Wonderfully Made

Cholesterol

Three Angels Broadcasting Network

Program transcript

Participants: George Guthrie, Tim Arnott

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Series Code: WM

Program Code: WM000331


00:01 The following program presents principles
00:03 designed to promote good health
00:04 and is not intended to take the place of
00:06 personalized professional care.
00:08 The opinions, ideas expressed are those of the speaker.
00:12 Viewers are encouraged to draw their own conclusions
00:14 about the information presented.
00:37 Welcome to Wonderfully Made.
00:39 My name is Dr. George Guthrie,
00:41 I'm the Medical Director at Lifestyle Center of America.
00:45 I would like to discuss with you today about cholesterol.
00:49 Do you really need to take a drug
00:51 in order to lower your cholesterol?
00:54 With me to join in this discussion is Dr. Tim Arnott.
00:59 Thank you George, it's good to be with you again.
01:03 Well, Tim we are looking at cholesterol.
01:09 What is cholesterol? Well George,
01:11 its something very, very important in fact
01:14 if you don't have cholesterol in your body and
01:17 you're a lady you won't be able to make Progesterone
01:21 and of course if you don't have Progesterone you won't
01:24 be able to have children. In fact George reality
01:28 is that none of us would be here if wasn't for cholesterol
01:31 and we wouldn't be able to have men and women,
01:34 because of testosterone and estrogen are made
01:37 from cholesterol Cholesterol is an important part
01:40 of every cell in the body, in fact the membrane
01:45 or the valve that lines the cell that actually encloses
01:50 the cell has cholesterol in it and it actually has a very
01:54 important role at making sure that, that membrane
01:58 operates efficiently and has the full function that
02:02 it needs. So, cholesterol is important.
02:04 Well, here I thought cholesterol was bad.
02:06 Where did we get the idea that if cholesterol is so
02:09 good, where did we get the idea so, that it's bad?
02:12 Well it turns out George that when cholesterol
02:15 is damaged chemically by something called a free
02:20 radical which is simply a form of oxygen in the body
02:24 that's a toxic form and a dangerous form of oxygen.
02:28 When the cholesterol is damaged by that oxygen
02:31 it becomes oxidized. It becomes chemically injured,
02:36 becomes bruised if you will and then the white blood
02:39 cells sweep over and pick up that damaged cholesterol
02:43 and they quickly take it out of the blood and put it
02:47 into the nearest dump side and that just happens
02:50 to the valve of the coronary artery and so overtime
02:55 if you have high blood cholesterol and it becomes
02:59 chemically injured in this way. You can actually fill up
03:02 the valve of the artery full of this cholesterol
03:05 and that cholesterol is unstable and especially
03:09 if you have a lot of inflammation in the blood that
03:12 cholesterol can actually rupture out into the flowing
03:16 blood causing the blood clot to form and that can be
03:19 a heart attack or a stroke.
03:21 So, this is pretty serious business then? Absolutely
03:24 Doctors are now seemed to focus on the cholesterol
03:28 and they want to get the cholesterol down,
03:30 so we can decrease the risk of heart attack and strokes
03:33 and those types of things. There is a lot that we hear
03:38 in the advertisements and magazines and TV about
03:45 drugs to help lower cholesterol.
03:47 How do those drugs work and are they really
03:50 beneficial for us? Well, those drugs are a number
03:55 of different types, but the most popular type is called
03:58 a Statin. And these drugs actually interfere with the
04:03 enzyme that the body uses to make cholesterol and
04:08 so they are actually quite effective at lowering
04:12 the total cholesterol and they can lower the total
04:15 cholesterol anywhere from 25 to 30 percent and
04:19 these drugs are been shown to lower the risk of developing
04:23 a heart attack for example about the same about 25
04:26 to 30 percent, but what we wanna talk about on
04:30 this program is what is the underline cause of that
04:35 elevated cholesterol. What's the underline cause of
04:38 damaged cholesterol and what if anything
04:42 can we do about it? Yes, at Lifestyle Center
04:45 of America we have focused on treating the cause
04:49 of the disease rather than just the symptoms and I
04:53 suppose we could aim at just lowering the cholesterol,
04:56 but wouldn't it make more sense to focus on
04:59 decreasing or changing those things that made the
05:02 cholesterol go up. What can we do to help lower our
05:05 cholesterol or may be I should say to help us understand it?
