Eggs cleared of causing high cholesterol
Historical Suspicion of Eggs
Poultry eggs have long been regarded with suspicion and labelled as high cholesterol foods due to their association with raising levels of blood cholesterol, leading to heart disease and heart attacks. This dates back many years, due in part to decades old advice from the British Heart Foundation (revised in 2005) that egg consumption should be limited to two or three eggs per person per week because they increase cholesterol. Now experts have proven that very little of the cholesterol in eggs actually finds it way into the bloodstream.
Previous egg cholesterol research was mis-interpreted
A new report from the British Nutrition Foundation seems to indicate that conclusions drawn from this earlier research on eggs and diet may have been incorrect, due to it’s inability to differentiate between dietary cholesterol and dietary saturated fat. So, in other words poultry eggs may have been the fall guy for the real bad guy – saturated fat, which is found in great quantities in so many of the foods that we often eat every day without necessarily checking what we are eating contains.
It is still correct that high levels of blood cholesterol can increase the risk of coronary heart disease, but it has now been discovered due to improved testing science that most of the blood cholesterol in our blood actually comes from non-dietary sources – typically obesity, lack of exercise and smoking cigarettes, and dietary staurated fat. The new research concludes that this is the primary cause, not eggs, of more than two thirds of the cholesterol in our blood.
Saturated fat mainly to blame, not poultry eggs
Almost half of the people polled in a recent United Kingdom survey still thought they should eat a maximum of three eggs a week, due to the information which has been propagated by health organisations over the years. But the evidence now indicates that there is no reason to limit the weekly consumption of eggs for most people, as there is no evidence to suggest that they cause an increased risk of coronary heart disease.
A respected UK Doctor – Dr Hilary Jones, MD, has highlighted the confusion surrounding dietary cholesterol and blood cholesterol. He said that many people think by reducing dietary cholesterol – for example avoiding food like eggs will reduce their risk of heart disease. But he points out that the most important dietary risk factor comes from consumption of saturated fat.
New advice about egg consumption from health organisations
The British Heart Foundation as well as other health organisations have responded to this new research by issuing their own statements. A BHF spokesperson, Victoria Taylor, Senior Dietician, responded by stating :-
“We recommend that eggs can be eaten as part of a balanced diet. There is cholesterol present in eggs but this does not usually make a great contribution to your level of blood cholesterol. She continues ”If you need to reduce your cholesterol level it is more important that you cut down on the amount of saturated fat in your diet from foods like fatty meat, full fat dairy products and cakes, biscuits [cookies] and pastries.”
The American Heart Association has also removed their previous recommendations regarding eggs and heart health.
special advice for people who suffer from familial hypercholesterolaemia
The exception to the above advice is that people suffering from the genetic disorder that causes high cholesterol levels – familial hypercholesterolaemia. If you are one of the one in five hundred of the population who suffer from this condition, then the advice to restrict your dietary intake of cholesterol still applies.
Two eggs a day can reduce cholesterol and help you lose weight!
The most amazing aspect of this latest research is that a study published by in 2008 in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition has shown that eating two eggs per day, as part of a calorie controlled diet, can actually reduce your blood cholesterol level, and help you to lose weight. So if youe have a favourite recipe with eggs, you may be able to enjoy it once again without worrying about your heart health. It just goes to show you that the old expression that you probably heard from your parents is probably good advice – ‘everything in moderation’.
New statin drug reduces heart attack and stroke risk in healthy people
Crestor (Rosuvastatin)
The American Heart Association has published details of a new statin drug – Crestor – which dramatically reduces the number of heart attacks and strokes, even for people without existing high levels of cholesterol in their blood.
The results of drug trials conducted in the United States, were so conclusive that they were prematurely halted in March 2008, just halfway through their planned 4 year term, as the medical profession considered that it would be unethical to continue giving placebos to half the trial patients.
It was discovered that a daily treatment of Crestor, also known as Rosuvastatin, dramatically cut the rate of heart problems and cardiac deaths by an amazing 44 per cent. Crucially, the U.S. study involved those who would not normally be considered at risk of heart problems.
Heart Attack and Stroke reduced dramatically
Heart attacks were cut by 54 per cent, strokes by 48 per cent and the need for angioplasty or heart bypass surgery by 46 per cent among the group on Crestor compared to those taking a placebo, or dummy pill.
Significantly, those taking Crestor, experienced a fifty per cent reduction in their levels of the ‘bad’ cholesterol known as LDL, and were 20 per cent less likely to die from any other cause.
The conclusion from the study, named Jupiter (Justification for the Use of statins in primary prevention), is that taking Statins could reduce the risk of heart attacks and strokes for everyone, even those with healthy cholesterol levels. However all the trial patients had high levels of a protein known as hsCRP – high sensitivity C-reactive, which is linked to inflammation of the arteries and heart disease. Now the U.S. researchers want this factor to be considered when deciding who will receive statins.
low cholesterol level is no longer safe
The lead researcher on the Jupiter study, Dr Paul Ridker, director of the Centre for Cardiovascular Disease Prevention at Brigham & Women’s Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts said: ‘Half of all heart attacks and strokes occur in men and women with normal cholesterol levels. We’ve been searching for ways to improve detection of risk in those patients. We can no longer assume that a patient with low cholesterol is a safe patient.’
Warnings against high regular statin dosage
However, experts have warned against trying to replicate the effects of Crestor – the newest and most effective statin – by using other statins at higher doses. Professor Martin Cowie, professor of cardiology at the National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College, London, said it was apparent that some statins worked differently from others. He added that ‘simply giving patients massive doses of other statins would not necessarily work and could increase the side effects to unacceptable levels’.
Professor Cowie pointed out that Doctors and Cardiologists are under increasing pressure to reduce the drugs bill by putting patients on the cheapest statins. He said: ‘I sympathise with the need to consider costs but you have to balance risks and benefits amid this push to switch patients to generic drugs, but high doses of statins can cause high rates of side effects like muscle pain and weakness’.
In the united Kingdom more than four million British patients regularly take statins to control their cholesterol levels. Eight out of ten use the cheapest generic drug, simvastatin, which costs just a few dollars per month. However, Crestor, which is made by AstraZeneca, costs approximately $40 per month for a 20mg daily dose.