Why is no one talking about inflammation? Cholesterol will pass through smooth vessels, but builds up on the walls of porous , inflamed vessels. I'm a nurse who had a patient on statins for years ...still had bypass, and was placed on the liver transplant list due to "pharmacology induced liver failure" caused by statins.

My cardiologist just restarted me on a statin, based on my lipid profile. I had discontinued it because of myalgias. I've got the myalgias back so I am going to stop it. This is a great explanation. I am a retired general internist, and I was generally skeptical of statins when I was in practice, especially for primary prevention. Our toxic food environment is the elephant in the room.

I am almost 80. I don’t care what my readings are, it will not make that much difference. I want to enjoy the remaining years.

This is one of the best holistically explained if not the best video on KZfaq. Thank you for saving lives and simplifying everything one needs to use in their everyday lives and make informed decisions about one’s health.

Statins made my intestines swell shut it was horrible . In and out of the ER and hospital for 18 months . I quit smoking and eat better . Not been back to cardiologist in over a year . It's been 4 years since my stents. $2000 per visit with tests . I walk 4 to 5 days a week and lift 2 days a week . Everyday is a gift.

Highly impressed by this and all your videos. We need more Healthcare providers like you to make a difference. People need to take responsibility in learning to care for themselves. Medications can be lifesaving, but healthy lifestyles are vital. Thank you for advocating for the public and for maintaining such strong ethics despite the multiple pressures exerted by our broken healthcare system. God bless your kind heart and values.

Great video and great information. After watching this, I think that I am entitled to 3 college credits!!! I had a heart attack on April 8, 2023. One stent put in my right artery that was 100% blocked. Left the hospital on a 40mg statin. After a few months, I requested blood work to look at my cholesterol numbers because I told the doc that I didn't want to take more meds than needed. My cholesterol was not high when I weighed 247 lbs. I now weigh 194, changed my diet and exercise program. The doc said that he was going to reduce the statin to 20mg. When he did, I stopped taking them. Did more blood work 3 months later not taking the statin and my cholesterol and triglycerides are perfect. Triglycerides were 120 when I weighed 247, now they are 71. I have come to the conclusion from great doctors on youtube - that the side effects OUT WEIGH the benefit of any statin med in any dose. This is one of the best videos on this subject I have watched and I have watched dozens of them. Doctor Mike Hansen is in a league all by himself!!!!

Been LCHF/ IF since 2017 - Lost 60 pounds and kept it off. My meals today: 4 scrambled eggs in butter with spinach sprinkled with flaxseed, then later a fatty 300 gram sirloin with sauerkraut, cherry tomatoes and some almonds and olives for dessert. 55 and my heart pumps like a champ🏆

This is by far the best and most accurate summary I’ve ever seen. Extremely well done! 👏

Jama had a report in March on statins that concluded that they were very ineffective in reducing heart attack and stroke deaths. This was an excellent video. Thank you.

Thank you for showing this video. A very good friend of mine just yesterday told me a story about her husband. He was going to have a knee replacement. He went to get cardiac clearance. The cardiologist noticed his cholesterol was borderline so he started him on Lipitor 80 mg. He had the surgery but his recovery wasn’t As expected. The pain was intense and he needed lots of pain meds. He developed a darkness in that leg that couldn’t be explained. Finally the orthopedic said I don’t understand what is happening but you should not hurt like this. His wife did some research and found that Lipitor can cause muscle and joint pain. He ended up with a rash and blisters. He stopped the med cold turkey and that I told her wasn’t the smartest thing to do. He isn’t doing well. Still having severe stomach cramps and muscle aches. He took that dose for 4 months which according to literature should never have been given for a cholesterol level of borderline. The good cardiologist even told her that the primary Dr. would thank him for addressing an issue he was just watching. How long can these symptoms go on for after the med is stopped? Questions she has been trying to get answers for.

Thank you for simplifying this information. My husband and I have been trying to sort out this exact topic for a while now. He has had mitral valve replacement and a bypass. He’s now on a statin, but is doing a major overhaul on his diet. We’re beginning to see that metabolic syndrome is the key link to nearly all modern health conditions.

Thank you for clearly explaining the topics you covered. Recently had my blood panels done & to have a thorough explanation helps big time. Thanks!

Considering that you are a member of the medical profession, what a rebellious video! :-) Very thought provoking. Thank you.