05:08 What did we do to make our cholesterol go up in
05:10 the first place? Well, one of the things George
05:14 that we do without realizing it we are involved
05:18 in a society where we are quite sedentary.
05:22 No exercise? No exercise, where we are sitting like
05:24 you and I are sitting here we gonna get some exercise
05:28 after this. We are also eating foods that are very
05:32 calorie dense. They are not 80 percent water like
05:36 the beans, whole grains, the fruits and vegetables
05:39 that's cook beans and cook whole gains of course,
05:41 but these foods are, they were eating a very dense
05:44 in calories, it's not lot of water or fiber in them and
05:48 so its very easy overtimes for over wait to creep
05:51 upward and what some people may not know is that
05:55 if your weight creeps up your body becomes more
05:58 resistant to insulin and so your pancreas has to make
06:02 more insulin to actually overcome the insulin
06:06 resistance and so your insulin blood levels go up
06:10 and what its important to realize is that insulin
06:14 actually stimulates the enzyme that the body uses
06:18 to make cholesterol. So, as your insulin level goes up,
06:21 so does your cholesterol level go up.
06:24 So, body weight is something that's very important.
06:28 You know as I have tried it to explain this to people
06:31 in the past one of the things, I have, I have looked
06:33 at is cholesterol as a soap. You know cholesterol
06:37 is part of what unable the body to move oil,
06:41 fat and greace around in a water system not only
06:46 are the beans 80 percent water, but we are pretty close
06:49 to that as well, where in the 60 to 70 percent range
06:52 and so in water systems oil and fat don't move around
06:55 and the body has to make this extra cholesterol to in
06:59 order or soap, detergent in order to move the fats
07:03 surrounded the body. So, high fat diet has something
07:06 to do it as well especially a fat called saturated fat.
07:08 Saturated fat or some people call it animal fat.
07:14 These are fats that are, are actually solid at room
07:19 temperature in fact these are fats were,
07:21 were designed to be in organisms that have a body
07:25 temperature of in the 90s, 98.6 these are important fats,
07:32 because if you are going to have a fat be fluid
07:35 in this kind of a creature you need a fat that has more
07:38 solidity to it and, but when you put these fats in
07:41 the diet they actually raise the blood cholesterol in
07:46 fact saturated fat such you would find in butter
07:51 or in red meat for example. These fats are two
07:56 or three times more powerful and raising the total
07:59 cholesterol level then if you are to sit down and eat
08:02 cholesterol itself. So, certainly George moving away
08:07 from the saturated fats that are found in the meats
08:10 especially the red meats and also in the dairy products
08:15 especially the full fat dairy products and probably the
08:19 most important source the number one source of
08:22 saturated fat is cheese, especially the higher fat
08:26 cheeses. So, moving away from these sources
08:30 of saturated fat can drop the total cholesterol
08:34 quite significant. And so we get to our
08:36 question we say do I have to take a drug to lower
08:40 my cholesterol or can I change my lifestyle to get our
08:44 focus can we can I actually change what I am doing
08:48 in such a way to lower my cholesterol
08:51 so I don't need to take a drug?
08:53 Well, that's what we want to share on this program we
08:56 wanna share with you some actually results from real
08:59 people who actually did embark on a lifestyle change
09:03 program and some interesting and dramatic changes took
09:07 place in their cholesterol levels. In fact,
09:10 what this individuals did for 19 days they came into a
09:14 inpatient program, they went on a total plant diet
09:18 that means they ate only beans, whole grains, fruits,
09:23 vegetables nuts and seeds, no animal products no dairy
09:27 products and not even fish for 19 day period.
