Cholesterol has gained a lot of notoriety in the last few years.  From foods and supplements that claim to lower cholesterol to competing drug companies advertising how their product is the best solution to this secular phenomenon, we are surrounded by a bombardment of messages from the media about how critical it is to keep your cholesterol at very low levels.  The levels now recommended by the medical establishment are so low that for the average person with the slightest genetic predisposition to high cholesterol only a Herculean effort would achieve such low levels without the help of drugs.

Keep in mind that not all cholesterol are the same.  There is good cholesterol (HDL) and bad cholesterol (LDL).  Your goal should be to increase the good cholesterol and lower the bad cholesterol in such way that your overall cholesterol level stays under a certain level.  All you have to do then is eat the foods that increase the good cholesterol and avoid the ones that increase the bad cholesterol, right?  Not so fast.  Many times the same food that increases the good stuff also increases the bad stuff.

New studies continue to demonstrate a direct correlation between low levels of cholesterol and lower risk of heat disease.  But once you realize that many of these studies were partially funded by the drug companies, you have to start wondering about the impartiality of some of these findings.  Take Liptor as an example.  As one of the most popular cholesterol reducing drugs, also called statins, Liptor alone generates more than $1 billion in revenues for Pfizer.  So when you hear all the noise about how important it is to lower your cholesterol, do you wonder if this stuff is real or if it is all a big marketing campaign from the drug companies?  Are these statins a solution looking for a problem to solve?

Face it, if you have high cholesterol, chances are that you will need to take these drugs for the rest of your life.  That is right, for the rest of your life.  For you this means a great deal of expense and inconvenience, plus the potential risks of side effects.  For the drug companies this translates into recurring revenues.  And one way to increase these recurring revenues is to get more people to use the drugs.  How?  By funding studies that demonstrate that you need to have incredibly low levels of cholesterol in order to reduce the risk of heart disease.

Even herbs are getting into this game.  Previous studies on animals had shown evidence that garlic could lower the bad LDL cholesterol.  But the USA Today reported this week that garlic is powerless against cholesterol.  A recent study with humans at Stanford University’s Prevention Research Center showed that consuming garlic had no significant effects on the concentration of LDL cholesterol.  Bob Norris of the Council for Responsible Nutrition, a dietary supplement industry group, countered that garlic is meant as an aid in maintaining good cholesterol levels in an already healthy population.  It doesn’t sound like a very convincing argument if you are concerned about your cholesterol level.

How do you feel about this obsession with low cholesterol?  Is the importance of low cholesterol overrated?  Are drug companies funding this obsession?  Or is this a legitimate concern?  It would be great to hear your opinion.