From the Publisher

FOREWORD

Nutritionist Jonny Bowden, Ph.D., and cardiologist Stephen Sinatra, M.D., have teamed up in this book to slash through the tall thicket of misinformation surrounding cholesterol, lipoproteins, and the lipid hypothesis. They wrote their fact-based book using easy-to-understand terminology, and present a much more valid hypothesis of what really causes heart disease and a host of other diseases such as diabetes, high blood pressure, and obesity, which will open your eyes to the emperor’s state of undress. If you are worried about your cholesterol level or contemplating taking a cholesterol-lowering drug, we urge you to read this book! This book will put the facts in your hands to make a more informed decision. And we’re confident you will enjoy their book as much as we did.

WHY A NEW EDITION OF THIS BOOK WAS NEEDED

A LOT HAS CHANGED IN THE WAY THE MEDICAL ESTABLISHMENT views cholesterol and heart disease since we first came together almost a decade ago to write the original version of The Great Cholesterol Myth—and most of those changes have been for the better. We now have technology that allows us to clearly identify at least thirteen different subtypes of cholesterol, many of which behave in unique ways in the body. Being able to measure cholesterol with much greater specificity than ever before is good news indeed, because it gives us much more information and far greater accuracy when it comes to predicting future cardiovascular events.

WHY YOU SHOULD BE SKEPTICAL OF LDL AS AN INDICATOR OF HEART DISEASE

THE TWO OF US CAME TOGETHER TO WRITE THIS BOOK because we believe that you have been completely misled, misinformed, and in some cases, directly lied to about cholesterol. We believe that misinformation, scientifically questionable studies, and corporate greed have created one of the most indestructible and damaging myths in medical history: that cholesterol causes heart disease and that statins are the answer.

CHOLESTEROL IS HARMLESS

NOW LET’S TALK ABOUT YOU Unless you’re an information junkie, there’s a good chance that you’re reading this book because you have something at stake here. Let us guess: You’re concerned about your cholesterol. Maybe you’re a woman whose doctor has read you the riot act because your cholesterol is approaching 300 mg/dL, and your doc has convinced you that you’ll drop dead of a heart attack if you don’t go on medication right away. Maybe you’re a middle aged man who has already had a heart attack, and your doctor is adamant about putting you on a cholesterol-lowering drug.

THE REAL DEAL ON CHOLESTEROL

WHEN WE WERE KIDS, DOCTORS STILL MADE HOUSE CALLS. One of us—Jonny vividly remembers “Dr. Leo” coming to the house, always dressed in a suit and tie, with black satchel at the ready. He’d take out his trusty tongue depressor, tell you to say “ah,” put a flashlight in your eye and a stethoscope on your chest and voilà, he’d pronounce his verdict—a flu, a bug, strep throat. He’d dash off an unreadable prescription and within a day or two the “bug” would be gone.

INFLAMMATION AND OXIDATION

INFLAMMATION AND OXIDATION are two of the most vicious processes in the human body. This chapter explains why they are so destructive and what we can do to minimize their damage. Let’s begin with inflammation, which comes in two flavors. We all have experience with acute inflammation. It happens every time you stub your toe, bang your knee, or get a splinter in your finger. When you complain about your aching back, an abscess in your mouth, or a rash on your skin, that’s acute inflammation. It’s visible and uncomfortable, if not downright painful.

SUGAR: THE REAL DEMON IN THE DIET

SUGAR—ESPECIALLY IN THE CONTEXT OF THE MODERN INDUSTRIALIZED DIET—is a far greater danger to your heart than fat ever was. In this chapter, we are going to venture into the labyrinth-like worlds of endocrinology and neuroscience. But relax! We promise not to make your eyes glaze over. And we promise that by the time you finish this chapter you will know more than many doctors do about the common link among heart disease, diabetes, obesity, and hypertension—serious conditions that are of interest to most readers.

THE TRUTH ABOUT FAT: IT'S NOT WHAT YOU THINK

YOU CAN’T TALK ABOUT CHOLESTEROL WITHOUT ALSO TALKING ABOUT FAT, which is convenient, because it’s exactly what we’re going to discuss in this chapter. When you’re done reading it, you may have an entirely different perspective on fat and a much more accurate notion of what the terms “good fat” and “bad fat” mean. And no, we’re not just going to tell you the stuff you’ve heard a million times, such as “fat from fish is good” (completely true) and “saturated fat is bad” (very far from always true).

THE STATIN DECEPTION

STEPHANIE SENEFF ALWAYS WANTED TO BE A BIOLOGIST. For as long as she can remember, she has been fascinated by how things work, particularly how living things work. She wanted to know how frogs jump, how grasshoppers breathe, how cells communicate, how the heart talks to the brain, all of which scientists study in detail, frequently by spending hours a day peering into a microscope. She was interested in systems, and to her the human body was the most fascinating system of all. So she was more.

THE REAL CAUSE OF HEART DISEASE

WE’VE ALL HEARD ABOUT THE APPARENTLY HEALTHY PERSON with no history of heart disease and no known risk factors who suddenly drops dead of a heart attack at age forty-seven while running in the park. Everybody clucks their tongue, expresses shock and disbelief, and says some version of, “But he was so healthy!” Well, he wasn’t.

BEYOND THE MEDITERRANEAN DIET: WHAT DO I EAT?

NEARLY EVERY HEALTH ORGANIZATION ON THE PLANET routinely recommends the Mediterranean Diet, as do most doctors and dietitians. But the definition of what exactly the Mediterranean Diet is remains far more elusive than you might think. First of all, there are twenty-one countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea Montenegro, Spain, Albania, Greece, Turkey, Monaco, Italy, Malta, Slovenia, Cyprus, France, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco. And guess what—they don’t all eat the same foods.

HELP YOUR HEART WITH THESE SUPPLEMENTS

ASK YOUR TYPICAL DOCTOR ABOUT NUTRITIONAL SUPPLEMENTS and the first thing you’re likely to hear is this: “There’s no good research showing they work.” Both of us have heard this refrain time and time again when we discuss nutritional medicine with our more conservative colleagues. It’s not true. You or your doctor can go online to the National Institute of Medicine’s library (www.pubmed.com), enter into the search box the name of virtually any vitamin or herb you can think of, and, depending on what you choose, hundreds to thousands of citations will pop up. So the problem isn’t an absence of research

THE SCIENCE OF HEALTHY LIVING: EAT, LAUGH, PLAY, LOVE

BOTH OF US, DURING OUR GRADUATE SCHOOL YEARS, trained in psychology. Jonny earned a master’s in psychology from the New School for Social Research, and Steve trained for two years in gestalt therapy and then followed up with a six-year certification in bioenergetic psychotherapy. Perhaps that’s why both of us, throughout our careers, have been keenly aware of the role that attitude, thought, feeling, emotion, and the subconscious play in our physical health. We have both seen the collapse of the old fashioned way of thinking about “mind” and “body” as two separate areas of study. Today, every scientist worth his weight in Bunsen burners understands that “mind” and “body” are not two discrete entities, but two completely entwined and interrelated parts of a whole that operate together and are impossible to disentangle.