09:31 They engaged in exercise. They were walking,
09:33 they were rowing, they were swimming,
09:36 they went out for walks in the sunshine,
09:39 they were drinking water, even carrying
09:40 their water bottles, so just like you and I are.
09:43 And they were avoiding coffee and, and the caffeine
09:48 and alcohol and tobacco. They were resting and they
09:52 were learning how to spend time with their creator.
09:55 So, they were following the creator's program of
09:58 healing these eight natural doctors if you will and what
10:02 we wanna share in our first light is what took place
10:06 to their cholesterol level a side affect if you will by
10:10 following the creator's program and what we see here
10:14 is that the total cholesterol level dropped
10:18 significantly in those who are using a Statin.
10:22 Now, as you can it dropped George about 31 points
10:26 the total cholesterol in those taking a Statin,
10:29 by the way George what is a Statin? What,
10:32 what exactly if, if somebody was on one and how
10:36 would they know? I mean what?
10:37 A Statin is a medication which blocks the body's
10:40 formation of cholesterol and that's kind of science
10:44 is modern sciences way of dealing with the cholesterol
10:46 problem rather than getting to the source of the problem.
10:50 Well, it stop their body from making the stuff
10:52 and you know, I suppose that makes sense we know that
10:56 it decreases heart attacks when we take the medications.
10:59 We know that it decreases information in the body,
11:03 so there is benefit, but isn't it a bit foolish to just
11:06 focus on blocking the formation of cholesterol
11:10 without getting to the thing that made the body tried
11:13 to make cholesterol in the first place.
11:15 Now, someone at this point may be asking the question.
11:17 Well, that's fine for those people who are on a medicine
11:20 just taking one of these Statin medicines,
11:23 but what if I am not taking a Statin medicine.
11:27 Well, we actually had some patients who are not
11:30 taking one of these Statin cholesterol-lowering medicines
11:34 and our next graphic will actually show what happen
11:37 to those individuals. And as you can see these
11:40 individuals had also dramatic decrease in their total
11:44 cholesterol level. In fact, George you can see it went
11:48 from an average of 192 to right down into the 150 range
11:54 and what we tell patients at the Lifestyle Centre
11:57 of America is if you can get your total cholesterol below
12:00 150 that's probably the safest total cholesterol level
12:05 and you can see from the little P value on this slide
12:09 that this result was highly statistically significant,
12:13 so probably not just a result of chance there was real
12:18 drops in cholesterol for those who are not even
12:20 taking a medicine in just 19 days.
12:24 Tim I noticed on those slides a word Vegan
12:28 isn't that a religion people like they don't wear leather
12:33 shoes or leather belts. I mean it kind of brings up
12:37 around some of these thoughts I saw that word
12:40 Vegan on the slide may be you can clarify
12:44 for it that for us. Well, certainly there are some
12:47 individuals who are Vegans and its part of a,
12:51 a broader health focus and you might say even a religious
12:56 focus and that's not what we were talking about here.
13:00 Vegan is simply a word a, a tool to actually share that
13:06 these individuals that had these dramatic cholesterol
13:10 reductions were eating only plants and you could also
13:14 use terms like a total plant based diet or a 100 percent
13:19 vegetarian diet its just a tool to share that in order
13:24 to get these results the individuals were eating
13:27 nothing, but beans and whole grains, fruits, vegetable,
13:30 nuts and seeds, no animal products what so ever
13:34 and so that's why we use the term frankly
13:36 we didn't have much space on the slide and that was
13:40 a powerful word to get the point across without
13:43 being too worried. Well, thank you for clarifying
13:47 that. Well, what other changes do you see?
13:51 Well, you know George the American Heart Association
13:54 has just come out with some interesting data,
13:58 showing that the LDL cholesterol which some
14:03 people call it the bad cholesterol and LDL is stands
14:07 for low density lipoprotein.
