Low cholesterol and Ayurveda

Ayurveda firmly belives that a person should have a balance of all tissues and lowering one to a very great extent is wrong and should not be done.
Cholesterol as per Ayurveda is an essential part of a healthy person and should be maintained as per body requirements or else the person can become very sick and today Science is slowly but surely catching up with this fact.Ayurveda recomends consuming ghee (carified butter)daily to maintain perfect health.
It has been nearly forty years since Atromid-S, the first drug approved for the lowering of cholesterol, appeared in the United States. Released in 1967, it was withdrawn from the market in 2000. While the drug was never proven to decrease the risk of heart attacks or shown to lower the mortality rate, it was found to increase the incidence of gallstones, cancer, liver disease, and a severe inflammation of the pancreas called pancreatitis. Individuals who took the drug reported nausea, diarrhea, loss of sexual ability, headache, weakness, abdominal pain, muscle pain, and other side effects. Some died of a severe muscle disease called rhabdomyolysis.
Currently available cholesterol-lowering drugs are promoted as safer and more effective, but most studies have failed to demonstrate a decrease in the death rate in those taking them and the risks and side-effects appear to be similar to those seen with earlier medications.
some years ago total cholesterols of 250 mg/dL or even 300 mg/dL were considered to be within the normal range. As drug therapy to reduce cholesterol became available the “normal” levels were dropped to 240 mg/dL or less and then to 220 mg/dL.
When treatment failed to demonstrate the anticipated benefits, researchers refused to abandon the “cholesterol is harmful” hypothesis. Instead, they directed their efforts at finding ways to lower cholesterol more effectively. As the ability to drive cholesterol to previously unobtainable levels was achieved, “ideal” values were lowered to promote the use of the new technology.
The National Cholesterol Education Program’s expert panel, heavily weighted by individuals with ties to the pharmaceutical industry, currently recommends that TC be less than 200 mg/dL, and than low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL) be less than 100 mg/dL. In an attempt to reduce the LDL to the 100 mg/dL level, many physicians today are seeking to lower total cholesterol to less than 160 mg/dL.
When confronted with a disease, physicians innately want to do something. Just because it is possible to do something, however, does not mean that one should do something.
Before lowering the acceptable levels (the “speed limit”) of cholesterol it would have been wise to ask, “Does the benefit of lowering one’s cholesterol outweigh the risks involved in doing so?”
Many doctors believe it is a resounding NO! A number of epidemiologic studies (analyses of the characteristics of groups of people) have demonstrated that the cholesterol-lowering benefits are seen primarily in men under the age of fifty who have other risk factors for having a heart attack. When those risk factors, such as cigarette smoking, high blood pressure, and inactivity, are addressed a much greater reduction in heart attacks is seen than when cholesterol-lowering is the focus of prevention.
While some studies purportedly do so, it is very difficult to demonstrate a cholesterol-lowering benefit in women and in either sex over the age of fifty. Rather than showing that high cholesterol levels are dangerous in people over sixty, studies have repeatedly found that senior citizens with high cholesterol levels tend to live longer than their peers with low cholesterol values. You didn’t misread the last sentence. As a group, elderly people with high amounts of cholesterol outlive those with low levels of cholesterol.
Unfortunately, physicians have been taught for the past four decades that cholesterol is dangerous and that it must be lowered at all costs. The “cholesterol is harmful” hypothesis, although never proven, has come to be accepted as fact by physicians and patients alike. Any suggestion that cholesterol is beneficial and not harmful tends to fall upon deaf ears. Those who will listen, however, should carefully weigh the benefits and risks before taking measures to lower their body cholesterol.
