It was Ancel Keys who first presented the theory that cholesterol causes heart disease. His theory turned LDL cholesterol into the bad guy and went on to become the common belief since the mid-1950s.
Statin drugs do what they say they do and lower LDL cholesterol, but Dr. Martin asks why you’d want to do that? Cholesterol is essential to our body’s functioning and it turns out that lowering your LDL comes with consequences.
Join Dr. Martin in today’s episode to learn the long-term effects of using statin drugs to lower LDL cholesterol.
TRANSCRIPT OF TODAY'S EPISODE
Announcer: You're listening to The Doctor Is In Podcast, brought to you by MartinClinic.com. During the episode, the doctors share a lot of information. As awesome as the info may be, it is not intended to diagnose, cure, treat, or prevent any disease. It's strictly for informational purposes.
Dr. Martin: Well, good morning everyone. Welcome to another live this morning. Hope you're having a great start to your day. Today, I got to talk to you about LDL, okay, LDL cholesterol. I get so many questions a week about cholesterol. It's incredible. I know that that probably will never end, and I want you to ask questions. I want you guys, God gave you a brain, use it. I like that. And the way you're going to learn is to ask questions. That's how I learn. I ask questions. If I wanted inside information about a patient, you know how I got that? I asked a lot of questions, okay?
Now, people ask me all the time, and I don't blame them because we've been duped as a society. We've been duped. It's amazing to me the effect of one man. What started the cholesterol? I hate to use the word hoax, but I am going to use it. What started it? One guy, Ancel Keys. He was a researcher, pathologist, by far not a stupid man. He was on the front page of Time Magazine in 1965 and what he said about heart disease, it's changed the whole world's thinking. Okay? What was said about heart disease changed the whole world's thinking. I was reading Vima, I think that's how you pronounce it, Stephenson. I literally watched on the weekend an interview with him done on TV in 1957. I would've been five years old.
Now, I didn't watch the interview when I was five years old. I watched it on the weekend. Who was he? He was a famous Arctic explorer being interviewed on TV in 1957. He had written a book about his Arctic exploration. He went a year in the Arctic and he lived on blubber, seal, polar bear whale. He ate what, in those days they used to call 'em Eskimos. Today we call 'em the Inuit. And then he spent a year in a hospital in New York so that they could test him, so he could continue eating only meat, blubber fat and protein. Not one ounce of carbohydrate was he given for a year. Doctors thought he was going to die. His numbers were so incredibly good. Medicine couldn't get over. And this was in the days before the cholesterol craze came. Ancel Keys brought us the cholesterol craze. It just caught fire and everyone went for it. Medicine went for it. Nutritionists went for it. The media went for it. The pharmaceutical companies went for it. Okay? Cholesterol. Cholesterol, okay, it's the boogeyman, okay?
So let's talk LDL for a minute because coming out of the cholesterol hoax was a medication to lower cholesterol and very specifically lowered LDL cholesterol and LDL cholesterol 40 years ago, even maybe a little longer than that, but definitely 40 years now have passed. LDL cholesterol became the boogeyman. It was called LDL, okay? Low density lipoprotein cholesterol was given a tag as being a bad cholesterol. Okay? Now guys, one of the wonderful things of being born in the 1950s. If you're born in the 1950s, it's a wonderful thing in a lot of ways, especially in medicine. Why is that? Well, I got to see the progression of a lot of things. I mean, you look at the world today compared to what it was in the 1950s. I mean, you would think you landed on another planet. I mean the technology and all this and that. Yep, I got to see it. What a development. Okay? Some people think it's bad or whatever, I dunno.
But I've got to see, okay, I've told you this in the history of medicine, I've got to see an enormous change occur since the 1950s when I was a little boy. One of the things, let's just talk nutrition for a second. One of the worst things that happened to us is because I always tell my grandchildren, okay, because they think I was born in the days of Noah, okay? I said, listen, grandpa had ice cream and cookies too when I was a kid. You did? Yeah, I did. But the average North American was consuming 25 pounds of sugar a year. My four kids were born, okay? My four kids were born in the 1970s, all four of 'em, okay? Canadians, north Americans, my American friends, we're now up to 50 pounds of sugar a year. Today it's 200 pounds of sugar a year. We went from a big bag to an enormous bag to a dump truck, a wheelbarrow. You need more than a wheelbarrow for 200 pounds, wouldn't you? On average that's what we're consuming, I think. Okay?
But Ancel Keys said the problem with heart disease. He said, I've discovered it, it's cholesterol. Cholesterol is at the crime scene and cholesterol is the culprit of heart disease. Man, that caught on like wildfire. And it wasn't long that it was taught in every medical school in North America, and probably Europe too. It got into the media, it got into the medical schools, it got into the general public. It got into the food industry. The food industry made a big shift. They got away from butter and bacon and they got into cereal. And anything that didn't contain cholesterol, they use margarine instead of butter. I watched it. Guys, that's how old I am. I watched this happen before my eyes, even in the early 1970s. They were teaching us in 2000 hours of nutrition to be careful about cholesterol, and it took over everything.