14:11 I have a different word that I sometimes use to yes
14:14 get easier, yes sure, share that, because people get
14:16 lost in these acronyms of letters. LDL in my vernacular
14:22 stands for little devil lipoproteins.
14:25 Alright that your sounds man, little devils a little
14:27 devils and they are little they can be little devils.
14:30 Well, of course as only if they get too high
14:34 and if they become chemically damaged as we talked
14:37 about earlier and so the LDL is a cholesterol level
14:42 that we actually its actually a packet of cholesterol
14:47 it's a cholesterol particle like a little suitcase
14:50 that carries cholesterol in the blood stream and
14:54 this is the particular cholesterol package
14:57 if you will that's can end up inside the artery valve
15:01 forming these cholesterol plaques that can rapture
15:04 and cause and heart attack and the stroke.
15:06 So, this number is even more important than the total
15:10 cholesterol number. Yes, yeah it can be
15:12 in fact and what we want to share also is that
15:16 this recent recommendation from the
15:19 American Heart Association is telling us for example
15:23 if you are at the highest risk of a heart attack.
15:25 In other words if you have type 2 diabetes and
15:28 you've already had some kind of a heart event
15:31 may be you had a bypass surgery or heart attack.
15:33 Then they are telling us you need to get that LDL
15:36 or that bad cholesterol or that little devil lipoprotein
15:40 level down less than 70 and so that's it the piece
15:45 of new information most cardiologists, most heart
15:49 specialists would like your LDL level to be less than 100
15:52 and so that's the kind of ranges that we would wanna
15:58 have if you've one of the lower risk of a heart attack
16:00 and probably the lowest risk of a stroke,
16:02 but the exciting thing George is that patients on this
16:06 Lifestyle program were seeing changes also
16:09 and LDL cholesterol.
16:11 Yes, lets look at the next slide and see what
16:13 it looks like. When we go to the next slide
16:16 what you can see is that in those individuals
16:19 who were taking a Statin drug in this case they were
16:23 actually able to lower their LDL or their bad
16:26 cholesterol level from 74 down to 54 as you can see
16:33 that's below 70. Yes So, and these individuals
16:36 did not necessarily have the highest risk of disease
16:41 they were had type 2 diabetes,
16:43 but certainly did not all have heart disease,
16:45 but you can see that they got their cholesterol
16:48 level their LDL below 70 even into the 50s.
16:53 Now, you can also see that not only did those
16:57 who were taking a Statin have a significant 20 point
17:00 reduction in their LDL or bad cholesterol level on a
17:04 total plant diet, but those who were not using Statins
17:08 those who are not using one of these powerful
17:10 medicines to lower cholesterol they also on a total
17:14 plant diet lowered their LDL or bad cholesterol
17:18 almost 30 points 27 points and as you can see there
17:22 its highly statistically significant. So,
17:24 both those who use these medicines is powerful
17:28 cholesterol lowering medicines and those who don't were
17:31 able with a plant diet has significant further
17:34 reductions that even into the accepted optimal
17:38 range for those at highest risk of a heart attack.
17:40 That's interesting Tim but that those are numbers
17:45 from Lifestyle Centre of America is anybody else
17:48 been able to demonstrate these changes.
17:51 Well, actually Dr Jenkins at the University
17:54 of Toronto in Canada did something very interesting.
17:58 He wanted to show or he wanted to actually
18:00 to find out if a plant based diet could lower total
18:05 cholesterol or LDL cholesterol in this case as much
18:09 as a Statin drug one of these most important
18:11 and most popular cholesterol-lowering
18:13 medicines and so he took a largely a vegetarian
18:16 diet like he was total, it was a vegetarian diet
18:18 was a total plant diet and there were some dairy
18:21 products and he added to it some important
18:24 cholesterol lowering plant's ingredients such as
18:29 almonds and soy protein and a margarine made out
18:33 of a plant substance like cholesterol called Fitosterol,
18:38 which actually blocks cholesterol absorption
18:41 and so you can remove more cholesterol from your
18:43 body and, and also solvable fiber which can help
18:47 to reduce the amount of cholesterol that's again
18:50 absorbed back up into the blood stream and send
18:54 more of it out of your body, so he added these
18:57 special plant ingredients to these vegetarian diet
19:00 and he showed that in a several weeks of being
19:05 on one program or the other that the Statin drug
19:08 and the vegetarian or plant based diet had an quick
19:12 a equal ability to lower the LDL cholesterol.
