A New LDL-Cholesterol Theory Coming to a Doctor Near You 

45 years ago at school I was taught that cholesterol is essential for human health. I was the only person in my class who did not go to study medicine at university. I have stuffed myself with minimally-processed, cholesterol-rich food all my life. In my 60s my BP is 95/55. I have avoided sugar ever since I came across the work of Prof Yudkin 42 years ago. I have not seen a doctor in the past 8 years. I have never even bothered to ask for a cholesterol test. I am disappointed on a day where I don't eat at least 3x the recommended amount of cholesterol.

15 years ago my older brother had heart attack in the hospital while he went there with his wife-doctor specialist in diabetes. My brother was experiencing pain in his chest and trouble breathing so she decided to visit hospital with him. After they left the ER department where they declared him healthy and sent him for an X ray for pain in his shoulder he collapsed on the stairs and almost died. Defibrillator didn’t resuscitated him at all, one of doctors hit him in the chest with his fist and this brought my poor bro back to life. His cholesterol and LDL was normal. Now after years on statins and filled with stents his cholesterol is extremely low, his life miserable and he and her, the wife believe statins saved his life. Hard to not to agree with them 😂. I’m carnivore for 6 years my cholesterol is high, always was (stoped going to doctors after you know what so don’t know my current 🎉numbers) I never took statins in my life although I was pushed by my doctor since I was 60! And I love my fatty T-bone steaks! My younger brother 70, has 8 stents and he’s plant eating because red meat is the way to graveyard 😂 he’s also on statins. My third brother 72, drinks heavily all his life but since few years he is eating more meat and he’s more or less ok. He took 3 shots though and now he started to age rapidly. He never had heart problem and now is on statins, brainwashig working! All of my other brothers fully vaxxed and supporters of current things. I’m 73 healthy and strong with good muscles

Dr Berg started using a very apt analogy. They keep blaming the fire men for fires because they are always present at a fire.

I'm reading a book called The Clot Thickens, and he describes the cause of Plaque isn't from LDL but from damage to the artery wall. When the wall is damaged, a clot is formed, and then the wall grows over the clot. LDL is not the cause, but particles of LDL can be found in the area but not the cause. Anyone else read it? I'm not done but it's fascinating. Not sure if it's true or not?

I have always believed that cholesterol was a balm to soothe inflammation. Inflammation is caused by sugars,omega 6 fats, trans fats, and other highly processed foods,stress, and poor living habits. Your vid is right on. Thanks.

Mike, you say that we should show our doctors this research about LDL not CAUSING atherosclerosis. That's exactly what I did with my long time cardiologist. What did he do when I handed him several articles on this topic? He belittled me and then he terminated me from his practice. And there lies the PROBLEM!!!

70% of people who have a heart attack have normal or low cholesterol. The study shows these people had low cholesterol at least a year before their heart attack, it's not cholesterol but diabetes, blood clotting issues and smoking.

Interesting term “trapped LDL”. LDL, in the atherosclerotic process, is a repair mechanism. It’s supposed to be there in an attempt to repair the endothelial damage, which occurs in specific, more turbulent, areas of the arteries. As a result of doing what LDL is supposed to be doing, “repair”, it ends up being part of plaque formation; surprisingly, comprising only 1/10 of 1% of the total plaque. The only reason LDL continues to get any attention is because of the continued messaging that it is causal. Atherosclerosis is due to chronically elevated blood pressure, primarily caused by, but not limited to, inflammation due to a poor diet. Thank you for spreading the word on this.

LDL is a transport mechanism of cholesterol and serves a useful purpose. It's the damaged LDL due to factors like diabetes and other oxidative stresses, and especially combined with hypertension, diabetes, and smoking that promotes plaque formation from damaged LDL. It's kind of like trying to mitigate fatalities from car accidents by getting rid of all the cars rather than reduce causes like drunk driving. They're not focusing on the causes.... the vid is spot on.

