still on statins ? - read this

John Parsons  · from Dr jack Kruse (paraphrased by me):
 How does low cholesterol make your brain soft? The most important role of cholesterol in humans is its unique ability to allow freedom of movement to ions in cell membranes because of its chemical composition. It has both a lipid and polar component that allow it to have diversity of chemical benefits in animal cells.
 This allows the molecule of cholesterol to have both fat and water soluble abilities in our bodies. This allows for the formation of” lipid rafts” in tissue that allow for ion transfers. In fact, insulin is taken up into muscle cells because of the presence of these cholesterol lipid rafts in the membranes!
Plants contain no cholesterol at all. Moreover, all of our hormones in the human body are also made form cholesterol. Hormones are the manner in which the brain is able to control the 20 trillion cells in our body. Its importance cannot be more apparent.
 Our liver is designed to make the LDL our brains need to thrive.... It has never made any sense to me why cardiologists do not exam the brain data closely about longevity because it is clear higher LDL levels are protective of life and don’t confer a shortened lifespan even from heart disease. It also follows, with this evidence why higher cancer rates are associated with LOWER cholesterol levels.
 Cancer is a disease of cellular stress hence it is associated with lower cholesterol levels. This result has been found in numerous studies in the literature as well... Here I have laid out two biochemical reasons why a ketogenic diet ( high in protein and fats, low in carbs) works in our brains to increase cognition. It also makes sense why in neurodegeneration we see brains starved of cholesterol and DHA levels.

The ketogenic diet is the best and most ideal way to restore both of these key fats to the brain in this time of stress to increase cognition. The bottom line is as you age, the evidence is accumulating, that you should be eating a more ketogenic diet with a liberal amount of saturated fat in MCT (coconut oil and pastured butter) and one that supports a substantial production of LDL from your liver via your diet…that is also devoid of glycosylation from carbohydrates.
This describes the ancestral paleolithic diet well. It is a version of the ketogenic diet. If one has a formal neurologic condition a more stringent version of the paleo diet should be entertained. But if you are interesting in optimizing for longevity as you age a ketogenic diet confers huge advantages. If you are overweight and wish to shred weight this option is an excellent choice. As always, discuss this with your doctor before deciding what to do.
I recommend the book “The Paleo Solution” to my patients as a resource to get them started on what the paleolithic diet means. So how should we consider eating as we age when neolithic diseases (eg Alzeimers) increase in incidence and prevalence?
 1. First, eat fats (MCT and saturated fats, PUFA’s last to decrease inflammation) then consider moderate protein (controls mTOR pathway) and then low carbs (to decrease inflammation and glycation)
 2……and those macro’s should increase as one ages for health and longevity to keep your hormones in the best balance they can be. Remember every single hormone we have are made from cholesterol!!!! If you go into aging with hormonal imbalance due to a bad diet, you will age much faster. If you eat a SAD you will age and die much faster of neolithic diseases....
 4. I completely reject the lipid hypothesis as it currently stands. I think this blog makes you understand why. You may want to consider throwing your statin Rx away at some point. The data on statins for people over the age of 60 without any risk factors says no one should be on a statin based upon the data. Only those people who listen to the opinions of cholesterol panelists that have ties to big pharma will tell you its a good thing to do.
 The older you get the more LDL your brain needs and the less carbohydrate it needs
. CITES: 1. http://jcs.biologists.org/content/123/4/595.full.pdf (Tong et al. 2009) 2. http://bms.ucsf.edu/sites/ucsf-bms.ixm.ca/files/varoninjillian_04072011.pdf 3. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1471-4159.2010.06768.x/pdf (cholesterol deficiency decrease synapse vesicle recycling) 4. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1550413110003980 5. http://www.pnas.org/content/107/17/7927.full.pdf