Can an Animal-Based Diet Prevent Heart Attacks? - Part 2

Cholesterol, Fat Burning, Ketosis, and Metabolic Flexibility

Okay, we are on to the first aspect of an animal-based diet that will prevent heart attacks. That concept is the idea that humans evolved to what they are today because they ate and burned fat for fuel and are much more efficient when we do. Our heart is especially reliant on this aspect of evolved metabolism. But before we get into this let’s review where we are.

In Part 1 of this series we laid the foundation for what really causes heart attacks and as we saw it has nothing to do with saturated fat or cholesterol getting clogged in an artery. If you didn’t read that post go back and read it now. The following posts will make much more sense once you have the concepts in that post running through your head. Here is the outline of this series.

Part 1 – The Foundational Imbalances That Cause Heart Attacks

Part 2 – (This post) Cholesterol, Fat Burning, Ketones, and Metabolic Flexibility

Part 3 – The Autonomic Nervous System Imbalance

Part 4 – Toxins, Oxidative Stress, and Nitric Oxide

Part 5 – The Evolutionary Mismatch Behind It All

As promised in Part 1 we are going to go a little deeper into debunking the cholesterol hypothesis, or lipid hypothesis, of heart attacks. It’s obvious that an animal-based diet is high in cholesterol and saturated fat. Should we be scared of these foods in our diet? No, we should not be.

In Part 1 we talked about Ancel Keys and the study he did that got the ball rolling on the cholesterol hypothesis. We also showed how his study was very bad science. In the archeological record we see that humans have been eating meat and saturated fat through millions of years of our evolution. (1,2) Since our epidemic of heart disease and heart attacks are a relatively new thing, the last 100 years or so (3), it doesn’t make sense to say that animal products in the diet are the cause. Further, the modern research just doesn’t back it up.

A study in 2009 looked at 136,905 hospital admissions for heart disease from 2000 to 2006. Cholesterol was measured in the patients soon after admission to the hospital and to everyone’s surprise 75% of the patients had normal cholesterol levels. (4) How could cholesterol be causing the heart disease if it wasn’t elevated in 75% of those with heart disease? Another study in 2016 showed that 92% of elderly people with cholesterol levels considered high lived longer! (5)

Considering that cholesterol plays a vital role in nourishing our brain and nervous system, making our hormones, and driving cell to cell communication this makes sense. Cholesterol is not the enemy. Makes you wonder why statin drugs (cholesterol lowering medications) are the most commonly prescribed drug most years. (6)

There are actually many interesting findings in studies of statins. One study showed that healthy women with high cholesterol get no benefit from statins as far as reducing risk of heart attack or death. Further, it showed that in men and women over sixty-nine years of age with high cholesterol there was also no benefit to taking statins. (7) Another study showed that treatment with two statins lowered cholesterol more than one alone but also showed no change in the number of heart attacks and lead to more plaque in the arteries. (8)

Statistically statins have very little clinical effect. In people who already had heart disease they prevent death in 1 in 83 people, nonfatal heart attack in 1 in 104 people, and prevented stroke in 1 in 154 people. (9) Even if cholesterol was the cause of heart disease there is even evidence that statins aren’t very good at lowering it. (10) All this does not give you confidence in statin therapy, and what makes it worse are the side effects statins can cause. Statins cause diabetes in 1 in 50 people and muscle damage in 1 in 10 people. (9) It has also been shown that statins can cause memory problems, (11) sexual dysfunction (12) and muscle pain. (13) As a practicing Chiropractor I see many patients who come to me for treatment of muscle pain who are also on statins and did not have this pain before they started taking them.