I've been reading up on this for the last 12 years at least and discussed the matter with my doctor who had suggested I take statins. I am blessed with a doctor who is open-minded and does not automatically recoil at youtube information though it is frequently justified. My LDL has always been on the high side although I only very occasionally eat processed food (not even salad dressings) and I have been doing 20-hour fasts 4 days a week for the last four years. The intermittent fasting has dropped my triglyceride levels dramatically. This has brought me well into my seventies without signs of diabetes or heart disease though my weight is higher than I would like it to be. I don't know the future but, so far, so good. This video is the best summary of the conclusions I have come to during all the years I have followed this subject. I think anyone interested in the subject but hesitant about challenging the medical orthodoxy to read up on it, there is plenty of published and peer-reviewed scientific papers supporting the information presented here.

First time ever in my life i had ever asked for a copy of my Lipid Test resul a few weeks ago and glad I did! Ive been stressing about it before aNd even after...doctor wants me to come back in 6 months and wants me to improve my LDL numbers which is at 159...Glad i saw this video...my Trigleceride is 93 and my HDL is 44.....Thank you for this vid...

Thank you for providing the math behind determining risk factors. And, the info re smoking points in ‘good’ cooking oils/fats! 👍🏼

A great video. Very important information in a nutshell. I am familiar with this material from previous medical-oriented low-carb websites I have visited over the past 4 years. I have my pre-diabetes under control with a low-carb diet, unprocessed foods, and intermittent fasting. I wish my doctor would become familiar with the current literature. Recently, I had my bloodwork done and by my own calculations of my TG:HDL ratio and LDL Hazard ratio, my results were excellent. But my doctor ordered me to be on a statin based on a cholesterol level considered high according to the lab guidelines issued by the government. I have refused. She is very concerned but when I asked her questions, she had never heard of large buoyant LDL or small, dense LDL particles. She is a wonderful person and very caring, but our healthcare system is overwhelmed.

Information seems to be constantly changing regarding cholesterol and this short video is extremely helpful in deciphering the numbers. Thank you for a concise, yet information explanation.

Out of probably a hundred videos and dealing with my own heath issue, THIS video seems to offer the best advice. Thanks!

I’d love to have the citations to the follow up study to show my doctor! Thanks for your excellent information.

I've always had low triglyceride levels until one year when l went off my usual low carb diet. Triglycerides literally quadrupled and l gained weight. Great video - it should be required viewing by all docs.

That you Dr Mike I’ve been following you since the pandemic and I love the information you put out because it’s simple and to the point.

Thank you for separating two types of cholesterol. This video is wonderful.

One of the best explanations on this complex topic. I wish Dr. Mike talked about the number of particles and using ApoE as an additional biomarker. I would love to get this into the picture. Very nicely done.

When I was doing my exit physical from the Navy the doctor gave me a prescription for Zocor saying that when I left the Navy my activity level and diet were definitely going to be much worse after I left. My response was, "Really? We aren't even going to discuss lifestyle changes at all?" When he handed me the prescription I immediately threw it in the trash. Probably one of the smartest things I've ever done.

Excellent video Dr Hanson! Thank you for all the info and tips!

Thanks! This is the most complete and accurate explanation of heart disease prediction I've ever seen. It covers all significant aspects of metabolic and blood lipid health and also the important numbers we need to look for when getting blood work testing. It also covered very completely the best options for prevention particularly lifestyle diet and exercise.Thank You so much 👍.

I get way more motivation out of knowing why. Obviously one’s personal doctor doesn’t get to sit down and explain this stuff. Dr. Mike keep on making these videos. I wonder how many people you are helping. Thank you!

This is so helpful! I fall into the exact scenario you mentioned. My LDL is "very high", but under 190, and my TG and HDL are normal. I had a plaque scan just for peace of mind, and there was 0 plaque. Thank you so much!!

Excellent video! This really helped me interpret my lipid panel results. Thank you for preparing this - well done!

This Dr. Is so darn good. Hope more medical doctors have the same expertise like him.

You’re an incredible professor. Thank you.

Thanks Dr Mike for being the voice of ethics and caring about human beings. Worked as cardiac nurse and rehab nurse for many years and totally agree. The science must be listened to not the money interests and separated out over time it becomes clearer. Your analysis is spot on in my opinion and much much needed by the public. Your doing such a great public service.

Thank you keep reporting accurate information required stay strong stay free stay safe

Based on this vid, I subscribed and saved it for my first blood work at some point in the near future, great vid, thanks.

