 Next question is from B. Bounx is high cholesterol still the demon we once thought it was such as having high LDL But also having high HDL. No, it was it was overstated for a long time So here's a deal with cholesterol. Obviously if you get super high you can have some problems But if it's kind of high and all your other markers of health look good, it's probably not a big deal It's one metric that you measure now Here's what studies show with slightly high cholesterol You build more muscle and you're stronger and it seems to have a protective effect in older individuals In fact people who live the longest tend to have relatively high cholesterol So it's a very interesting thing that it's funny that we targeted it as a demon for so long Probably because we had some pretty effective pharmaceuticals at lowering cholesterol So whenever we have a drug that does a good job of changing a number We put a lot of focus on that number and cholesterol with statins that was Well explain the explain the difference of the fluffy particles versus you know I always get this backwards or messed up whenever I try and explain this Yes, what is the difference that because like there's there's like bad HDL and there's good HDL, right? Yeah, so so you have your good cholesterol and your bad cholesterol, right? The good cholesterol is got a protective effect the bad cholesterol has got more of a damaging effect But that's it's an overgeneralization if you look deeper The really dense Particles of cholesterol the ones that tend to cause damage real fluffy ones tend to not so and here's the thing with cholesterol too It's oftentimes we see it real high or we see for example When you're looking at arteries and you're seeing that cholesterol and stuff patched up on the sides of the arteries They blame the cholesterol, but really it's it's it's side effect There are doctors and scientists that believe that the cholesterol is being used as a way to protect or patch up Inflamed area. I mean genetic Components that is it right the majority of that right when it's problematic versus dietary cholesterol so important for our health that our Body makes it and your liver in your body Dictate I mean you can increase your cholesterol intake and That you're eating and your body will just make less of it And you can eat less and your body will make more and kind of keep you at this home You'll stay so based off that theory you could go to the doctor and the doctor could technically tell you have Really high cholesterol and you actually be in a very healthy place. Is that possible depends how high and you know if we're talking like your numbers are like 300-400 You probably have some problems if you're cuz they say anything over 200 is bad, right? But let's say you're at 220 and your ratio of HDL to LDL is really good and your blood pressure is good Your triglycerides are good. Everything else looks good inflammatory markers look good You're probably well and what if most all the HDL is the fluffy particles and not the really dense ones there It's good luck getting that test. I know that was my next question Okay, say I come back I go and I'm 220 right so I'm on on the higher end and the doctor says that to me Do I have the ability to ask him like hey are those are those more fluffy or those can I get a more detailed look? Yeah, unlikely you'd have to go to a special I mean they're not it's not mainstream and most likely he's gonna try and put me on a statin right away Right is because a statin is so easy if you take a stand your cholesterol goes down done It's a guarantee right it just works by the way There's a there's a natural statin if you're somebody who's dealing with high-ish cholesterol And it's kind of borderline and your little concern and your doctor's little concern You can try red yeast rice extract which you could buy over-the-counter And it's a natural statin much milder than the pharmaceutical ones and it will lower your cholesterol Now I thought actually dietary cholesterol has very little to do with your HDL and LDL levels correct Correct. In fact the the they're changing their stance. They're now saying that cholesterol is no longer a nutrient of concern Typically poor cholesterol numbers are coming from an inflammatory response diet is high in calories high in sugar You're not active and then genetics Justin hit the nail on the head There are people who just have you know, hi, there's a condition hypercholestemia or something I can't pronounce it right but something like that where people make tremendous amounts of cholesterol and then they're very prone to Issues with their heart in those cases Stanton's can definitely be a life. So now our most our most doctors up to speed on this To where or we still have doctors that go oh stay away from the butter and bacon. I don't know I wouldn't yeah and eggs, you know cut those out think about the pharmaceutical Industry in general how much power yeah, how much power and influence there like so I just I don't think new information like that is really being pushed as hard. No, okay. Look at it this way Stanton's have been around now for a little while and they very effectively lower cholesterol and when they first came out there was a prediction that this would just revolutionize medicine and The heart attack and heart disease rate would go through the floor now Here's what happened if you look at the statistics the survival rates from heart attacks and heart disease Increased dramatically not from Stanton's it was from advances in the Procedures like putting stints in your arteries and stuff like that the reality heart disease rates are still high as hell Stanton's have barely made a dent or no dent whatsoever now I know there's studies to show that Stanton's might have some benefit. There's others that show There's no benefit there studies that show that Stanton's reduce cognitive function increase your risk of dementia So I would say cholesterol it maybe it's one piece of a big picture Don't just rely on that one piece because it doesn't tell you a whole lot by itself Have they found like have they attributed it more towards like calcium deposits and like hardening type minerals that have Contributed more towards like heart. Yeah, that's part of it That's part of it and I'm not super versed, but I but from what I understand It's just not the big deal that we thought it was I was always curious about this just because my my grandpa died of what? They diagnosed is like high cholesterol, but like to me it was like it was suspect because of that Like I want to know more information about like, you know what they're doing now to really like Diagnose and assess a lot of these conditions. Well, when we first started the podcast didn't The heart American Heart Association had to come out and recant their stance on all this Cholesterol yes on cholesterol dietary cholesterol. Yeah, that was just like five six years ago Yeah, when we started the podcast, I remember that was big news They used to say, you know be careful how much cholesterol you consume now They're saying the cholesterol is not a nutrient of concern. They're still you got issues They still have issues with saturated fat and stuff like that which we can make arguments for as well But cholesterol now I think it's pretty mainstream accepted that it's not something that you need to be careful for that you consume Now here's a deal old-school bodybuilders knew and this is a legit thing you try this out yourself They knew when they consumed a lot of cholesterol and remember these are healthy fit people These were old-school bodybuilders, so they weren't on all types of of gear and all that stuff They knew that when they increased their dietary cholesterol intake They would get a boost in strength and recovery their studies that support this They've done studies where they'll take groups of people they do this with older people think in their 50s And they broke them up into groups and this group 8 200 milligrams cholesterol day And then it was 400 and 800 or something like that which is a lot, right? And the people who the more cholesterol they consume the stronger that they were and the more muscle that they built I experiment with this all the time. Oh, you guys know me You guys have seen some on my breakfast where I'm eating 8 to 10 8 yolks just for the cholesterol when I do that I'm stronger. I'm stronger in the gym every single time So this is something you can play with but yeah as a number It's one small piece of a bigger picture by itself. It doesn't unless it's really really high doesn't really mean much