Everything You Need To Know About Cholesterol and Heart Disease

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chafee dr chafee is a surgeon nutritional   researcher and former pro-rugby player he's been 
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hey everyone we're back with dr chafee again and   now we're going to talk about cholesterol 
which is a huge topic and hotly debated   dr chaffee welcome and what what don't 
we know about cholesterol uh well so   the thing is especially you know in a carnivore 
community or going ketogenic or whatever everyone   says well what about your cholesterol what about 
your cholesterol the first thing people say   yeah and you know my answer to that is like 
i don't care and what about it you know   cholesterol was never a problem cholesterol was 
never an issue it's never a marker of disease it   was said to be such but that's wrong and we we not 
only know it's wrong but we know it was fraudulent   so the journal of american medical association 
published in 2015 actual internal memos from   the sugar companies back in the 40s and 50s 
talking about how there was research coming   out saying that sugar was actually the cause 
of heart disease which was a brand new disease   and so they were like we need to cover this up and 
so in their own documentation they detailed how   they paid off three harvard professors to falsify 
data and publish fraudulent studies to make it   appear as if cholesterol was causing heart disease 
when it was really sugar and to exonerate sugar   and then one of those professors was named head 
of the usda in 1965 and then the usda is the one   who declared unequivocally that cholesterol causes 
heart disease saturated fat increased cholesterol   stop eating both okay so that was teacher coming 
down going discussion's over argument is done but   there were hot this was hotly debated for decades 
and then all of a sudden usda said nope this is   it and it destroyed the careers of everyone saying 
no this is actually sugar it actually is sugar um   there were books written about it and there's much 
more research now showing this but you know what   happened just directly right then so this change 
changed the world certainly changed america and   then it had these domino effect of these other 
countries taking on these dietary recommendations   so just in america we reduced our cholesterol 
into fat cholesterol intake by 33 percent   and you know obviously you don't want meat meat's 
bad for you meat has cholesterol this is why this   is what meat became vilified at first because it 
had fat and had cholesterol so you don't want that   especially red meat and eggs those are the worst 
right um and that fruits and vegetables and grains   were good and heart healthy because they didn't 
have cholesterol that was the entire argument the   entire basis of argument was this doesn't have fat 
therefore it's good for you the rocks don't have   fat either okay so an arsenic doesn't either you 
know so um bad argument on its face but people   listen to this you know and so reduce our fat uh 
cholesterol intake by 33 reduce red meat by 30   increase fruits and vegetables by 
30 and 40 respectively and what   what what were the results the obesity rate 
triple heart disease tripled stroke rate triple   cancer rates tripled type 2 diabetes 
autoimmune disorders alzheimer's parkinson's   even developmental delays such as autism and 
so forth they're all increased exponentially   you know they almost didn't exist before this 
time now they're the only things we treat so   so we've removed cholesterol yeah and 
then heart disease yeah it goes away   well that's it you know you can't say that 
cholesterol causes heart disease if you reduce   correct cholesterol and heart disease triples if 
anything you say that cholesterol is protected   no exactly and so you know that okay you can't 
say that a causes you know b if you reduce a   and b increases dramatically if anything you say 
a uh is protective and actually all the studies   post 2015 have actually shown this okay so there 
are a lot of studies that came out in 2015 with   hundreds of thousands of patients looking 
at you know ldl cholesterol bad cholesterol   and and heart attacks and strokes and so forth and 
they found that people with higher ldl cholesterol   higher saturated fatty intake and so forth 
we're actually having less heart attacks having   less strokes and they were having and they were 
protective against alzheimer's and parkinson's   right because everyone's eating this heart-healthy 
you know low-fat diet and then their brains are   decaying because they're not getting the requisite 
you know very long chain fatty acids and the and   so forth that that helps and supports their brain 
so they're all decaying and becoming um you know   uh demented as they age and so you know eating 
uh yeah it's horrible horrible disease and uh but   really it's just malnutrition you're not getting 
the requisite nutrients to maintain your body and   your brain so you know eating more saturated fat 
having higher cholesterol is protective against   that you know it's also protective against 
heart attacks one of the things that i never   heard anyone explain properly when i was 
going through medical school was why was it if   cholesterol was was the only thing that mattered 
uh without what the main thing that mattered with   with heart disease why is it that 50 of people 
who have heart attacks have lower normal ldl   cholesterol that never made sense that's a good 
question and so now we know that that's crap and   so there's a study in 2015 with 60 000 patients 
that looked at people over the age of 7 or sorry   65 with statins right so statin is a medication 
to reduce your cholesterol most people are on   this crap and they have side effects right they 
have serious side effects they sap your uh cells   vitamin coq10 and that can actually cause damage 
to your muscle muscle cells including your heart   right so you have to supplement vitamin coq10 
any doctor that's that prescribes uh statins   without also prescribing vitamin coq10 i think 
it's harming their patient and so they you see   this so it has side effects it has things 
that you don't want but you met you weigh   the balance of a medication with the effects 