You've very neatly articulated information in a short period of time that has taken me several years to comprehend, in a format that is easily understood by practically anybody. Hopefully your messaging allows more people to see and understand that there is a thriving deconstruction of decades of dogma and shaky science, and perhaps in a generation or two our current dietary guidelines will get the same treatment as leaded gasoline or smoking does today.

Now I know how my high school students felt when we would read essays with long intros. Took nearly 5 minutes to get to target info that it's type B LDL, a small particle. To be fair, I've been listening to this kind of video for a few days. guess I need to go on a video diet.

HELP! I was substitute teaching in a school this week and had lunch duty. The situation is MUCH WORSE than it was even in twinky times. The school lunch was ALL processed foods and the food in kids lunch boxes was ALL processed food at ALL the tables I checked. ONE kid had brought spaghetti and meatballs in a thermos alongside his chips and processed peanut butter cracker sandwiches. These kids were ALL 1st and 2nd graders!!!!

Dr. Hansen this is so enlightening. I did speak with my Dr.regarding the statin meds and he said I still need them even though my blood tests came back good. the only thing was my Sugar level was a bit high/7. I will go again and discuss my meds with him because I feel am unnecessarily taking meds that I do not require. Thank you, Dr. I really appreciate this.

As always, thank you for the excellent information and presentation.

my doctor tried to refuse to check my cholesterol levels because i refuse to take a statin. oh, i mean my EX doctor.

Very well explained. Short and to the point. Thank you.

Excellent teaching lesson!!!👍😃 Thank you💖💪

Nice and clear explanation of understanding modern day lipid panel information. You did forget to mention though, Lp(a) or lipoprotein a. Lots of people don’t get tested for this genetic cholesterol but it’s a real concern to have.

Very good info, thanks. When I was fighting Lyme disease my LDL went up to 272 for quite awhile. I studied Naturopathy, and was taught that LDL carries endotoxins out of the bloodstream so that having this happen was normal with active Lyme. Sure enough, it went down to 130 after treatment. I was told that I had 60% small LDL , which is awful, but that was before I switched from a low-fat lacto-vegetarian diet to the Paleo Diet. Also, low HDL runs on one side of my family, and despite daily exercise, it was stuck at 29, until my doctor suggested I eat 21 soaked almonds every day. That got it up to 56, not wonderful, but much better, and has kept it there for years.

Waatching Doom and Gloom videos causing Stress leads to Anxiety too!

young,sharp n honest, is veery powerful imo

thank you for this. I flat out refused statins because they make me feel so bad. I eat a ton of vegetables, and I do my best to avoid processed foods, but I do fail a little on bread, but keep it low as possible. when I worked ER I met many people coming in who felt awful after starting statins. I know it is skewed as people who didn't have difficulty with the medicine wouldn't come in to ER, but it made me think hard about how often medicines are pushed for reasons other than patient health.

FINALLY! A mainstream doctor who hasn’t been cancelled talking about this!! I have been trying to explain this to friends and family for at least a few years now! I agree with most of what you are saying, Dr. Hansen. But, people who do very low carb/keto/high fat carnivore will sometimes get very high LDL but probably don’t need a statin because their triglyceride:HDL ratio will be excellent or even < 1. Thank goodness that my current physician either understood the concepts discussed in this video..or he knew that I wouldn’t take a statin based on TC 232, LDL 152, HDL 80, & Triglycerides 58. My other disagreement with you, is that saturated fat from well-raised ruminants is healthy..not unhealthy as you assert in your saturated fat video. But otherwise, thank you for this video! I will definitely be sharing it!

Thank you. Comprehensive great video to this topic! I will send it to my cardiologist.

So much info and helpful drawings. Thank you.

Also with Framingham, the correlation with MI and LDL went away with increased HDL and decreased triglycerides

My total cholesterol is always over the "magical" 200. (216 was my last). My GP, though I love her, is ALWAYS trying to push a statin on me, even though my triglycerides are always well below 150 and my HDL is always in the 60-80 range. This information is so helpful and didn't know the triglyceride/small LDL relationship until watching your video.

Amazing video , so well delivered and with so much excellent science and medical information ,

Very informative and well explained. Thank you!

Thank you for your work. I learn more from y'all than I do from my cardiologist.

👌 Fantastic video. Thank you so much for explaining things so clearly. This has been really helpful.

Thank you so much Dr. Hansen!

