From your patient — backed by peer-reviewed research
I want Functional Medicine — root cause analysis, disease prevention through nutrition and lifestyle, not pills that manage symptoms while creating new problems.
I only take medicine that has a direct, proven causal link to my specific disease — not petrochemical derivatives prescribed based on surrogate markers that don't reliably predict outcomes.
Please help me prevent disease, not just control symptoms. I want to address root causes — not band-aids that make things worse long-term.
What the numbers on your lab work actually mean — in plain English.
Acts like a cleanup crew — picks up excess cholesterol from your arteries and carries it back to the liver. Higher is better. Goal: above 60 mg/dL.
Carries cholesterol to your arteries. But large fluffy LDL is mostly harmless. Small dense LDL is the real problem — driven by sugar and seed oils, not eggs.
Your body converts unused calories — especially sugar and carbs — into triglycerides. High triglycerides + low HDL is the real heart disease marker, not total cholesterol.
Leukocytes that fight infection and patrol for disease. Includes neutrophils, T-cells, and NK cells. Healthy range: 4,500-11,000 per microliter.
Chronic high CRP predicts heart attacks better than high cholesterol. Seed oils, sugar, and processed food drive CRP up.
HDL + LDL + 20% of triglycerides. This number alone tells you almost nothing. High total cholesterol with high HDL and low triglycerides is often healthier than "normal" numbers.
| Year | What Happened |
|---|---|
| Before 1900 | Americans cooked with butter, lard & tallow. Heart disease was so rare that cardiologist Paul Dudley White said he had almost never seen a heart attack when he started practicing in 1911. |
| 1911 | Crisco introduced — first hydrogenated seed oil (partially hydrogenated cottonseed oil). Americans begin cooking with manufactured trans fats. |
| ~1930 | Heart disease becomes the #1 killer in America — just 19 years after Crisco. It has held that position ever since. |
| 1961 | AHA recommends replacing butter with vegetable oil. Funded by Procter & Gamble (makers of Crisco). Butter drops from ~18 lbs/person to ~4 lbs by the 1990s. |
| 1909-1999 | Soybean oil consumption increases 1,000x — from 0.006% to 7.38% of calories. The single largest dietary change in American history. (Blasbalg et al., Am J Clin Nutr, 2011) |
| Result | Americans complied and got sicker. Obesity tripled. Type 2 diabetes skyrocketed. Heart disease remained the #1 killer. The advice was wrong. |
Among the highest saturated fat intake in Europe. Heart disease death rate: ~36-40 per 100,000 — roughly one-third of America's rate.
Among the lowest heart disease rates in the developed world (~30-40/100K). The Ni-Hon-San Study showed Japanese men who moved to the US developed significantly higher heart disease.
Heart disease death rate of just ~9 per 100,000 vs. America's 100-120 per 100,000. PREDIMED Trial (Spain, 7,400 patients): 30% reduction in heart events.
Rural India traditionally cooked with ghee and coconut oil. Urban India switched to refined seed oils — and now has one of the highest heart disease rates in the world, striking at younger ages (40s-50s).
There are no vegetables in vegetable oil. It's an industrial product made from seeds using petroleum solvents.
This is what the label calls "heart-healthy vegetable oil." Compare that to: squeeze an olive, collect the juice.
In 1953, Ancel Keys plotted dietary fat vs. heart disease for 6 hand-picked countries — a neat upward line. But data existed for 22 countries. When Yerushalmy & Hilleboe plotted all 22 in 1957, the correlation disappeared. Keys excluded every country that contradicted him, including France.
Yerushalmy & Hilleboe, NY State J Med, 1957
"In Framingham, the more saturated fat one ate, the more cholesterol one ate, the more calories one ate, the lower the person's serum cholesterol... the people who ate the most cholesterol weighed the least and were the most physically active."
Dr. William Castelli, Framingham Study Director — Archives of Internal Medicine, 1992 (PMID: 1627021)
"There is no significant evidence for concluding that dietary saturated fat is associated with an increased risk of CHD or CVD."
"Current evidence does not clearly support guidelines that encourage high polyunsaturated fat and low saturated fat."
Saturated fat not associated with all-cause mortality, CVD, CHD, stroke, or type 2 diabetes. Trans fats were the real culprit.
Salmon, sardines, mackerel. Omega-3s (EPA/DHA) raise HDL, lower triglycerides, reduce arterial inflammation.
Re-analysis of Sydney Diet Heart Study and Minnesota Coronary Experiment showed seed oils increased death rates.
Eggs don't cause heart disease (BMJ, 2020). EVOO cut cardiovascular events by 30% in the PREDIMED trial (7,400 patients, Spain).
Each 2% caloric increase from trans fats raised heart disease risk by 93% (Nurses' Health Study, NEJM, 1997).
Garlic increased NK cell and T-cell proliferation (boosts WBC). Vitamin C essential for neutrophil function. Almonds enhance T-cell immunity.
100g of sugar reduced WBC killing ability by 40% for up to 5 hours (AJCN, 1973). Sugar disarms your immune system.
Yogurt, kefir, sauerkraut, kimchi. Stanford trial: reduced 19 inflammatory markers, increased microbiome diversity.
Sucralose, saccharin, aspartame damaged gut microbiome and promoted glucose intolerance (Nature, 2014, Israel). 70% of immune cells live in your gut.
Walking, cycling, lifting. Raises HDL, mobilizes NK cells and T-cells. Moderate exercisers get 40-50% fewer infections.
Sedentary behavior raises CRP, lowers HDL, increases triglycerides, impairs WBC function. Even 20 min/day makes a difference.
Peer-reviewed studies consistently show statins suppress white blood cell counts and immune function — the opposite of what's often claimed.
Rosuvastatin lowered total WBC counts and CRP vs. placebo.
Statins directly inhibit MHC-II expression, suppressing T-cell activation — a direct immunosuppressive mechanism.
Statins reduce leukocyte adhesion, suppress T-cell activation, and decrease neutrophil/monocyte function via Rho GTPase inhibition.
Statins lower IL-6, TNF-alpha, and MCP-1. Total WBC and neutrophil counts trend downward on statin therapy.
In 2012, the FDA mandated a warning on every statin label about increased blood sugar and new-onset diabetes.
9% increased risk of new-onset diabetes. 1 extra case per 255 patients treated for 4 years. Triggered FDA label change.
Intensive-dose statins: 12% higher diabetes risk vs. moderate dose. Higher potency = higher risk.
25-27% increase in diabetes with rosuvastatin. Prediabetics hit hardest.
Statins raised fasting glucose in both diabetics and non-diabetics. Actively works against diabetes management.