I’m a doctor working in internal medicine & I’ve made a video discussing dietary fat and cholesterol!! Don’t know when doctors will start using their brain. They will NEVER let go of LDL-cholesterol because drug companies just want to create more and more drugs.

Vessel wall damage is the root cause but they will always focus on the thing they can create a drug for.

Hey Mike, have you read Dr. Malcolm Kendrick's book, "The Clot Thickens"? In his book, Dr. Kendrick opines that if a person's coronary glycocalyx and coronary endothelium is healthy and intact, there ain't NO WAY that atherosclerosis can even start, whether your LDL-C is 20mg/dL or 250mg/dL. To your point, it is high glucose, high insulin, smoking, hypertension etc. that actually damages the glycocalyx/endothelium and initiates the atherosclerosis process. As Malcolm Kendrick says, there is ZERO evidence, in ANY medical literature, that proves that LDL, or ANY liporprotein, including small dense LDL's and VLDL's, can damage/disrupt the coronary lining! As lipid researcher, Dr. David Diamond, points out, there are many people with familial hypercholesterolemia, who have LIFELONG high LDL-C, and they do not develop premature atherosclerosis.

Any “study” you find that says “May cause” you probably need to replace it with “May Not”.

You're a good lad Mike! You genuinely care. I can hear it in your voice "Stop smoking! What are you doing??"

I have had high cholesterol since my first blood test at 30, I am 60 and have never taken statins. My blood pressure was always 130/77 and the doctor always told me I was fine. Now that I am a carnivore and fast for approximately 16 hours on average, my blood pressure is 110/65. I have always done a lot of sports, even at 60 I continue to play soccer competitively. My VO2 MAX is 47.

A step in the right direction. But, when is a study going to be published on how the body repairs the damage caused by smoking,diabetes or high blood pressure?

Thanks Mike. With papers like this maybe finally my parents to listen to me, about how cholesterol itself isn't the underlying problem with cardiovascular disease. It's nice to see studies like these catching up to what many of us knew years ago. Maybe in another 10 years the mainstream will recognize how blood sugar is more of an issue with blood pressure than having salty food.

Well they need to go deeper because you know damn well there are folks living to a ripe old age with a high LDL, Low LDL is dangerous too! Maybe some folks are affected but certainly not all. Yes type 2 diabetes and obesity are risk factors for so many problems!

Finally doctors are doctoring… shocking this was not correlated until now

Mike, so well said, thanks for emphasis of the "other factors" ie. what insults the inside of walls of blood vessels,HTN smoking/vaping, high blood sugar damage iron overload....excellent work Mike.thanks

I have heard enough about blaming the firemen.

I think the live videos are really authentic, a nice change from the typical highly edited youtube video

One of the underlying causes that seems to get little mention nowadays is chronic stress. High cortisol levels cause hypertension, and there is some interesting research indicating that cortisol may also damage the endothelium of coronary arteries.

Do you blame the firemen for the fire? Cholesterol is a fireman at a fire. HELLO What is causing the fire? Processed Veggie/Seed Oils, sugar, processed foods.

Watching from the Los Angeles area. I really enjoy your content and information. Thank you for the work you do.

In my humble opinion HDL and LDL are not cholesterol. It’s better to talk about High and low density lipoprotein. The HDL and LDL are just transporters from the cholesterol. The HDL deliver the cholesterol in all the places in our body where it’s needed. And the LDL brings it back to the liver. Thanks for the video from Thailand.

After you download and read this paper I urge you to find and read a book named "The clot thickens". Then continue doing more research in the competing hypotheses (cholesterol vs. thrombogenic), and decide which one makes more sense to you. Oh, and please get your doctors to read that book as well. To your (our) heart health.

