The high cholesterol hoax

Women with high cholesterol live longer, have fewer heart attacks and strokes

Elizabeth Walling

Natural News

2011 October 26

If the diagnosis of high cholesterol sounds like a death sentence to your ears, you may be the victim of cholesterol propaganda. It’s not uncommon to believe that lower is better when it comes to cholesterol, but new research shows otherwise. In fact, a recent study in Norway says women with high cholesterol live longer and suffer from fewer heart attacks and strokes than those with lower cholesterol.

Can High Cholesterol Save Your Life?

Researchers at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology looked at 52,087 individuals between the ages of 20 and 74. After adjusting for factors like age, smoking and blood pressure, researchers found women with high cholesterol (more than 270 mg/dl) had a 28 percent lower mortality risk than women with low cholesterol (under 193 mg/dl). Risk for heart disease, cardiac arrest and stroke also declined as cholesterol levels rose.

The researchers involved in the study admit this contradicts commonly accepted beliefs about cholesterol. They say current guideline information is misleading because the role of cholesterol in heart disease is overestimated.

Full article here

Chocolate can cut stroke risk

Chocolate can cut stroke risk: study; Get benefit from dark chocolate with at least 70 percent cocoa

Staff Writer

Daily News

2011 October 12

Chocolate-lovers are in luck.

New research suggests that eating about two chocolate bars a week could help reduce your risk of stroke.

Announced October 10, the new Swedish study supports previous research in men and women.

“The protection started at more than about 1.5 ounces a week,” said researcher Susanna C. Larsson, PhD, of the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden, in a statement.

In the study, the group eating the most chocolate (about 2.3 ounces a week) got the most benefit, reducing stroke risks by 20 percent, stated the researchers.

The research is published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

While prior research has discovered a link between eating chocolate and reduced stroke risk, the study discovered that