What You Need To Know About Cholesterol Testing And Reducing Risk For Heart Disease
The Dr. Hyman Show
Dr. Mark Hyman
4.6 • 8.7K Ratings
🗓️ 21 October 2022
⏱️ 22 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This episode is brought to you by Thrive Market and Athletic Greens.
For years well-meaning doctors, echoed by the media, have emphasized what they have long believed is the intimate link between cholesterol and death by heart disease. If only it were so simple! You may hope that if you monitor your cholesterol levels and avoid the foods that are purported to raise cholesterol, you’ll be safe from America’s number-one killer. The truth is much more complex. Cholesterol is only one factor among many—and it’s not even the most important one—that contribute to your risk of getting heart disease.
In today’s episode of my series I’m calling Health Bites, I talk about why standard cholesterol testing is outdated and why cholesterol may not be the cause of heart disease.
This episode is brought to you by Thrive Market and Athletic Greens.
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Here are more details from the episode (audio version / Apple Subscriber version):
- What is cholesterol? (4:36 / 1:48)
- The myth around cholesterol and dietary fat (5:06 / 2:25)
- The biggest source of abnormal cholesterol is not fat—it’s sugar (7:43 / 4:58)
- How lifestyle, environmental influences, and genetics influence cholesterol (8:28 / 5:44)
- Key contributors to heart disease (11:05 / 8:19)
- Tests to determine your risk for cardiovascular disease (13:13 / 10:24)
- How to lower your risk of heart disease and fix your cholesterol (16:58 / 14:10)
- The benefits, side effects, and risks of taking statin drugs (18:30 / 15:53)
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Coming up on this episode of the doctor's pharmacy. |
| 0:03.5 | It's not the high fat diet that causes abnormal cholesterol. |
| 0:06.8 | It's the high sugar diet we eat, which is about 60% of our calories. |
| 0:11.5 | There are more as starch and sugar, |
| 0:12.9 | 150 pounds of sugar, |
| 0:14.6 | and 133 pounds of flour per person per year. |
| 0:18.0 | That's a lot. It's almost a pound a day. |
| 0:20.1 | And that causes a really abnormal type of cholesterol. |
| 0:25.7 | Hey everyone, it's Dr. Mark. |
| 0:27.6 | Now, at time and again, I've had my patients tell me they're too busy to eat as healthy as they like. |
| 0:31.8 | And that's when I ask them how much time they spend on email or social media. |
| 0:35.1 | I like to tell them if they have time to scroll, |
| 0:37.2 | they have time to shop online for healthy foods. |
| 0:39.7 | With Dr. Mark at you can order all your favorite healthy pantry staples, snacks, |
| 0:43.7 | household and body care goods, |
| 0:45.4 | and so much more and have it delivered right to your door. |
| 0:48.0 | Dr. Mark at is an online membership-based grocery store |
| 0:50.9 | that makes eating well convenient and more affordable. |
| 0:53.4 | They've got everything from ethically sourced capitol essentials |
| 0:56.1 | to sustainable meat and seafood, |
| 0:58.0 | non-toxic cleaning products, personal care items, and lots more. |
| 1:01.6 | And they make it super easy to search by category like paleo, vegan, |
... |
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