Okay, if blood pressure is what causes atherosclerosis, then we should stop using mouth-wash. The most common cause of blood pressure is inability to produce NO2. And the most common cause of reduced production of NO2 is excessive fluoride consumption. If you already avoid using mouth-wash, and yet have a blood pressure problem, the second most common cause of insufficient NO2 production is arginine deficiency. Either supplement with arginine or citroulline, which we can convert to arginine; or eat a cupfull of watermelon every day. Another thing: If you are past 40 or 45 and you have arterial damage, your body cannot repair the damage due to minimal production of collagen. Taking collagen supplements will not help, because ingested collagen gets digested down to amino-acids and small peptides; so to re-constitute those nutrients back into collagen you need a ton of vitamin C, plus the amino-acid lysine. The only way to restore production of collagen after 50 is to follow the Pauli protocol, which is basically 6 grams of vitamin C and 3 grams of lysine per day. That is the MINIMUM; personally I take 10 to 12 grams a day of vitamin C per day. Before you think of the word "mega-dose", consider that humans and orangutans are the only animals that are not capable of producing their own vitamin C. Your dog produces about 17 grams of vitamin C per day. A cow produces more than 100 grams of vitamin C per day. And you might ask why don't we produce it too? We lost the ability. We still have the gene for vitamin C production, but the gene is not getting activated; nobody knows why. Anyways, back in prehistory we did not need to consume vitamin C as citrus fruits or as supplements, simply because we hunted animals for food, and ate them raw. Raw meat has enormous amounts of vitamin C. Cooking, however, destroys it. And no, I am not advocating eating raw meat; that's dangerous nowadays. I'm just saying all that because people have such naive perspectives on nutrition you have to write a whole paragraph to explain each word you write. 99% of people are completely incapable of taking in eve a small piece of info, like the importance of the Pauli protocol to reactivate collagen synthesis. 99% of people just don't click. Another thing is the gradual clotting of blood as we age, which increases viscosity. There is one simple solution to that: Japanese natto. Consume it, and your blood will quickly go back to the fluidity of a 20 year old's blood. Just eat one square package of natto every other day; the enzyme nattokinase present in it, dissolves blood clots. Natto smells and tastes awful to our western taste, but so, what I do is I fry the natto together with onion, garlic and ginger, and after 15 minutes of frying I throw in a couple of eggs, and make it an omelette or scramble.

people should read ' The Clot Thickens'. Dr Malcolm Kendrick

It appears settled science is changing again.

Listening/watching from Singapore. Always glad to see/hear your content 👍

Malcolm Kendrick has been saying this for years.

I love every single one of my LDLs! As long as my trigs are low I have no fear. And they are at 43 after 18m on a keto diet with 18:4 IF.

The length to which you go to find that one argument that goes your way in a paper literally saying that the magnitude and duration of exposure of LDL has a direct impact on progression of atherosclerosis is pretty amazing.

LDL is a big red hairing, it has nothing to do with heart problems. Stress has a huge effect on the heart. Excessive sugar in the blood causes inflammation of all arteries, huge sugar spikes regularly are with their effects. All plaque formation when broken down have fibrin in them from blood clotting. LDL cholesterol is a lipid transport system. Stress, inflammation from high sugar diet, poor metabolic health, causes damage to the epithelial walls of the arteries which can rupture and clotting of blood occurs then plague formation occurs, fresh formation that have not had time to mature can rupture again or several times causing bigger blood clot which can brake off go to the brain causing a stroke, or they can go to the arteries of the heart causing a heart attack. These one are apparent immediately but this happens to all your arteries, other parts of the body can have claudication caused by inflammation due to poor metabolic health and too much sugar.

This reads like a paper funded by people who wanna sell Statins

❤great video. Loud and clear, Baton Rouge. Listening to replay. Evangelize the culture.

Association is not causation! Watching replay from Switzerland, thanks for all your videos!

Dr malcolm kendrick wrote about this in his book the clot thickens long ago

Had a heart attack at 57. NEVER had a LDL over 130. What I DID have was high triglycerides, high BP, low HDL, high fasting insulin. But, the MDs persist that it was my LDL ALONE that caused my cardiac problems. Makes ZERO sense.

RU-vid used to be more reliable giving me notifications for your streams.

