It is important that you know not only the facts about this product by reviewing the ingredients and the recommended protocols, but also the facts about cholesterol itself.

We know that elevated cholesterol levels are potentially dangerous, but it is important to realize that unnaturally low levels are dangerous too!

Cholesterol, despite its bad publicity, is an essential substance your body needs to survive. It is important for normal hormonal function and brain health, so you do not want to rid your body of to much cholesterol, but rather balance the ‘good’ against the ‘bad’

We have put together some information on cholesterol and different options in dealing with it. This can be reviewed in our Health Conditions section by clicking here

A caution: If you are currently on a statin drug and wish to come off it, you should do so in conjunction with your physician. You cannot just stop a statin drug ‘cold turkey’ as your cholesterol levels will spike.

Contact us and we will provide you a recommended protocol that you can discuss with your Doctor to help you phase the drug out.

Cholesterol… Problems and Solutions…

We are constantly being ‘bombarded’ with the need to lower our cholesterol and given warnings that if we don’t, we could face dire consequences! If you feel your cholesterol is too high or you are currently on a statin drug then, it will be in your best interest to read today’s newsletter.
I am sure you know this but there are two common forms of cholesterol. One of which is considered good, and that is called HDL and the other which is considered bad and is called LDL.

HDL cholesterol travels around in your bloodstream picking up excess cholesterol including LDL cholesterol and taking it back to your liver for reprocessing. Sort of like a garbage collector! Your HDL cholesterol must be as high as possible to ensure adequate ‘housekeeping’.

LDL cholesterol may attach itself to your artery wall and create ‘plaque’ which can ultimately accumulate and create a blockage in your arteries resulting in a heart attack. Or it can cause a stroke if some of the capillaries in your brain become blocked and parts of your brain are starved for blood.
It is generally accepted that your LDL cholesterol needs to be as low as possible, but this message tends to be oversimplified and there is a tendency to look at total cholesterol which can sometimes be misleading.

But how low, is low?

The goal posts for cholesterol levels have been shifted at least twice over the last few years. The last time, just weeks ago! Are the new aggressively promoted levels warranted? Many Doctors and experts certainly don’t think so. In fact there is a great deal of concern being raised by independent researchers and physicians that these new levels may actually be dangerous… for many reasons.

Cholesterol is a very important substance and is an essential precursor to your hormonal cascade and particularly your sex hormones. It can have a negative impact on your general health if levels are pushed artificially low. Excessively low levels of cholesterol are certainly proven to weaken your immune system and increase your chances of dying from an infectious disease.

So, if there are dangers associated with cholesterol levels being too low why are they being pushed so aggressively? I addressed one possible reason in our 30th July issue of Xtend-15sec-News. (You can find it in the archives). At that time we revealed that 6 of the 9 members of the USA National Cholesterol Panel has financial ties to the drug industry that is enjoying an unprecedented bonanza thanks to statin drugs which are being used to lower cholesterol. (More about these later.)
Are the drug companies behind the push for artificially low levels of cholesterol, even in individuals that were previously considered healthy? You must be your own judge on that question!

What about Triglycerides?

Ah… you don’t hear so much about these, or homocysteine, or C-Reactive Protein! Nonetheless, elevated levels of any of these three substances are just as good an indicator of a potential heart ‘event’ as is high cholesterol. Excess levels of any one of these four indicators (the preceding three plus cholesterol) although serious and need to be addressed, don’t necessarily mean that you are in a danger area.

However, combine high triglycerides with high cholesterol and you are a walking ‘time bomb’! You may then ask yourself why is there not as much emphasis put on reducing triglycerides as there is with cholesterol, given that for many people a simple reduction in triglycerides is all that is needed to take them out of the danger zone?
Now, this is a question that I can easily answer without fear of contradiction. There is not an effective drug to reduce triglycerides, and so it tends to be ignored! However, triglycerides, unlike cholesterol, (80% of cholesterol is manufactured by your body) is easily controlled through diet. Rather than making an effort to advise the general public what to do in order to reduce this risk, the medical ‘industry’ has a tendency to take the easy route and write a prescription for a statin drug.
(To learn how to control triglycerides I would suggest that you read the weight loss report that I wrote. You can find it on our website under special reports)

What is a statin drug?

