--have swallowed the cholesterol viewpoint of the drug companies without much questioning, and have been convinced to prescribe statins and other things to really get the cholesterol numbers, especially the LDL, down very, very low.

As Mrs. D points out in her threads, however, there have been some skeptics doing work in the area to see if epidemiologically these lowered cholesterol levels actually have the salutary effect drug comapnies claim--and/or if the lowered levels, statin-induced and otherwise, may have deleterioius effects.

I've read a lot of the literature back and forth, and have come to the conclusion that as far as cardiac events are concerned, the triglyceride levels in concert with inflammatory levels, especially C-reactive protein levels, are probably a better monitor of the potential for adverse thrombotic or coronary events than strict cholesterol levels are (even LDL); there are many different types of cholesterol particles, some of them quite essential for nerve and other tissue function, and the standard tests don't distinguish them well enough. One can have a high overall cholesterol level simply because on has a high HDL (the so-called "good" cholesterol) level, for example. It depends on whether the cholesterol is forming blood vessel plaques, which usually takes some sort of inflammatory lesion for the particles to latch on to/try to cover over.

And, given what we're finding out about statins, I don't think they should be a first line treatment for those with moderately high levels--despite the drug companies effots to convince cardiologists they should be in our drinking water. I'd try much more benign oatmeal, fish oil, and exercise first.

And, yes, there's a lot of literature to support that a diet too rich in refined carbs--especially corn syrup and other highly refined sweeteners--is actually worse than eating a lot of saturated fat (and our obesity rates in the West certainly coincide with the introduction of highly refined carbs into the diet; they play havoc with insulin levels and tend to cuse fat deposition and inflammation in the body). I think a lot of our coronary risk would decrease with more Zone or Atkins type eating habits, and if we got our bodies moving, though I realize that's difficult for people with biomechanical difficulties (I'm one of those) and/or chronic pain.