19:16 Well, that's good news, so we can actually make
19:18 changes in our lives dealing with the cause the
19:23 underlying causes of the cholesterol elevation
19:26 and see the same change as we occurred
19:29 from taking a drug. Absolutely in fact one
19:31 of the other changes it wasn't just LDL
19:34 that dropped about the same on a plant based diet as
19:38 what you would see with a medicine,
19:39 but something else call the C-reactive protein which
19:44 measures the amount of inflammation in your blood
19:47 stream and basically what that is measuring
19:50 the amount of activity of the white blood cells
19:54 and this is important because the cholesterol inside
19:58 the artery valve and it actually white blood cells
20:01 are mixed with that cholesterol and if there is a
20:05 lot inflammation in the body these white blood cells
20:09 are more active that makes the cholesterol plaque
20:11 more active its more likely to rapture a clock to form
20:14 in a heart attack and this plant base diet lower
20:17 the amount of inflammation is measured by CRP
20:20 ro C-reactive protein as much as a Statin drug.
20:23 This is really earth shattering news.
20:26 Oh, it's good news for those of us who understand
20:28 the importance of a plant based diet. Especially
20:33 note that the Statin drugs do more than just lower
20:36 the cholesterol. They actually lower the inflammation
20:41 as well and so when we talk about a lifestyle treatment
20:46 to lower cholesterol you need to under that it
20:49 not only lowers cholesterol, but it also lowers the
20:53 inflammation as measured by the CRP or C-reactive
20:58 protein. Well, that's good news Tim a lifestyle change
21:01 than could take a place of a medication and that's
21:06 really good news. Now, there is some other
21:09 cholesterol packages that sometimes are changed
21:14 and need to be fixed tell us about those?
21:17 Well, that's true George and you know lot of people
21:20 who are looking at treatments or tools to help bring
21:24 down the blood cholesterol when someone mentions
21:27 a plant based diet which is rich in carbohydrates
21:31 and again we are not talking about a diet that's rich
21:35 and white flour, white bread and white pasta
21:38 and refined sugars. But what we talking about and
21:42 when we talk about high carbohydrate diet is
21:45 whole grains, beans, vegetables,
21:48 fruits, nuts and seeds. When we talk about this
21:51 kind of a program we are actually talking about a,
21:55 an approach to cholesterol reduction that is a little
21:58 bit different. It is a it is beyond just simply using
22:03 a medicine and some people think well, that approach
22:08 will lower the good cholesterol, it will actually
22:10 cause more harm than good, because we need the
22:13 good cholesterol to get cholesterol out of the body.
22:16 Now, that good cholesterol is called HDL which
22:21 confuses people all over the place got another name
22:23 that sometimes works for that. Share that with us?
22:26 Heavenly darlings those are the good once.
22:28 Heavenly darlings so you know if you have difficulty
22:32 remembering HDL just remember heavenly darlings
22:36 and really they are heavenly George,
22:38 because there are people who have very high total
22:42 cholesterol, very high LDL or bad cholesterol,
22:45 but their good cholesterol is also very high and those
22:49 individuals are largely protected from heart attacks,
22:53 but what was seem in this study at the Lifestyle
22:57 centre where these patients on a total plant diet
23:00 was that HDL did something surprising and if we can see
23:04 that graphic now George tell us what we saw or perhaps
23:10 didn't see with the good cholesterol levels
23:13 in these patients? The good news is that on
23:15 this slide it's demonstrated that the HDL did not
23:18 changed during the program at Lifestyle Centre
23:23 of America using the plant based diet.
23:26 Now, let me explain this to try to make it clear for you.