And then they found a medication called statin drugs, okay? Cholesterol lowering medication. And they found that if they would give you or me a statin drug, it would lower LDL cholesterol. And the world went nuts, okay? Every medical school was taught, every medical doctor was taught that cholesterol is your enemy, especially the real bad guy, LDL cholesterol. It must be lowered at all costs. Ancel Keys started it, but then big pharma, man, oh man, they saw this was groundbreaking in their opinion, and this medication took off and it became the medication of choice of every physician, just about. 99.9% of physicians we're now trained to lower LDL cholesterol. Not worry about your diet, except that, get rid of butter, okay? Because butter gave you cholesterol, limit your eggs. And by the way, don't eat bacon. It's bad for you. It's bad for your heart.
And cardiologists added salt to the menu. No, they took it away from the menu. I'm saying they added it to the menu with statin drugs and get rid of butter, use margarine, the introduction of machine oil into the North American diet. The introduction of machine oil, the oil that you should use in your car, not in your body. What do they call it? Oh, healthy vegetable oils. Go in the middle aisles of your grocery store and you'll see them all. Take them out of the grocery store and put 'em into your car. Don't put him into your body. But you see all of that came from one man, Ancel Keys. He's long gone now, but look what he started. He started a craze and if you did a survey in your hometown, go door to door. And people don't know a lot about cholesterol, but they know enough to tell you this. Most people, that's bad, it causes heart disease. And LDL got vilified.
Now, I got to tell you, I never jumped on that ship. I never did. Not even when I was in school. I didn't buy it because I was taught differently by my father. Hallelujah. Seriously, because my dad lived on steak, okay? He lived on, okay? Three things happen when you insist on lowering LDL cholesterol, three things happen, okay? It's not good. None of it is good. Brain, when you lower LDL cholesterol, I always laugh or laughed because I don't see it anymore, but there was a commercial for Lipitor, I think, or Crestor, one of these statin drugs, and there was a fireman who, you know the fire pole at the fire station. Well, he couldn't get down that pole fast enough to tell the other firefighters that his cholesterol numbers had come down.
Now, that used to give me a migrane when I watched that commercial and he went around the fire station in this commercial giving the other firefighters a high five, and they were giving him a high five. I mean, because he had lowered his cholesterol. And the reason I liked the commercial in one way because I found it very comical, is that I use an illustration and I have for many, many years. If you're at the scene of a fire, have you ever been to a fire? A house is on fire down the street or whatever. You ever gone and watched? You ever seen anything like that? The firemen that are at that scene, good guys or bad guys, okay? Have you ever been to a crime scene? You ever come on where they taped off the area and whatever. There's a crime scene, they won't let you in, but you see a pile of police cars there. Good guys or bad guys? Are they the bad guys? Are the firemen the bad guys? Nope. They happen to be at the scene.
Listen, cholesterol is not the bad guy, okay? It's just not. Cholesterol will always be going through your blood stream. It's a transporter. It transports your hormones. Of course it's going to be at the crime scene if you have plaque or whatever. Cholesterol is always at the scene in blood vessels. Why? Because it's always present, but it's on your side. LDL cholesterol, if you insist on lowering it, and these are statistics, when you have low LDL, you're going to have low cognition. Do you understand, fathead? I say that as a term of endearment. When I call you fathead, you are my friend. I love you, fathead! You want fat in your brain. It doesn't work without fat. And then we went because of Ancel Keys, we went on a fat free craze. Go into grocery stores, yogurt, you can get fat free yogurt. Why in the world would you want to have fat free yogurt? Reduced fat. Everything. They're crazier than hoot owls.
When they insist on lowering LDL cholesterol, you're going to have a fat free brain. And when you have a fat-free brain, your brain will not operate properly, especially the hippocampus, your memory center. One of the biggest side effects of statin drugs is the memory. Yeah, I don't have a memory, but boy oh boy, do I ever have low cholesterol, hallelujah. Like the world has gone crazy. I got low cholesterol. You see if your premise is wrong, if the premise is wrong, you see that permeated all throughout society. That lie, that premise was wrong. So what happened? The whole world went for it. The medical world, okay, the pharmaceutical world and guys, the number one selling medication of all time is a statin drug called Lipitor. I get a migraine just thinking about it. I get uptight just thinking about it.
And every day, even today, and I know this week as you send me your blood work, I don't care. You can send me your blood work. I'm happy to look at it, but don't, don't, don't expect. You know what? Maybe I am going to start commenting on your LDL. Okay? You know what? Maybe I should, but don't expect an answer like you're in trouble because your LDL is high. No, you'll never hear it from me. I am going to tell you that you're in trouble when your LDL is low. You don't want low LDL and there's no such thing as bad cholesterol. Well, there is. You've got bad cholesterol when you have low cholesterol. You know how many times I look at blood work and I see low cholesterol. I see high triglycerides, those are bad, and I see low HDL and I send it back. The answer is your lipids, fats are upside down. Your HDL is low and your triglycerides are high. It's upside down. You want low triglycerides and high cholesterol HDL, and you want high LDL too.
