No Kidding!
I am building a training program on the concept of FOUNDATIONAL MEDICINE.
What is foundational medicine? It is root cause medicine using a systems approach that focuses on the highest value / lowest cost testing and interventions. It is NOT functional medicine. I believe (and Dr. Michelle Gamble agrees) that functional medicine is (also) too complicated and too often misguided. That is, many (expensive) rabbit holes are pursued that are NOT solving peoples basic and primary problems.
One aspect of foundational medicine is an understanding of major pathways. Right now we believe four (4) pathways are paramount. Here they are in no particular order.
Energy (This is about calories, how we get them and how we use them.)
Immunity (These are the various systems from innate, adaptive, and supporting processes)
Repair (We are NOT a chunk of plastic that rapidly deteriorates in sunlight and oxygen. We are constantly repairing and rebuilding tissue. This is more focused on micronutrients.)
Detoxification (All our other processes create waste which must be efficiently removed.)
What role does LDL play? Most biological substances play multiple roles and, in many cases, are beneficial across one or more pathway. This is true of LDL. If you have read my "stuff," I might be the only one explaining that LDL and HDL are soap molecules. I have explained this in detail in webinars and blogs. Soaps carry fatty substances (oils - if you will) through our water-based blood stream. All cell membranes are composed of phospho-lipid bilayers.
Let me know if anyone else has described LDL and HDL as soaps - because that is what they are.
If you are going to "Repair," you need the constituents (hammers, nails, wood, etc.) to rebuild - and that is where LDL comes in. When you understand this simple concept then understanding that LDL is beneficial is clear from a foundational mechanism perspective.
With that preamble, here is a feed from the THINCS group. By the way, THINCS is a long-standing group of medical professionals who consider themselves statin skeptics.
Dr. Carter and I are members.
Dear THINCS-friends
I have sent the newsletter below to several hundred cardiologists as well
Uffe
LDL-cholesterol is beneficial!
In one of my previous newsletters, I have shown that many studies are in accordance with our view that the commonest cause of cardiovascular disease may be infections. We have recently published a summary of these studies in the journal Medical Research Archives.
In another newsletter, I have presented you for the many studies which have shown that there is a massive support of the idea that high LDL-cholesterol is beneficial. As you probably remember, we found that almost all studies have shown that elderly people with high LDL-cholesterol live the longest. However, many researchers are still unfamiliar with these findings or they have ignored them.
As mortality of myocardial infarction increased during the COVID-19 epidemic, we would like to see if our hypotheses are in accordance with this fact. If those who died had high LDL-cholesterol, it is obviously wrong, because LDL-cholesterol is an important participant in our immune system. If our hypothesis is correct, LDL-cholesterol of those who died, should have been lower than the LDL-cholesterol of those who survived.
We have therefore sought YouTube (the scientific literature) after studies where the authors have followed patients with COVID-19 after having measured their LDL-cholesterol. We identified 21 such studies including more than 25,000 COVID-19 patients. In 20 of the studies those who had died had lower LDL-cholesterol than those who survived and in 18 of the studies, the difference was statistically significant.
Our review has been published today and is freely available.
Sincerely
Uffe Ravnskov, www.ravnskov.nu
Spokesman of THINCS
(The International Network of Cholesterol Skeptics)
Review link:
BTW - I do NOT like using the word "cholesterol" in connection with LDL or HDL. These are lipoproteins - not a cholesterol molecule. Yes, there is some cholesterol in the makeup of these - but they are lipoproteins first and foremost!
I don't think my THINCS group realizes these are soap molecules, and I'm a bit of an outsider - my favorite place to be!
This was in the THINCS feed so I'm including it as well.
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https://zoom.us/j/94642492535?pwd=c2IyOTRoQTdNQ3JhTFdlVXpPMGErUT09
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https://zoom.us/j/96863715606?pwd=VTRCNTQ1dEVoWnlRQjRkeGJYRXlSdz09
Be Bold - Be Brave - Stay Well
I love this blog-I was not aware of THINCS. You are an outsider within an outsider group🤔- does that make you an ultra-outsider? If so, soap it is!