In an article entitled Needs to Change the Direction of Cholesterol-Related Medication – A Problem of Great Urgency, published in November 2005, Japanese researcher H. Okuyama reported his findings based upon the data available in the medical literature. He concluded, “ . . . reducing the intake of saturated fatty acids and cholesterol and increasing that of polyunsaturated fatty acid are ineffective in reducing total cholesterol in the long run, but rather increase mortality rates from coronary heart disease and all causes . . . high total cholesterol is not positively associated with high coronary heart disease mortality rates among general populations more than 40-50 years of age. More importantly, higher total cholesterol values are associated with lower cancer and all-cause mortality rates among these populations . . . Although the effectiveness of statins in preventing coronary heart disease has been accepted in Western countries, little benefit seems to result from efforts to limit dietary cholesterol intake or to lower TC values to less than approximately 260 mg/dl among the general population and the elderly . . . (These measures) create major risk factors for CHD, cancers, and shorter longevity. Based on the data reviewed here, it is urgent to change the direction of current cholesterol-related medication for the prevention of CHD, cancer, and all-cause mortality.”
Okuyama concludes, on the basis of an exhaustive review of the available data:
High cholesterol levels are not associated with heart attacks in people over 40 to 50 years of age
High cholesterol levels are associated with lower cancer and premature death rates
There is little benefit in lowering cholesterol levels below 260 mg/dL in older people
Efforts to lower cholesterol increase the risk of developing cancer and shorten life span
He believes that changing the current practice of lowering cholesterol levels is a matter of the utmost urgency. His pleas will almost certainly be ignored, as he is not the first to sound the alarm.
A 1993 analysis of the cholesterol-lowering data available at that time reached the same conclusion. Because of the increased rate of death from causes other than heart disease in people taking cholesterol-lowering drugs the researchers concluded
Cholesterol-lowering drugs lower the overall mortality rate in only a small subset of people who are at extremely high risk of death from CHD
Cholesterol screening tests are a waste of money
Lowering cholesterol in the vast majority of people is harmful, not helpful
Cholesterol-lowering drugs should be used cautiously, if at all
That same year an analysis of the results of the Honolulu Heart Program revealed a sharp increase in death rates from hemorrhagic stroke, cancer, liver disease, chronic obstructive lung disease (emphysema), and deaths from unknown causes when cholesterol levels dropped below 190 mg./dL. The investigators theorized that lowering cholesterol would not have any substantial impact on total mortality over fifteen years because premature deaths would increase in those individuals with starting cholesterol levels less than 225 mg./dL (approximately 60 % of the population).
One of the largest investigations of all-cause mortality and cholesterol involved nearly half a million Korean men between the ages of 30 and 65. Reported in 2000, the study found that the lowest death rates corresponded to cholesterol levels between 211 and 251 mg./dL., well above currently recommended treatment goals.
Another large study, which looked at nearly 150,000 men and women, was published in 2004. This report, Why Eve is not Adam, concluded that while high cholesterol levels predicted risk of death from heart disease in men of all ages and women under the age of 50, low cholesterol in men of all ages and women over the age of 50 was associated with deaths from cancer, liver disease, and mental diseases.
When confronted with the data that demonstrates the dangers of lowering cholesterol, “Cholesterol is Harmful” advocates are quick to point to the 10 year follow-up of individuals who participated in what is known as the Scandinavian Simvastatin Survival Study, commonly referred to as the 4S study. The 4S study compared a group of individuals who received a cholesterol-lowering drug, simvastatin, with a control group who did not. The follow-up study, Mortality and incidence of cancer during 10-year follow-up of the Scandinavian Simvastatin Survival Study (4S), compared the incidence of cancer in the two groups over the ten year period following the conclusion of the original study in 1994. The researchers did not find any difference in cancer incidence between the two groups.

Okuyama is correct in stating that there is an urgent need to reconsider the current practice of aggressively lowering cholesterol levels. Cholesterol-lowering drugs seem to reduce the risk of premature death in only a small group of individuals who are at very high risk of death from coronary heart disease. Lowering cholesterol appears to increase the risk of premature death in at least sixty percent of individuals. In the remainder of the population, the net effect of aggressively lowering cholesterol is zero, with the increase in non-cardiac deaths equaling the decrease in deaths from heart disease.
Ayurvedic concept of balanced diet has some unique features as fallows-
THe following to be consumed daily--ghee,honey,milk,fruits,mybrobalan --the embelica fruit,buttermilk etc.All 6 tastes should be a part of your meal and not jsut 2-3 tastes.
Drinking water has been given due importance.Check other articles coming in future for details.

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