that you want versus the effects that you   don't want you want the you know you want 
the benefits to outweigh the side effects   but now you have something that's you know 
they had this these studies with the with   the statins and so forth they found that people 
with the statins and with lower ldl cholesterol   were having more heart attacks we're having worse 
outcomes we're having more cardiac related deaths   okay or at least they weren't getting a benefit 
from that so you're getting side effects from   the statins and it's not really providing 
a benefit so why are we doing that and so   this this article uh this study you know as a 
conclusion you know said it's like we seriously   need to challenge our thinking on whether or 
not statins are actually good for people you   know because this is you know this is this is 
at least equivocal if not causing harm that's   what they found in this study was 60 000 
people and you know well now we know that   we know that cholesterol wasn't the problem 
so you're taking a drug that reduces something   that's actually beneficial to you and is causing 
side effects so so no this isn't going to be   very helpful uh and there are other studies but 
you know tons of studies you know hundreds and   hundreds of thousands of people you know 
additively showing that the cholesterol is   actually beneficial um you have things you 
know and so so people started looking back   at these these studies you know there's the 
there was a seven nation study that i believe   ansel keys came out with and you know he was 
a very influential scientist he came up with   the rdas recommended daily allowances you know 
he's a nutritional scientist had a lot of clout   uh but he also was bought and paid for the 
documentation of this that he was a paid stooge   of the sugar companies he's putting out [ __ ] and 
so one of the studies was the seven nation studies   and all these all these studies actually showed 
only a correlation you know correlation is not   causation all these studies were correlative they 
were very bad and they were only correlative but   they just kept pumping these things out people say 
oh well it's just this preponderance of evidence   i remember reading a journal article in 1956 
from general american medical association talking   about how basically people have accepted that 
cholesterol is causing heart disease but he's   like yeah but this is based on you know as this 
argued say this is based on very poor studies   very low quality evidence and you just went 
through them and just tore these things apart it's   back in 1956 wow you know is that like a paper 
or something yeah and in jama yeah the general   american association this guy just excoriated 
these things for like you know 12 pages just   just ripping these things apart way back when am 
i still having this debate now yeah exactly yeah   well that's because of the usda because this was 
hotly debated but the sugar companies just kept   pumping in all this oh well look at this look 
at what we find and so forth but they weren't   actually saying that they were being funded by the 
sugar companies that was the thing that's illegal   you have to you have to serve exactly yeah and so 
they weren't doing that and so you know you start   looking at these look at the seven nations study 
that that showed you know seven countries and on   a graph on how much you know cholesterol uh they 
were eating and the rate of heart disease right   and so is this parabolic curve you know the more 
saturated fat the more heart disease that's what   they showed um they showed for seven seven 
countries right but actually they had complete   information for i think 20 23 or 24 countries 
right they use the seven that fit that curve   if you plot all the rest of them yeah exactly you 
know it's just just sort of you know just show   what they wanted wanted to show and if they had 
more and if you just plotted all of them it just   scatters all the there isn't even a correlation 
now again correlation is not causation so you   have this correlation this correlative graph but 
that's not causation you don't know why that is   but there isn't even a correlation because when 
you when you plot the other you know nations in   that that they had available data for at that time 
there isn't even a correlation okay so that's out   uh and that was out then they knew it was out and 
there was a thing called framingham study it's   it's really the you know the you know keystone 
study in cardiology they followed these i think   you know factory workers uh in um in you know in 
new england for like 20 years okay and they've   looked at all these different markers and 
things like that and you know what what was   sort of indicating different sort of health 
outcomes and they concluded and they reported   that higher total cholesterol is before we 
distinguished any of the kinds of cholesterol   total cholesterol um the higher total cholesterol 
you know more at-risk cardiovascular risk you   would and there's oh yeah well this is it you know 
done you know 70 it was like 76 000 people over   20 years this is this is conclusive first of all 
correlation not causation second of all their own   their own data showed the opposite of what they 
reported so they actually the actual outcome was   that the higher total cholesterol you had the 
more protected you were from that you didn't have   heart disease heart disease no and so they 
it's completely fraudulent and so that was   completely misreported that's now been reversed 
not everybody knows this yet even in the medical   community we had a you know debate with um 
you know carnivores versus vegans on the acne   and one of the people on the on the vegan side was 
a was a cardiologist and he was not aware of these   these studies you know he's still talking about 
how cholesterol is is the endodeal we're having   another debate in february just on cholesterol 
and i've been asked to be a part of that as well   we'll see we'll see you know what they respond to 
that but you know we know that this was fraudulent   we know that there isn't even a correlation 
we know all these things were made up and now   we have all these studies post 2015 showing the 
exact opposite of what we've been told and we have   the work from dr robert lustig from ucsf you know 