I am a regular viewer of your videos. I want to share my experience with you. From 2021 to 2022 I used to do regular intermittent fasting and prolonged fasting. While doing prolonged fasting then I used to get into ketosis and I knew this from the smell of my urine. After almost a year I did a 3 day water fast and I wore a CGM my sugar was continuously above 130mg/dl. Sometimes it went to 160 also. I don't think I was in ketosis because there was no change in urine smell. Also I was absolutely fine unlike the earlier fastings when I had a lot of discomfort. I feel fresh with much greater mental clarity and energy to do physical activities. Was my body creating glucose through gluconeohenesis ? I think you should do research on type 2 diabetes patients to see how fasting works for them. Pls do reply at your earliest convenience. Best Wishes Colonel Madhusudhan Nair . Retired India

This research is not differentiating Type A and Type B LDL-C. Type A LDL-C is highly dependent of dietary fat consumption while Type B LDL-C is dependent of high blood glucose level. And the one which causes atherosclerosis is Type B LDL-C which statins cannot lower.

Professor Bart Kay has been ranting about high blood pressure and turbulence as the root cause of ASCVD for a while now. Additionally, this paper advising reducing LDL "as low as possible" is utterly absurd.

Just love your passion and knowledge Mike. Keep on m'dear. 🎉👍😁

Hello from South Africa 😊 Thanks for the informative talk!

Thank you for your work from Vancouver BC

Why does low density cholesterol exist, what is its purpose? I believe the our bodies don’t process high refined oils and fat substitutes that leads to fatty liver and more damage to body cells that need cholesterol to repair nerves and joints.

I forgot how great is starting the day with a Metabolic Mike deep dive! Greetings from Rome

I've been saying for years, ever since before I started University that cholesterol is more like a patch material and not some evil substance out to destroy your body. and taking away LDL is like removing all the wall patching material in your house without addressing the hyperactive children playing contact sports in the house and punching holes in the walls in the first place. If you have no holes, you don't need patch kits, but if you have to patch the walls regularly, getting rid of the spackle won't solve the damage problem. Being a young person, I didn't have studies to back me us so I wrote stories with characters representing the different cells and substances and got made fun of because of it. I figured people are too stupid to read a study so maybe a story would help them understand, but they were so indoctrinated to the Lipid Hypothesis, they couldn't suspend that belief long enough to think critically about it. Now decades later, studies are finally showing I had the right idea, but what good does it do when people are still afraid of eggs and downing statins like candy? Since the carrier is just going out and coming back, that'd be like saying we need More Empty Busses going out to transport people, but we need to LIMIT the busses carrying people to their destination because they get sometimes get stuck in traffic. It's the Same Bus!

I didn't see the Livestream, but I'm watching from Sydney, Australia.

That is fascinating about things like insulin resistance and high blood pressure can lead to damage to the arterial wall leading to arteriosclerosis. I like how you are explaining research papers that I wouldnt be able to decipher on my own, And I really like how fit your looking brother, I like my Doctors to be displaying signs that they know how to at least keep themselves Fit haha! Andre

Just watched this during my treadmill workout. Great information! Working on lowering my BP and Insulin resistance (10.6). My triglycerides are 99 BUT my HDL is 26. Looking for a video that addresses this ratio. Again great stuff.

I need some Pop Tarts after watching Unfrosted!!

Southern Girl here. Great video! Thank You!

Ignores people with Familial Hypercholesterolemia, according to this they should all have ASCVD, yet they don't. Yeah they give a nod to vessel injury....

Blood pressure is a major factor and salt is involved there: The salt contribution seems to be a product of low dietary potassium. That stiffens the arterial wall assisting calcification that attracts LDL as a healing agent. Or so the story goes, so far.

Man. Love the channel, long time follower here. Please don't change your tone, don't get annoyed. Please. When you talk like that in the end it even makes me anxious. Present please in the usual peaceful form.