Here's what we know about LDL, the significance of it. When it's low, it ain't going to save you from heart disease, not even a bit. But when it's low cognitive, it's very important for your brain, especially your memory center. Got it? Two, it's really important for your immune system. LDL, okay? Low density lipoprotein. Low density LDL is important for your immune system. You have low cholesterol. Oh, goody, goody goody gum drops. Your immune system's not working. Your immune system is not working properly. It's a big part of your immune system. I'm going to bring you a study this week on lymphocytes. You know what lymphocytes are? They're a huge part of your immune system and they're majorly affected by what you eat. Low LDL, low immunity, low LDL, low brain function, and I brought to you this before low LDL, increased cancer risk.
Now, is that to do with the lymphocytes? Yeah, possibly. But there's studies showing you have low LDL. Yay, I got low LDL. I'm coming down the flag pole to give everybody a high five. My doctor is happy with my LDL. Who cares? Your cancer risk has gone up. My friend, I'm interested in your lipid profile. I really am, but I've taught this and I will continue to teach it. 85% of your cholesterol is made by your body. Every cell in your body needs cholesterol. Your brain needs cholesterol, your heart needs cholesterol. Your joints need cholesterol. Your hormones need cholesterol. Everything needs cholesterol because it's so important in your body. God don't trust you. You like that? I made that up guys. That came from me probably 20, 25 years ago on my radio show. I said, God doesn't trust you. What? Well, he makes 85%. Now, would you please contribute 15%? You need to eat cholesterol.
And if you don't eat any cholesterol, and remember, why is cholesterol so vilified? Well, it's in the animal kingdom. It's only found in the animal kingdom. It's only found in eggs, meat and cheese. There's no cholesterol in plants, and 99% of the world thinks, well, that's good. There's no cholesterol in plants or fruits. Therefore, that must be the best food to eat. Ugghh no. Eggs, meat and cheese. Eggs, meat and cheese. Seriously, guys, it's really important. Now, I know that is diametrically opposed to what the world teaches out there. I understand that, but that doesn't make it untrue. That doesn't make it untrue. It just, my friend, that's the truth. You can't eat too much cholesterol. You just can't. You've got to provide, and if you don't, your body still makes 85%.
If you don't provide 15% your body, but it never ever gives you the amount that you need. You need to contribute 15% of that cholesterol. Eat butter, my friend. For a lot of reasons. It's the bread that'll kill you, not the butter, okay? And whatever you do, don't ever under any circumstances, eat fake butter. Okay? Just don't do it. Guys, where do you think egg whites came from? Where do you think egg whites came from? Well, they've always been around, but what made them popular? The cholesterol hoax. I don't eat the yolks, doc, I just eat the whites. You have no idea how big that was. Okay? That was a craze.
And people would come into my office and I think they were expecting me to give them a high five or something, and I would go, yikes. Why are you doing that? Well, my doctor, my dietician, my my, my and I would go, you've been duped. You've been duped. All your vitamins, all your cholesterol are in the yolk, not in the egg white. I'm not telling you to not eat egg white. I'm just telling you, if you don't eat the yolk, you're crazy. They thought I was crazy. I said, I'm going to give you nutrition 1 0 1. My friend I was a teacher even in my practice, I taught. Now we're going to go over nutrition 1 0 1. You believed the lie for a long time. Now I want to undo that. We're going to undo it because I always, always, always started in the kitchen. I always started with food, always. I always started with food and their misunderstanding of it.
And today it's worse than ever. There's so much propaganda today. It's become a religion, and I feel sorry for my grandchildren and my great-grandchildren. I feel sorry for them because they're being indoctrinated now 24 hours a day, big time. You can't even watch Netflix and they do it there. It's everywhere. It's indoctrination. LDL cholesterol. Let me finish, three things. One, lose your brain. Two, okay, two, lose your immunity and three, increase your cancer risk. Why do you want to lower LDL? I get it, but it doesn't make it right. Okay. It doesn't make it right.
Okay, now tomorrow, listen Linda and Larry, listen. Tomorrow I'm traveling, so we're going to do a program early, okay? Eight o'clock, early program tomorrow. Got it? Okay. Eight o'clock. So we'll post it and stay tuned. For you folks out West, you're going to be up bright and early, okay? You are anyway, just earlier. Okay, love you guys dearly and sincerely! Talk to you soon.
Announcer: You've reached the end of another Doctor Is In Podcast, with your hosts, Doctor Martin Junior and Senior. Be sure to catch our next episode and thanks for listening!