SOME PEOPLE HAVE QUESTIONED CHITOSAN’S USEFULNESS
Some people have questioned Chitosan’s usefulness, pointing out that in some people it may only push the cholesterol down or increase the good HDL cholesterol by a few points. Fortunately, a few points can make a big difference. For example, every time your total cholesterol drops 1 percent, your risk of a heart attack drops by 2 percent. This means that when your total cholesterol falls by 5 points, your risk of a heart attack is automatically 10 percent lower—and that’s pretty significant. Let’s look at one case study.
I hadn’t seen John, a 60-year-old businessman, since he’d moved away 10 years before. Then one day he returned to my office to tell me that his cholesterol was high. “My doctor did a duplex ultrasound of my neck. It showed that my neck arteries are narrowing, and I’m more likely to have a stroke. He’s got me on all kinds of medicines to lower it, but they’re not lowering anything except my health. The medicines have made me tired and nauseated, and my liver is sick.”
John’s total cholesterol was 247, which is way above the ideal of 160 (100 plus his age). His LDL was also elevated at 170, at least 70 points too high. Meanwhile, his HDL was very low at 25. It should have been 50 or more. (The National Cholesterol
Education Program states that an HDL of 35 or less should be considered an independent risk factor for coronary artery disease. I like to see my patients’ HDLs at 50 or more. By either standard, John’s HDL of 25 was clearly a danger sign.) These figures suggested that serious trouble lay ahead.
When I told John about Chitosan, he asked to start right away, even though his weight was not a big problem. He began by taking 1 gram before lunch and another gram before dinner. Four months later we rechecked his cholesterol. The results were gratifying.
Although his blood profile was not yet ideal, the Chitosan had helped him take giant strides in the right direction. You can see how well it worked by comparing his before and after CADRF1 ratios:
Before: CADRF1 = 247/25 = 9.9 This puts him at great risk of heart disease.
After: CADRF1 = 195/50 = 3.9.
He already has less than one half the standard risk of suffering from heart disease. The lower the CADRF1 continues to drop,
the better.
John was overjoyed at his new numbers. He promised me, “Doc, I’ll never let these numbers rise again.”
Chitosan’s health-saving abilities were further documented six months later when another ultrasound of John’s neck showed less narrowing in his arteries. In other words, Chitosan helped widen the highway to his brain, markedly reducing his risk of a stroke. When fat gets pulled out of the plaque, the body is better able to dilate those arteries, which also widens the highway.
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