You’re innocent until proven guilty, right?

Or, are you guilty until proven innocent? Imagine this…

You’ve been convicted of a murder you didn’t commit.

You spend decades behind bars while your name is thrown through the mud and everyone around the world despises you.

Then you’re proven innocent… only to be convicted of the same crime yet again and thrown back in jail for decades more.

Now, imagine this happens to you four times in a row.

While this may seem like a made for TV crime series, it’s actually very real.

The innocent party here is… cholesterol.

And it’s been proven innocent yet again (and hopefully for the final time).

This should be a day of celebration for you.

Why?

Because cholesterol is essential to your thyroid health.

And higher cholesterol might just help the millions of thyroid sufferers like you worldwide.

I’ll explain what I mean in a minute.

First, it’s important to understand that cholesterol has never been the cause of heart disease.

Think about it…

If every time you see an out of control fire you also see firemen, does that mean that firemen must be the cause of all those fires?

Of course not!

Well, then you shouldn’t be so quick to blame cholesterol for heart disease either.

It’s never been proven to cause heart attacks or heart disease.

In fact, much like the firemen are actually trying to help put those fires out…

…your cholesterol is actually trying to help protect you (and your thyroid) in much the same way.

Cholesterol is NOT the Cause of Heart Disease (Hypothyroidism Is)

The truth is that hypothyroidism was first discovered to be the cause of heart attacks in 1890.

And the hypothyroidism and cholesterol connection was established back in the 1930’s.

Even research today continues to prove what we have already known for well over 100 years now.

For example, take a look at the graph below.

This data was taken directly from the HUNT Study, the largest population-based heart disease study ever conducted.

And it shows very clearly that your “bad cholesterol” rises in direct correlation to your thyroid function.

hypothyroidism and cholesterol

Image Source: Eur J Endocrinol February 1, 2007 156 181-186

But this isn’t something you’ll ever hear from your doctor.

And that’s because the medical community and pharmaceutical industry has spent the past 60 years trying to convict cholesterol for the deaths of over a half a million people every single year.

But time and time again all charges against cholesterol have been dropped.

Starting in the 1950’s, so called “heart healthy” polyunsaturated fats were recommended after discovering that they could lower cholesterol.

This was great until further research proved the opposite and showed that those ”heart healthy” fats actually increased your risk of heart disease.

Not only that, but research shows that polyunsaturated fats are extremely thyroid suppressive as they block every part of your Thyroid Hormone Pathway.

(Note: Want to learn more about your Thyroid Hormone Pathway and why our approach to hypothyroidism is so effective? Then take a look at this article on “How We Overcome Hypothyroidism When All Else Fails”).

Then in the 1970’s, the US declared war on high cholesterol foods and promoted a low cholesterol diet.

However, this trial was over before it even started.

Endocrinologist and thyroid expert, Dr. Broda Barnes had already shown through his hypothyroidism and heart disease research that low cholesterol diets actually made heart disease worse.

“…the low cholesterol diet had not only failed to protect the arteries, but the damage was increased four fold.” Dr. Broda Barnes

I’ll tell you more about why Dr. Broda is so important in just minute.

Then starting in the 1980’s, the pharmaceutical industry again declared war against cholesterol with the inception of cholesterol lowering Statin drugs.

Unfortunately statin drugs have been proven useless as they don’t actually save any lives at all.

Statins and all-cause mortality in high-risk primary prevention: a meta-analysis of 11 randomized controlled trials involving 65,229 participants.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20585067
CONCLUSION: This literature-based meta-analysis did not find evidence for the benefit of statin therapy on all-cause mortality in a high-risk primary prevention set-up.

However, they have been shown to increase your risk of diabetes, increase muscle wasting, and decrease libido.

That brings us to today…

We’ve finally got it right this time, they say.

It’s all about “good cholesterol” vs. “bad cholesterol” right?

WRONG.

And the latest pharmaceutical drugs developed to prevent heart disease have proven it.

A new class of cholesterol drugs was developed that effectively increases “good” HDL cholesterol while at the same time decreases “bad” LDL cholesterol. The results?

They’ve stopped all clinical trials because all three of these newly developed drugs failed big time.

“We have a paradox: here we’ve got an agent that more than doubles the levels of good cholesterol and lowers bad cholesterol and yet has no effect on clinical events [heart attacks]” Professor Stephen Nicholls – lead author on Evacetrapib clinical trials

In other words, “good cholesterol” vs. “bad cholesterol” makes no difference at all.

So, as it turns out… “bad cholesterol” isn’t quite as “bad” as you might think.

Through all of these trials, cholesterol has been proven innocent… and rightfully so.

Because what you might not realize is that anything you do to artificially lower your cholesterol is dangerous to your thyroid.

Why Lowering Your “Bad” Cholesterol Is “Bad” for Your Thyroid

As mentioned previously, hypothyroidism and cholesterol are directly related… especially “bad cholesterol”.

That’s right.

The more hypothyroid you become, the higher your cholesterol rises.

This is why long before modern day thyroid tests were developed, doctors were trained to test for elevated cholesterol as an indicator of hypothyroidism.

This is because you need thyroid hormone (T3) to use cholesterol efficiently.

Your body requires cholesterol, thyroid hormone (T3), and Vitamin A to produce all of your protective steroidal hormones including…

  • Pregnenolone
  • Progesterone
  • DHEA
  • Testosterone

But when you’re hypothyroid and lack thyroid hormone, you can’t convert cholesterol into these important hormones and so cholesterol rises accordingly.

