Cholesterol and Lecithin

[PopHistorian]

Perhaps a nutrition buff here might be able to shed some light on this. I may be off base in my thinking, but hear me out for a second.

Back in the early 1980s I read a nutrition book by a physician that shed light on all kinds of scams in the food business (and others, too). The main point was that many foods had been processed into near worthlessness to the body, that abusive farming methods were producing vegetables without certain minerals and other components they were traditionally expected to have, and rise was given to the supplement industry that essentially charges thousands of dollars per pound for chemical compounds that we should be getting for free in our food (and still can if you know how).

Anyway, the author wrote that cholesterol from eggs shouldn't concern you because eggs, as a natural, balanced food, naturally contain a dose of lecithin, which is an emulsifier of cholesterol (allows it to dissolve in water, prevents it from clumping up and clogging arteries, so excess is easily disposed of by the body.) This is just like soap emulsifies oil and water. The suggestion was that cholesterol, properly processed, in part by emulsification, could be dealt with easily/naturally/harmlessly by the body.

Now, I never hear, at least in the popular press and culture, about lecithin intake, or emulsification of lecithin in general, as important to fighting the dangers of too much low-density cholesterol. Though when I research it, I do find ample statements that lecithin is, in fact, an emulsifier of cholesterol. Put this together with the fact that cholesterol tests presumably measure its concentration in the body without regard for its state (degree of emulsification/dissolution). This allows doctors to identify people as having cholesterol as a "heart disease risk factor" and putting them on expensive pharmaceuticals for life without knowing or caring how that person's body deals with cholesterol. In other words -- there may not be such a great risk of high LDL cholesterol concentration in the body if it is being efficiently processed.

Anyone know if this is true? Thanks.

 

[stardust]

I know many products in France which contain lecithin and which are used to reduce cholesterol. We can find soya lecithin in powder.
But I can't really say what is the real efficience of these products.
The best I know (because you can mesure it month after month with blood test) is red rice yeast. My doctor prescribes it to everybody who doesn't want chemical products and wants to control their cholesterol rate and there are some good results.

But like all products, quality is not the same everywhere.

 

[stardust]

On this site I have found the action mode of red rice yeast :

www.ombellenature.com/actus/3-Fiches-produits/actu_3-La-levure-de-Riz-rouge.htm

"monacolins contained in red rice yeast are in fact natural statins [...] The statin will inhibit the action of the enzyme HMG-Coa reductase , responsible for the production of endogen cholesterol ."

There was many problem with chemical statins. Natural statins are very much less toxic however they have to be avoided by people who have hepatic or renal problems.

 

[PopHistorian]

Well, my point is that lecithin would NOT reduce the amount of LDL cholesterol to be found by a test, like a statin, but would simply render some amount of it more easily manageable by the body. I wonder if this is an effective treatment.

 

[genero81]

Actually you bring up an excellent point because I have also heard that certain B-vitamins form a coating around bad colesterol preventing it from sticking to artery walls. So again, it's not always as simple as bad colesterol = clogged arteries.
Although, it makes it a lot easier to sell pharmaceuticals. I have not had my colesterol checked for over ten years. I prefer a more wholistic approach. I've had a hunch for a long time now that they come up with stuf like this and ADD and erectile disfunction and you name it just for the purpose of selling people drugs that they really don't need if health problems were understood in the context of whole systems within the body, mind, and spirit.

 

[Laura]

I have read that cutting back on eggs in an effort to reduce cholesterol is the exact WRONG thing to do, that eggs, in fact, help to process it. As I wrote in the Wave, after being witness to a few medically caused tragedies and deaths, I have very little confidence in modern medicine when it tries to deal with anything other than mechanical fixes. When you have an infected appendix or a broken leg, a surgeon is a handy thing to have around. But doctors, as a rule, don't seem to know very much about helping people be healthy in a natural way. But then, that is to be expected. Most (if not all) medical schools have incestuous ties to pharmaceutical companies and doctors are trained in ways that promote the products of said companies. That means they are trained to promote anything that makes a person sick so that they will need to take a pill.

 

[stardust]

And i don't know if the information is true but I have been said that a big part of election campaigns where financed by the big pharmaceutical groups...so they can have guys in power to make laws which follow their interest and their interest is to maintain the people ill ( vaccination campaign, continue to sell products which are very toxic, etc.)
In China the doctor was paid to keep the people in good health. If they were ill, i.e. that the doctor had not made a good job, they stopped to paid him... If you put in place such a system today, I imagine that the main part of doctors would be ruined!

 

[PopHistorian]

I know someone whose father recently had an operation to remove cancer in China. It was standard procedure to provide a bribe to get the most experienced surgeon at the hospital, who basically worked only if bribed. Otherwise you'd automatically get "the new guy."

Anyway, I opened this thread, in part, because my doctor has been bugged me for years about a "borderline" cholesterol level. I know he's leading up to suggesting a prescription of some sort, which I will reject. I learned back in college that the development of medical statistics and the determination of what is "normal" automatically categorized some people as "abnormal" without regard to how their bodies work individually. These statistical ranges are ever "massaged" to the benefit of drug companies who are happy to cater to the ever-growing numbers of outliers, "abnormal" patients, all in the euphemistic name of "prevention." It's sickening, literally.