone will know only by “working towards it” through willpower or their morally free qualities, incidentally there is the well-known motto: a person who has eaten does not believe the person who is hungry … A good diet following Chinese principles can be found in the book by Lorraine Clissold Why the Chinese Don’t Count Calories or 12 Silver Rules of Healthy Eating. And don’t forget that losing weight is a secondary school certificate of strong will. However maintaining the optimum weight is undoubtedly a university diploma of strong will! The most common dieting mistakes, When dieting it is important what and when you eat, A healthy view of healthy eating.

So lots of luck in gaining those academic titles.

In case of doubt with the choice of herbal products, we recommend TCM Test Tongue Analysis, which is evaluated by Dr. med. Petr Hoffmann and you will receive a recommendation (herbal products and foods) to your e-mail within 3 days.