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Kendrick, Women and cholesterol

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Kendrick is at it again -- another shot at the immortal cholesterol theory

 

http://www.redflagsweekly.com/kendrick/2002_dec23.html

 

 

MALCOLM KENDRICK, MD

December 23, 2002

WHY THE CHOLESTEROL-HEART DISEASE THEORY IS WRONG

Women, Heart Disease And Sex Hormones

(Part Five) - (begin the series<A

HREF= " http://www.redflagsweekly.com/kendrick/2002_nov28.html " > here</A>)

By Malcolm Kendrick MbChB, MRCGP (email -<A HREF= " malcolm " >

malcolm</A> )

Women don’t’ suffer as much CHD as men - of the same age - despite having

slightly higher LDL levels. I’m talking here about women under the age of

about seventy. After that the statistics become horribly inaccurate and, in

the end, we all have to die of something.

For years and years it was suggested that women were protected against LDL

by their sex hormones. In fact the ‘sex hormones protect women against CHD’

hypothesis became an accepted fact, a given.

Like most people, I accepted it too, in " a kind of, I can’t be bothered

checking out every fact that I hear, " sort of a way. Anyway, superficially,

it made sense. Women have similar risk factors (usually higher LDL levels),

they suffer about one third the rate of CHD, and they have hormones. Ergo, it

is the hormones that protect women. Nice and simple: To quote H.L. Mencken on

simple solutions.

‘For every complicated problem there is a solution that is simple, direct,

understandable, and wrong.’

 

 

However, as with almost every other known ‘fact’ about CHD, if you do

choose to look for the evidence, it doesn’t exist. For years I assumed that

someone had carried out a massive pivotal trial proving that female sex

hormones really were protective. But when I went to look for it, I found that

the cupboard was bare. This fact, quoted endlessly, with utter conviction, is

based on absolutely nothing at all.

It is true that oestrogen and progesterone (as we call them in the UK), have

some beneficial impact on lipids and blood coagulability, but in fact, if you

look hard enough you can find effects on almost everything in the

cardiovascular system. Any of these effects could, theoretically, have some

protective benefit. And lo it was decided that these ’test-tube’ benefits

really were important.

Perhaps the most important of these effects was an increase in High Density

Lipoproteins (HDLs), otherwise known as ‘Good Cholesterol.’ I love the idea

of good and bad cholesterol; it’s like something out of Star Wars. ‘This

cholesterol has gone over to the dark side… "

 

 

 

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