For most MD’s, LDL (low density lipoprotein) is “bad cholesterol” because elevated LDL has been associated with atherosclerosis and heart attack (myocardial infarction or MI). As we’ve all heard a million times, “association doesn’t mean causation,” but forgetting this is the mainstream dogma for LDL.

Here’s an important interview that discusses LDL and heart attack (myocardial infarction or MI) in deep but understandable terms.

A few high points:

1. Doctors who are interested in preventing and reversing type 2 diabetes (not just treating it symptomatically) should measure insulin levels, not glucose levels, because insulin levels become increased many years before glucose levels do, allowing prevention and frequent reversal of type 2 diabetes.
2. Elevated LDL cholesterol is NOT the cause of atherosclerosis and heart attack. Excess dietary carbohydrate is.
3. Eating too many dietary carbohydrates over a period of years will chronically elevate insulin until it can no longer get glucose into the cells (insulin resistance). This ultimately causes chronic blood glucose elevation (prediabetes and type 2 diabetes), coronary atherosclerosis and heart attack.
4. Type 2 diabetics and obese patients are transforming their lives with carbohydrate restriction, intermittent fasting, basic nutrients, and exercise, without counting calories, going hungry or reducing dietary fat.
5. Mainstream medicine and the drug companies cannot monetize a strategy of fighting diabetes and myocardial infarction at the causal level, so MD’s rarely hear about it or read the literature that explains it.
6. A coronary artery calcium scan (CAC scan) grades the amount of calcium in arteries of the heart. This tells you how likely you are to drop over dead from a heart attack. None of the other available tests such as lipid panels do this. Some people with normal LDLs have coronary calcification and die of heart attacks while some people with extremely high LDLs have normal coronary arteries and don’t die of heart attacks.
7. Chronic carbohydrate restriction elevates LDLs (so-called “bad” cholesterol), but does NOT cause coronary atherosclerosis or heart attack.

Here’s a link to all the lectures in this series (while it lasts): https://diabetesessentialsprogram.com/?idev_id=27140.

I’ve listened to four of the interviews, and so far they’re based on peer-reviewed scientific literature. That’s unusual for the alternative health videos I’ve seen in this format.

(I have no affiliation with any of these people, no conflict of interest, and nothing to sell.)

I found the above interview of Dr. Ali on YouTube by googling his name, Dr. Nadir Ali. Hopefully, all the videos in this series will be available on YouTube.

Love, longevity, and good health,

Morrill Talmage Moorehead, MD

Disclaimer: Please always consult a health care provider before changing your lifestyle or diet. This post is for educational purposes only, it’s not medical advice.