I think Dave Feldman's camp has postulated/found that (healthy) LDL is part of the body's repair process for the insults.

LDL is the vehicle delivering cholesterol which is the raw material used to repair damaged endothelium. Blaming LDL for atherosclerosis is like blaming fire engines for starting a fire.

I will be more specific. When will a study explain the mechanisms the body employs to repair damaged arteries from smoking, diabetes and high blood pressure?

This is why I take Magnesium Glycinate and Liposomal Vitamin C and this is keeping my vessel walls are being healed. I am from Colorado

Watching from Tasmania Australia

Thank you from Toronto Ontario.

Watching from Baguio, Philippines. My LDL cholesterol is also high.

From Liechtenstein 🇱🇮 thank you

4:38 Anyone who has read Kendrick’s The Clot Thickens already knew this.

Hi Mike! Good video and you are looking good today!! Could any Allulose monk fruit sweetener be causing my triglycerides to go up?? Been on a mostly meat diet. Only things that I occasionally consume are some fruit, alcohol, ninja creami treats made with coconut milk and the Allulose mentioned, and some Lily’s sugar free chocolate. One thing I can think of is that I was not fasting with the blood work and had a “wine party” the previous night!

Very interestingVery interesting! Greetings from Italy.

Listening from Peterborough, UK

How about NATTOKINASE?

Yes able to hear you

You can get an app that let's you know where people are tuning in from.

My LDL is 244. (Normal blood pressure, non diabetic)

We have to look at what causes LDL move into artery wall. And what cause it to stay there. The early atheroscerotic process is reversable without inflammation and excess oxidised lipids which prevent macrophage from releasing the cholesterol from the plaque. Total LDL association is not causal at all. The small very dense subset of LDL may be more causative because this has many characteristic associated with mechanisms that maintain plaque development. These small dense LDL are not measured and the mostly contain oxidised lipids and stay in the blood for extended periods. They occur in a high Triglyceride environment. So it might just all go back to excess TG.

Grade: A- Reasoning: The video provides a comprehensive overview of the new LDL cholesterol theory and its implications for heart disease prevention. The host effectively communicates complex scientific concepts in an accessible manner, making the content engaging and informative. Interaction with the audience adds value, addressing real-time questions and concerns. The video could benefit from a more structured format to enhance clarity and flow. Overall, this video serves as a valuable resource for those interested in the latest research on cholesterol and heart health, offering practical advice for improving metabolic health and preventing cardiovascular disease.

please share the study links with us. Thx

Is it possible the body is depositing cholesterol in area of damage in an attempt to repair or at least aid in repair. The body doesn’t have another mechanism to seal the vascular wound while repairs are carried out? So eventually a rupture of cholesterol plaque kills us but without the initial damage the cholesterol is irrelevant? Or is it a case of cholesterol getting stuck in a vascular wound as it’s flowing by in the blood stream?

Thank you for this info. For someone with known endothelial dysfunction (CAD and PAD peripheral artery disease) based on this info would you think it important to lower LDL assuming they have addressed all the lifestyle things to reduce endothelial injury? Have been resisting statins for many years, been told statiins don't necessarily reduces one's plaque burden and can itself cause metabolic dysregulation and more.

Please, let know about this to Dr. Alo, Peter Rogers MD, Dr. Neil Barnard and other clowns!

Great presentation, Mike. Could you tell us where we can go to download a FREE copy of this paper by Ference, et. al.?

High ApoB particle count is causal to atherosclerosis. Nobody argues that all these other factors are of importance. If you have perfect metabolic health but sky-high ApoB, you are likely going to end up with atherosclerosis.