Treating thyroid patients with T3 can quickly lower cholesterol levels back down to normal because your body is actually using the cholesterol and increasing production of these hormones.

Yet, artificially lowering cholesterol through diet, drugs, supplements, or otherwise when your body still can’t use that cholesterol is very dangerous…

because it further lowers your levels of these protective steroidal hormones.

And without these essential hormones, you’ll always be hypothyroid.

Take progesterone for example.

Progesterone plays an important role in activating the enzymes that allow your thyroid gland to release thyroid hormone into your bloodstream.

Progesterone deficiency alone is a very common cause of hypothyroidism today.

And it should be no surprise that a deficiency in any/all of these protective steroidal hormones is associated with an increased risk of heart disease.

But what might surprise you is this…

Hypothyroidism Is the True Cause of Heart Disease Today

As I mentioned previously, hypothyroidism was first discovered to be the cause of heart attacks way back in 1890.

Yet, because heart disease was so rare at this time, it didn’t warrant further studies.

That is until it was brought back to light by the work and research of Dr. Broda Barnes.

Dr. Broda Barnes is well known for thyroid and heart disease research and proving that hypothyroidism was the cause of heart disease.

He showed this through both his extensive autopsy research from Graz, Austria along with his own clinical research in the US.

Dr. Barnes conducted his own clinical study of patients being treated for hypothyroidism with desiccated thyroid replacement therapy.

Based on the established heart attack rates at the time, it was predicted that 72 of his study patients would experience a heart attack at some time during this study.

But that’s not what happened at all… only 4 of the study patients did.

That’s a 94% reduction in attacks without any changes other than treating these patients with desiccated thyroid replacement therapy.

And Dr. Broda Barnes determined the proper thyroid dosage for these patients, not based on lab testing, but through a similar method as we teach in our Ultimate Thyroid Testing Protocol training.

(Note: This testing protocol is not only more accurate than lab testing, it can be done easily from home, for free, and in five minutes. You can get it for free by clicking here.)

Dr. Broda Barnes showed that with proper testing and thyroid treatment, we could save hundreds of thousands of lives a year that are lost to heart disease.

Unfortunately, while his work has never been refuted or further studied, it simply continues to be ignored by the medical system today.

But that’s not even the worst part…

In their process of wrongly convicting cholesterol, they’ve been responsible for the deaths of millions of people.

The Untold Dangers of Low Cholesterol

Have you heard that your cholesterol could be too low?

Probably not.

And I’m sure you’re doctor has never told you that low cholesterol is deadlier than high cholesterol.

And this is a major problem today that I continue to see with my clients.

A few years ago, after reviewing a client’s lab work I noticed that his cholesterol was around 150 mg/dL, which is dangerously low.

When I asked him about it, he said that his doctor had just put him on a Statin drug to further lower his cholesterol because, as his doctor put it… “it could be better.”

That’s pure madness.

What your doctor doesn’t know is that while your risk of death due to heart disease might be slightly better with low cholesterol, your risk of death from other causes is worse… including cancer.

Decline in serum total cholesterol and the risk of death from cancer.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9229204
“The group with the highest decline in cholesterol displayed an excess risk for most cancer sites. These associations were more pronounced in subjects whose weight remained stable or decreased over time than in those who gained weight.”

Plasma lipids and mortality: a source of error.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/6102243
“Cancer mortality was 66% higher in the group with the lowest plasma cholesterol than in the group with the highest plasma cholesterol.”

So, before you try to get your cholesterol down even further, here’s what you need to know.

Why Borderline High Cholesterol Is Healthy

The truth is that your borderline “high cholesterol” might be healthier than you think.

The current recommendations for cholesterol state the following…

  • 200 mg/dL (5.2 mmol/L ) or lower = “Desirable Cholesterol”.
  • 200 mg/dL to 239 mg/dL (5.2-6.2 mmol/L) = “Borderline High”.
  • 240 mg/dL (6.2 mmol/L) or above  = “High”

But what does the research say?

It’s important that we look beyond just heart disease and look at all-cause mortality.

Otherwise, as shown above, you might just be trading heart disease for cancer.

And we both know that doesn’t solve any problems.

Based on all-cause mortality studies, optimal cholesterol with lowest all-cause mortality is actually 200 mg/dL to 240 mg/dL (5.2-6.2 mmol/L).

In other words… people who are healthiest and live the longest are the ones who are considered to have “Borderline High” cholesterol.

This is very important to take into consideration before blindly accepting cholesterol lowering drugs from your doctor, “just to be on the safe side”… or before you try that cholesterol lowering diet that’s supposed to be so healthy for you.

Is trying to force your cholesterol lower the best thing for you?

Are you just trading heart disease for cancer or some other unnecessary cause of early death?

Or should you start by fixing the real underlying cause of the problem and focus on your thyroid health?

If you have high cholesterol due to a thyroid hormone deficiency, or low cholesterol due to liver dysfunction, the right diet can make all the difference.

It’s the little and oftentimes overlooked things that prevent us from seeing the results we want and deserve with our health… which is why we cover thyroid health in so much detail, like you’ll see in the 3 Food Triple-Thyroid-Boosting Daily Protocol.

The Simple 3 Food Triple Thyroid-Boosting Daily Protocol

You can get all the details about this triple-thyroid-boosting protocol right here.

So tell me… What’s your cholesterol? Is it “Borderline High”?

Or maybe it is too low? Leave a comment below and let me know.