Many of our readers will know the answer to this, and I know many readers are currently taking the drug. I know this because we have many emails daily from people suffering the side effects of statin drugs and who are desperately seeking a natural alternative.

Very briefly a statin drug works on reducing the production of cholesterol in your body by blocking the action of an enzyme in your liver essential for the manufacturing process to take place. This process is fraught with dangers and it may excessively block an important natural bodily function!

A statin drug can force your cholesterol down to very low… and potentially dangerous levels. In fact, the new guidelines for LDL of 70 recommended by the ‘US National Cholesterol Panel’ can generally only be achieved though the use of statins because the body will not do it naturally as it will resist such a low level. This is why it is now being argued that healthy individuals should now be put on a statin drug so this low level can be achieved!

I won’t go on any more about these drugs because it makes me mad as I can see millions of people suffering needlessly from the side effects. But… don’t just take my word on this. Read an article by an investigative medical journalist about the truth of statins and then make up your own mind. You can access it by clicking here.

What are the natural alternatives to a statin?

There are a number of natural substances that have been proven effective in lowering cholesterol naturally. Some have been proven in double blind placebo clinical studies to be as effective as statin drugs but without the side effects and the depletion of the body’s CoQ10 reserves.

For the last couple of years we have been manufacturing a natural cholesterol lowering product of which the main ingredient was Policosanol. This is an extract from sugar cane. (Doesn’t affect blood sugar levels.) The results were spectacular on some people, good on others, mediocre on yet others and for some people it didn’t work at all which is understandable. After all even the statins don’t work on everyone!

Although it was an excellent product it was not one of our main ones. However, last year as the use of statins continued to increase we decided that it was time to develop a formula that could effectively compete with a statin drug but have none of the negative side effects and risks.
So, Prof. Dr. A. Munem got to work on developing a formula that would do just that. (For our recent subscribers who are not familiar with Dr Munem you can find his credentials on our website. He is one of the top bio-scientists in the world).

As Dr Munem pointed out… in order to have an effective and safe natural remedy you must be able to tackle the cholesterol problem from six different directions:

1. By reducing the production of cholesterol in the body.
2. By reducing the absorption of cholesterol in the gastrointestinal tract.
3. By reducing circulating blood fats and dissolving cholesterol particles.
4. By preventing cholesterol from hardening in the arteries.
5. By increasing the excretion of bile acid which carries cholesterol.
6. By reducing the oxidation of the cholesterol.

The bottom line is that after many months of research we have developed cholest-natural what is undoubtedly the world’s most advanced natural cholesterol lowering product.

What’s more, it seems that it may only need to be taken for 12 months and thereafter only intermittently, as it will normalize the body’s production of cholesterol. What’s more it won’t artificially force levels down to less than what your body needs.

One final note… if your cholesterol is only slightly elevated you may find that just our Total Balance on its own is sufficient to help balance it out. It does contain policosanol but at much lower levels than the new cholesterol lowering formula.

Facts About Cholesterol

We have prepared a simple document that explains what cholesterol is and what an important role it plays in your body.

This document is in three parts:

• General description of cholesterol
• The dangers of too low a level of cholesterol
• The importance of cholesterol for hormone production

General description of cholesterol

Cholesterol (a lipid) serves as the structural basis of bile salts, steroid hormones, vitamin D and (cell) plasma membranes. It is also part of a molecule that helps direct embryonic development.
20% of cholesterol comes from our diet, while 80% is made from Acetyl Co-enzyme A by the liver, intestinal cells and other body cells. Cholesterol is secreted in bile salts and excreted from the body through the feces.

Triglycerides and cholesterol are transported to and from our tissue cells bound to lipoproteins (lipid protein complexes). These lipoproteins vary in their fat-protein composition, but they all contain triglycerides, lipids, phospholipids, cholesterol and proteins. The higher the amount of lipids in the lipoprotein the lower its density, and the greater the amount of proteins in the lipoproteins the higher its density. This is why there are high-density lipoproteins (HDLs), low-density lipoproteins (LDLs) and very low-density lipoproteins (VLDLs).