I thought that cholesterol was the bad thing that caused arterial plaques. Now I read that it's actually the LDL particles that transport cholesterol and other lipids around the body that get caught in the plaques. This means that cholesterol from animal fat is not the culprit, it's the LDL that the body makes as a response to eating fatty foods that's the culprit. That also means that although vegetable oils aren't absorbed as well, it still stimulates LDL production and thus plaque formation. The narrative from the plant-based community that plants do not contain cholesterol and as a result does not increase CVD risk appears to be wrong. Cholesterol and lipids are needed to make strong cell membranes, so I doubt that reducing LDL by completely eliminate fat intake is going to prevent arterial cells from getting damaged. Medications might reduce LDL exposure, but the plaques are not just there to make you sick: they cover damaged cells, so these can heal. I would love to know whether LDL lowering drugs are not leading to other problems, like aneurysms. We know that low LDL is also problematic, so the idea from this paper to basically 'vaccinate' people by giving them very low LDL sounds very dangerous. I think vaccinating by giving people lead or cyanide will work much better: they will not get ASCVD (but instead die from lead or cyanide poisoning). That doesn't mean we should do it. We know that people who have high LDL on carnivore, often have low or no plaques, AND we know that plaques are reversible when people switch to a healthier diet such as a carnivore diet. So, there may be an association for the general population that indicates that higher LDL leads to more plaques, but the most effective solution is not to lower LDL by eating less fat (although it might work if you eat a healthy whole-foods, low fat diet), but to eat a diet that reduces inflammation.

Do you still offer the bloodwork cheat sheet? If so, how can I download it? I’ve tried several email addresses and never received it. Thanks for your videos.

Fire truck vs fire debate as always.

Watching from Singapore. High LDL (5.1mmol/L) but low Triglycerides (0.63mmol/L), no sugar, kinda normal BP (125/82) and doctor quite insist to put me on statin…

Atherosclerotic plaque is essentially a healing mechanism to repair damaged artery walls because of eating sugar and seed oils, both inflammatory agents. As more damage occurs, logically, more plaque will continue to cover the damage.

Can you repair the initial insult over time? My concern is whether this is irreparable damage as someone who’s just started working out.

Great sound quality here in Loveland, CO

watching from Mesa AZ

Watching from the Philippines

All this is good. How do you facilitate Vascular insult repair at this point? Yes fasting, exercise, sleep, eliminating SAD, so on, but what items can help after the above are accomplished? Thankz!

Great that you stuck the electrolytes ad in the middle of the video! One of the first things I learned in the keto / low carb space is that glucose holds water the same as salt. But, they want you to lower your salt intake! The obvious point here? Salt is a necessary electrolyte, but, carbs, which add excess glucose to the bloodstream, ARE NOT ESSENTIAL!!! So, excess glucose from carbs ,in addition to the essential salt , that needs to be there, is doubling the volume in the stream! Voila, instant high blood pressure! Cut out the carbs, which cuts out the excess glucose, as well as pre diabetes, lowers the insults to the artery wall.

I’m in my late 50’s! Walk 3-5 miles a day - 5’2 and 120! I rarely eat carbs or sugar. I have high HDL and LDL cholesterol and all other healthy lipids etc -no heart problems in my family history. But they want to put me on statins. Nope! But it’s hard because life insurance companies unfairly base premiums on cholesterol!!

Watched after livestream from Seoul south Korea

This all sounds good. What do you say about Dr Thomas Dayspring, liquidologist or Dr Mohammed Alo who believe saturated fat is the problem.

I can't find the citation for this article. I'm curious where the funding came from. That's my top priority regarding how I look at journal articles now.

Please explain how to read Fig. 5 'Median CAC score and lifetime risk of cardiovascular events by levels of cumulative exposure to LDL' There are two horizontal and two vertical axis.

Watching from UK🇬🇧

Because suddenly I developed a very low HR, 39, I was taken to the hospital and there I received a stent, diagnosis CAD. Slightly elevated TC and Tr. High HDL moderate LDL. Low CRP. Changed my diet lowering carbs, now TC, Tr slightly above normal, HDL high and LDL went up (because of a low carb diet? as I read?) The initial injury to my arteries is 32 years of heavy smoking; I stopped 27 years ago. Do I need to lower my LDL??? I take statins on and off because of muscle pain.