Nutritionally Speaking: Alcohol Loses Bout With Cholesterol

Dear Dr. Meinig:

What is this I keep hearing about a drink or two lowering the risk of heart attacks? – E.R.

 

Dear E.R.:

People have a fantastic ability to misinterpret reports of scientific studies, particularly when alcohol is involved. There is a vast, pent-up desire to justify the use of these beverages.

A lot of confusion is taking place about the report that indicated that the use of alcohol lowered cholesterol and therefore the heart attack rate.

The total amount of cholesterol one may find in the blood no longer reveals the true nature of the problem. Actually, there are several kinds of cholesterol but two types are of prime concern.

One is known as high density lipoproteins (HDL). The function of this part is to collect cholesterol that appears in the arteries and take it to the liver where it is converted into bile.

The other is low density lipoproteins (LDL). This is the form of cholesterol that is responsible for the formation of plaques in the arteries and the risk of heart disease.

When the total LDL is high in proportion to the HDL, a person is found to have a greater risk of having a heart attack.

The first study assessing the use of alcohol and its effect on these two factors found that persons drinking a small amount experienced an increase in the HDL portion.

It should come as no surprise that the publication of this finding resulted in an immediate improvement in bar and liquor store sales.

Further research, in but a very short period, disclosed the fact that HDL was really a family of lipoproteins, and that if only one of its principal members was high, the total HDL would be elevated.

Then the Mayo Clinic followed up with a study of 72 patients who regularly used alcohol and 285 non-users as controls.

They found those who imbibed had an increase in the total HDL but not the A-1 portion of it that is associated with lower risk of heart trouble.

In other words, even though the consumption of a drink increased the HDL good guys, it did not increase that part of the HDL that protects from heart disease. The chain of events showed alcohol really didn’t offer the protection that initially was thought to exist.

The presumption that high cholesterol-containing foods were a prime factor in the cause of heart disease also suffered defeat. There has been much emphasis these last thirty years advising the public to eliminate the foods that contain cholesterol from their diets.

Most of you are aware that I have been a severe critic of this theory. There have been 22 research projects all over the world that have looked into the dietary variables that might possibly be involved in the cause of heart attacks.

A recent review of all 22 of these research endeavors revealed not a single bit of evidence linking cholesterol containing foods to cardiovascular disease.

This is not to say that these investigators did not find the high blood cholesterol readings weren’t associated with this illness. They did. What actually has taken place is that the emphasis has been placed on the wrong foods.

If we didn’t eat a single food that contained cholesterol, our liver, intestines and skin would make it. Under certain circumstances excessive amounts are produced by these tissues.

So much preaching has gone on about the harm of cholesterol that most people do not appreciate its important role in body functions. It is absolutely necessary for life.

Cholesterol is especially abundant in the white matter of the nervous system in 2 percent of the brain. The high percentage present in the adrenal glands aids in the production of hormones. In addition, cholesterol helps the skin to convert sunlight to vitamin D and serves as a very necessary ingredient in the making of sex hormones.

It also plays an important part in the transmittal of nerve impulses from and to the brain and throughout the body.

The excessive amounts of cholesterol you hear so much about are related to the typical American diet composed largely of vegetable fats, margarines, sugar, fructose, deep fat fried foods and in general, the refined junk foods.

These items prevent the liver from making bile from cholesterol, causing an increased buildup in the blood. Dr. H. Heckers and his co-workers of the Department of Internal Medicine, at the University Hospital in Germany, studied 83 different brands of margarine and found that everyone contained dangerous amounts of Trans fatty acids. This type of fat severely alters the function of cells.

Usually, only the total amount of cholesterol in the blood is recorded when your doctor runs a blood panel. How much of a problem this may be, even when the total is moderate or low, is obscure if an HDL-LDL evaluation is not included.

When the ratio of total cholesterol to HDL is 5 to 1, you are considered to have the national average risk of having a heart attack. Should the reading be 11 to 1, you would have double the risk.

However, if the ratio of HDL to total cholesterol is 3 to 1, the risk of a heart seizure would be reduced to half the national average. For every 5 milligrams your HDL is lower than the average, your risk of a heart attack increases 25 percent. The lower the good HDL and the higher the bad LDL, the greater the risk.

There are numbers of other reasons that can be involved in the causes of heart disease. However, if prevention is our goal, the most important consideration has to be what your fork, spoon and fingers carry to your mouth.