23:29 You see the literature reports the scientific literature
23:33 reports that when you move to a high carbohydrate
23:37 diet the HDL tense to drop rather than go up and
23:44 so in the literature what they are focusing on is much
23:47 more a refined carbohydrates when we deal with
23:51 100 percent plant based diet, the fiber and other
23:54 things apparently keeps the insulin levels low and makes
23:59 the situation such that the HDL does not have to
24:03 go down. The heavenly darlings don't decrease
24:07 they stay up a high and that is good news.
24:10 This is very good news its very important that the
24:13 HDL the good cholesterol stays high, because that's
24:17 the cholesterol package that they are sending
24:21 cholesterol out of the body and if your able to send
24:26 cholesterol out of the body with a lot of this good
24:29 cholesterol as HDL then it doesn't build up in the artery
24:33 valve nearly as much. Now, that was in, that was dated
24:37 for those who are taking a Statin drug a cholesterol
24:40 lowering drug, but we can go to the next slide George
24:43 tell us what happened in into the HDL or good cholesterol
24:47 and those who are not taking a Statin drug which
24:50 is going to be of course more valuable for many people
24:53 in the audience who went on one of these medicines.
24:56 Well, the results were the same a plant based diet
24:59 did not make the heavenly darlings go down
25:02 and that is good news. It is good news,
25:06 and also George I think its important to understand
25:10 that one of the reasons that people are getting
25:12 more and more heart disease in America is that they
25:16 are becoming more insulin resistant or weight is going
25:21 up or middle is going out or we are gaining more
25:25 weight in the mid section and that often will raise
25:28 the insulin level which drives the good cholesterol
25:32 down and the triglycerides are the fat in the blood up
25:36 and that can dramatically increase or accelerate the
25:40 heart disease the hardening of the arteries the
25:43 Atherosclerosis process. So, when we see a program
25:46 that keeps the good cholesterol stable while bad
25:51 cholesterol drops that's what you want and that's what
25:54 you get when you do the creators methods a total
25:57 plant diet and exercise program and all of
26:00 his other remedies. So, we are back to the
26:03 beginning Tim. Do I really have to take a drug?
26:08 Well, you know there are some people who may have
26:11 to take a drug to lower their cholesterol level,
26:15 but I think what we are pointing out George
26:17 in this program is that perhaps if you have had
26:22 difficulty brining down your total cholesterol your LDL
26:26 or bad cholesterol in the past, perhaps what you wanna
26:29 do is take one more step and that step is to move
26:33 to a total plant diet and an exercise program and
26:37 particularly exercise out in the air fresh and in the sun
26:41 light and you will not only see your bad cholesterol
26:44 level go down, you will see those Triglyceride
26:46 levels tend downward as well.
26:49 And I suppose the good news is also that the lifestyle
26:52 change works as well for those who are taking
26:56 the drug as those who are not, so there is actually
26:59 some added benefit, added benefit absolutely.
27:03 So, in the time remaining is there anything
27:06 else that should be emphasized?
27:08 George there is something that we do need to share
27:11 and that is there may be people out there
27:14 who have tried to get their cholesterol level down
27:17 and they have not succeeded in fact they may
27:20 have even tried to plant based diet and not succeeded
27:24 and there is such a thing is heredity,
27:26 genes if you will and some people have elevated
27:29 cholesterol, but what we want to emphasize is protect
27:32 the cholesterol even if its too high protected
27:35 from damage by using anti-oxidants not pills,
27:40 but whole foods and factored the beacon nut is one
27:44 of the most powerful anti-oxidant nuts.
27:46 The blueberry is a very rich in anti-oxidants and
27:50 so whole plant foods beans are rich in anti-oxidants,
27:53 greens you want to shield your cholesterol,
27:56 so its not damaged by the oxygen free radical
28:01 and so in summary we just want to encourage you
28:04 to follow the creators lead and you will
28:07 discover how wonderfully we are made.


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Revised 2014-12-17