the biochemistry department showing that fructose   is you know they it you know they have uh you know 
as i don't know if they've shown causation between   fructose and heart disease but they show causation 
between fructose and metabolic disease metabolic   syndrome and so you know they've showed 
biochemically that this is this is uh you know   integral in that disease process inflammatory 
disease process of heart disease so you know this   is this is completely this is completely wrong 
so people ask me what my cholesterol is uh and i   tell them i don't care yeah i really literally 
don't care you know you get certain types of   cholesterol from fructose and alcohol like sdldl 
vldl these are small particulate sizes of those   tons of different kinds of ldl cholesterol um you 
know we're talking about you know dr mason and uh   low carb australia low carb down under uh talks 
he does he does a lot of talks specifically on   particulate sizes of cholesterol and what what 
matters and which ones do what and why you have to   care about this so whatever your ldl cholesterol 
is it matters what the particulates are   and some are good and some are bad well the ones 
that are bad come from alcohol and fructose right   and then if you if you have high blood sugar blood 
sugar is harmful because you know when you have   have it too high it will actually physically 
fuse to other molecules called glycation   and so you can glycate these sdlvls and 
vldls and make them act in a pathological   fashion and that is actually part 
of this process of atherosclerosis   so if you're not eating sugar or drinking sodas 
or drinking alcohol you're not going to have the   and the ldl which is the real first platform the 
real powerful ones yeah and if you're not eating   a bunch of carbohydrates so your blood sugar is 
you know at a standard level it's not jumping up   and down wildly then you know you're not going 
to be glycating these things if you had them   which you don't right it doesn't matter it doesn't 
matter what your cholesterol is if you don't eat   that crap you know and so you know one one way 
we don't always check for the particulate sizes   of things but one we're looking at look at your 
hdl and your triglycerides if your hdl is high   as you know the standard tests would consider 
high and your triglycerides are low then that   means that you actually have whatever your 
ldl cholesterol is high or low or whatever   they're the good kind of okay so that's the 
relationship you're looking for yeah exactly   yeah you can look at the particular size and 
so forth but that as a general rule if you have   high ldl cholesterol and low triglycerides 
your ldl is fine yeah sure yeah yeah so in   in summary you know uh there is no correlation or 
causation between cholesterol and heart disease   absolutely not but there is with sugar or 
with carbohydrates yeah sugar carbohydrates   and that sort of whole thing yeah yeah there was 
a book um written in the 1970s it was called um it was it was like sweet white deadly or something 
like that and there was some it's something like   that anyway but it was it was all the arguments 
on why you know sugar is causing these problems   and you know sugar heart disease is a very newly 
discovered disease and as as people were saying   at the time how can you know you know we've been 
eating fat forever how can an ancient diet cause   a new disease yeah that doesn't it doesn't hold 
water and people say well you know it was just   happening all the time which is we just didn't 
notice it because we're just so stupid i was   like yeah einstein was an idiot you know that guy 
and you know da vinci you know yeah yeah what a   [ __ ] he was you know inventing a helicopter in 
the 1500s i mean it's one idiot you know and um   you know no i mean these guys you know they 
had they had to they had they did more with   less you know we have iphones we can look up 
anything they didn't have that they had to   figure it out themselves and so you know when 
they're doing it you made your name as a doctor   by discovering new diseases and new things 
that that yeah so that would have been a   hunt absolutely you do you're doing dissections 
and dissections and dissections and autopsies   and autopsies and autologies and autopsies and 
if you were the first one to discover you know   heart disease and atherosclerosis you'd be all 
over that thing you'd have an option you would   absolutely would and so that's how uh you made 
a name for yourself as a doctor you know and so   no no we wouldn't know it has just been happening 
forever you know they look back to you know like   ancient egyptians and look at mommy's like oh 
they had atherosclerosis it must be because the   kings were you know eating a bunch of fat and 
all these sorts of things well they actually   mummified everybody not just the kids not just the 
pharaohs you know and so they actually looked at   that they all have stuff they're all pretty fat 
they have these statues they have these guts and   the guys had gynecomastia and so forth and wheat 
yeah they're eating a bunch of wings yeah a lot of   grains and so you know they all have these sorts 
of problems and so they said well you know it must   have been the pharaohs eating all these sorts of 
things but we actually have isotope studies so   stable isotopes as you can see basically what what 
animals are eating is you take the mummy or the   fossil or again you can you can actually test and 
see what they've been eating they've been eating   you know plants or they'd be the animals that ate 
plants or they've been eating animals that ate   animals that ate plants right and then carnivore 
rating and this is how we know that humans are   hyper carnivores last you know two two and a 
half million years because we were eating animals   that ate plants but we're also eating other 
carnivores that ate animals that ate plants and so   they did these these stable isotope studies 
for these mommies and they found that no they   were all eating the same thing they're all 
basically eating a bunch of wheat they're   growing on the breads yeah and maybe maybe 
the wealthier class was able to eat more of it   because they you know they could afford it and 
so forth but they're all eating the same things   yeah yeah so cholesterol is not what we've 
been led to believe perfect thank you