To follow our healthy aging series, we thought you should know some truths about cholesterol and statins. Both of these things can have an impact on the way we each age.

So what is the great Cholesterol Myth? The storyline behind this video was created by Dr. Jonny Bowden, PhD, C.N.S. The following is a summary of the myths covered in his video. They are very informational and quite shocking.

MYTH: High cholesterol is the cause of heart disease.
FACT: Cholesterol is a fairly insignificant player in heart disease.

MYTH: High cholesterol is a good predictor of heart attacks.
FACT: High cholesterol is a lousy predictor of heart attacks. Half the people admitted to hospitals with heart disease have normal cholesterol, and plenty of people with elevated cholesterol have perfectly healthy hearts.

MYTH: Lowering cholesterol with statin drugs will prolong your life.
FACT: There is no data showing statins have any impact on longevity.

MYTH: Statin drugs are perfectly safe.
FACT: Statin drugs have significant side effects, including loss of memory and libido, muscle pain and fatigue, and approximately 65% of doctors don’t report those side effects, according to a 2007 study.

MYTH: Statin drugs are appropriate for men, women, children and the elderly.
FACT: The only group in which statins have been shown to have even a modest effect is in middle-aged men who’ve already had a heart attack. If you’re not in that group, you’ve got no business on a statin drug.

MYTH: Saturated fat is dangerous.
FACT: Saturated fat is mostly neutral and may even have some health benefits. A recent peer-reviewed study has shown no association between saturated fat and heart disease.

MYTH: The higher your cholesterol, the shorter your lifespan.
FACT: In the Framingham Study, the people who actually lived the longest had the highest cholesterol.

MYTH: A high-carbohydrate diet protects you from heart disease.
FACT: Diets that substitute carbohydrates for saturated fat may actually increase the risk for heart disease.

Bottom line: We need to stop focusing on lowering cholesterol and start focusing on preventing heart disease.

Hopefully this helps open up some of the doors you may have thought were closed when you heard your cholesterol was “too high.” Maybe we should start thinking a little more about the drugs being prescribed to us before we start taking them.

This summary was taken from:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-jonny-bowden/cholesterol-health_b_2035487.html

You can watch the video from the following links:

Part 1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTkyS5yV82Q

Part 2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0kIC-dbW2g