Comment by a_c | Hacker News Reader

Comment by a_c | Hacker News Reader

My favourite scientific myth is "cholesterol causes heart disease" evangelized by Ancel Keys [1] in the Seven Countries Study [2]. From there, we developed plant oil. From plant oil, we developed margarine. From margarine, we discovered trans-fat. And we found the trans fat causes coronary heart disease, hence in full circle. Worse still, from the fear of cholesterol, we developed "cereal that lowers your blood cholesterol" and the drug statin [3]. And also by focusing cholesterol, we down played the health hazard of consuming sugar because there is no such thing as cholesterol industry while sugar does.

I'm overly generalizing here without much reference. If there is interest I will dig up more material.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancel_Keys

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_Countries_Study

[3] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13260239-the-truth-about...

Yes cholesterol is a vital building block. However the medical literature consistently shows a strong relationship between LDL and non-HDL cholesterol levels and heart attack and stroke.

Various cholesterol lowering drugs, statins being the most widely prescribed but certainly not the only class, show consistent relationship with cholesterol lowering and reduced risk of MACE (MI, stroke).

Plaque is made of foam cells that consume cholesterol. They grow and obstruct arteries, and eventually rupture causing critical flow obstructing events.

Cholesterol is mostly produced by the liver, fructose consumption plays a significant role in stimulating that process. AIUI dietary cholesterol is mostly a red herring according to current science.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_novo_synthesis#Cholesterol

Fear of dietary cholesterol is overrated. You are not (directly) what you eat and that fear was as much deference to magical "Law of Similarity" as anything.

Blood cholesterol is different. At that point, however it got there, the build-up isn't great. I wouldn't lump statins in with the rest of your points.

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