The VLDLs transport triglycerides from the liver to the peripheral tissues, mostly adipose (fat) tissue.

The LDLs transport cholesterol to peripheral tissues for membrane or hormone synthesis and storage. They also regulate cholesterol synthesis in tissue cells.

The HDLs transport excess cholesterol from peripheral tissue to the liver, where it is broken down and becomes part of bile. The process goes like this: protein "envelopes"
from HDLs are made by the liver and launched into the bloodstream and are filled with cholesterol from tissue cells and the artery walls. The HDLs also take cholesterol to the steroid (sex) hormone producing organs: the ovaries and the adrenal glands.

This explains why HDL is also called "good" cholesterol, it transports cholesterol destined for degradation. An HDL level of 35 – 60 is considered OK, but levels above 60 are thought to protect against heart disease.

LDL is considered "bad" at 160 or above, because excessive LDL can potentially cause cholesterol deposits in the artery walls. However LDL does not easily stick to artery walls, unlike one variety of LDL that is particularly "bad", lipoprotein (a).
This LDL seems to promote plaque formation that thickens and stiffens the artery walls. Lipoprotein (a) levels are hard to influence by diet, exercise and substances. Elevated lipoprotein (a) levels are an independent risk factor for heart disease, especially in people with elevated LDL cholesterol levels. A high LDL cholesterol level carries less risk than a normal or even low LDL cholesterol level with high lipoprotein (a) level.

The ratio of total cholesterol to HDL and the ratio of LDL to HDL are referred to as the cardiac risk factor ratios because they reflect whether cholesterol is possibly being deposited into tissues or broken down and excreted. The total cholesterol-to-HDL ratio should be no higher than 4. The LDL-to-HDL ratio should be no higher than 2.5.

Factors regulating cholesterol levels:

• Hydrogenated oils: Unsaturated fats that have been hardened by hydrogenation to make them more solid (e.g. margarine) play a role in raising cholesterol levels. The hydrogenation process changes fatty acids into trans-fatty acids, causing an increase in LDLs and a reduction in HDLs. Omega-3 fatty acids (from cold water fish) lower proportions of triglyceride and cholesterol levels.
• Mental stress: Cigarette smoking, coffee drinking and changes to body weight may change cholesterol levels. Regular aerobic exercise (which speeds up the heart rate) lowers LDL and increases HDL levels.
• Body shape provides clues to higher cholesterol levels. People who have an "apple" shape, with upper body and abdominal fat distribution (often men), tend to have higher cholesterol levels, especially LDL. People who have a "pear" shape with fat distribution in the hips and thighs (often women), tend to have lower cholesterol levels, particularly LDL.

The dangers of too low a level of cholesterol

Studies have indicated that total cholesterol levels below 190 for males and 178 for females may enhance the risk of "bleeding" strokes and death from cerebral hemorrhage.
Cholesterol may affect the metabolism of serotonin, a substance involved in the regulation of mood, as research has shown that serotonin levels are reduced in men with low levels of cholesterol. There may be an association between suicide and low serum cholesterol levels in people suffering from panic disorder. Total serum cholesterol and LDL levels were found to be lower in a para suicidal population at statistically significant levels. Studies among patients suffering from major depression showed an association between low cholesterol and major depression. Some trials showed that clinical recovery may be associated with a significant increase of total cholesterol. Some studies show that low cholesterol is associated with increased subsequent criminal violence.

It has been found that relatively low cholesterol levels have been associated with increased mortality from cancer and non-atherosclerotic causes of death. Hypo-cholesterolemic men had differences in immune system compared to men with high cholesterol levels. They had significantly fewer circulating lymphocytes, fewer total T cells and fewer CD8+ cells.

The importance of cholesterol for hormone production

Without cholesterol you would soon die as it is an essential substance in the production of hormones…in particular the sex hormones. Although no studies have been carried out to prove or disprove it, artificially low levels of cholesterol may be a factor why a number of men on statin drugs suffer from impotence.