Lack of love and respect huge factor

🎯 Key Takeaways for quick navigation: 00:00 📚 The Role of LDL Cholesterol 03:59 💡 The Two Types of LDL Cholesterol 05:53 💊 The Impact of Statins and Other Drugs 08:13 🍔 Nutrition and Heart Health 11:12 🚫 Avoiding Trans Fats and Inflammation Made with HARPA AI

I am blown away by the info presented in this video. It is one I will rewatch most assuredly! One question: Kaiser - my healthcare provider, includes a note on lab results that risk of HA using the CHOL/HDL bio marker - avg risk of males to be 5.0, females 4.4. I tried statins for 2 weeks about 10 yrs ago (funny how my Dr didn’t say a word about the potential side effects) but I found out real time quickly - very scary med for me. Your video gives me a bit of hope that I can exercise better control and participate more fully in finding a path forward without a statin! Thank you!

I’ve been following you for a good while. I love this new style.

Great comprehensive video for the layman!

I went on an extremely low fat diet in the early 90's. It destroyed my lipid profile. Triglycerides jumped to 145. Now I've been on a statin for 20 years and no one ever mentioned K2 or Quercetin to protect the heart muscle. 🤬

You provided a great public health service. I foolishly bought into the low fat fad and have been consuming too much sugar, bread, rice and pasta which i now understand is the cause of my rising LDL and triglycerides. My diet will change today, thanks to your informative presentation. This is one heart attack that will be avoided thanks to you, Doc. 🙏😊

Thanks for giving us an eye opening education. Easy answers are never the whole story.

I agree, my LDL was high and was put on a statin. Now I am doing IF and keto and stopped my statin.

I remember Dr. Castilini (sp?) of the Framingham study saying over 30 years ago that it was the very small hard dense particles that were the most damaging.

Thank you for leaving your comments (and sharing your stories)! I'm also going to respond to your comments in my next email newsletter! sign up here --> doctormikehansen.com/home/

Thank you Dr,. Mike. The video is very helpful.

Wow that was an incredible video. Thank you 👏🏼

I cut processed foods out of my diet and reduced by Trigs/HDL ratio from 7.45 at age 59 to 1.47 at age 64.

Thank you! This is very useful. Are cholesterol levels higher than usual while breastfeeding? I am breastfeeding and my TG went up a lot despite having a similar diet to prepregnancy.

Thankyou so much for this much needed info.

Excellent video. Thank you Doctor.

The leading risk factor for CVD is high fasting insulin and poor blood glucose control. The Trig/HDL ratio is very powerful.

My last bloodwork showed LDL @ 176 and a Total Chol of 259. My primary doctor expressed concern and started talking about putting in a statin. But HDL was @ 68, TG @ 75, and TG:HDL @ 1.1.

I'm glad that my husband listened to this when I turned the video on because it's probably made a bigger impact than my nagging has. (He eats tons of unhealthy simple carbs.) I hope this will help him change his eating habits. I kind of doubt it, but one can hope!

Great explanation - thank you!

I wish every Dr in the world would be forced to watch this 100 times.

Excellent video... Mike. However you didn't mention the effects of LDL cholesterol on the kidneys. Could you make a video on that? My friend said his kidney disease was caused by LDL cholesterol.

Thank you so much for the information Dr Mike. Everything what you said is true. 👍💯

My LDL is at 150 and my cardiologist wanted me to go on a Statin. I declined. Thank you.

I'm here for his art work.

I had two of my doctors tell me I must immediately go on a statin after a recent blood work up. For 10 months previously I ate no sugar little or no carbs. I ate eggs, bacon, beef and black coffee, one cup in the morning. I practiced intermittent fasting using a four hour window for 2 meals thus fasting for 20 hours. I lost 35 pounds. My triglycerides dropped from 182 to 79. My HDL went up from 47 to 51. My LDL rose from 129 to 182. My A1C went from 5.8 to down to 5.5. I got healthier! But all they could see was that my LDL was higher. Yeah, I was eating eggs and bacon! I hadn't been able to lose weight on any diet except this one. It isn't the fat, it's the sugar. By the way 15 years ago my calcium score was 3.79. My cholesterol has been high since I was 23. I'm 72 now. I don't feel I'm at risk for a heart attack especially since I lost weight and lowered my A1C. Am I wrong?

What a nice smart doctor... thank you.

Excellent information thankyou 🙏🏻

yep. Worked in cardiology over 20 years and he is absolutely correct. Problem is, every patient believes they know more than him yet can't seem to fix their problem. The idea doesn't occur to them, that if what they are doing isn't working, they should stop doing it.

Last week my triglycerides were 69 and my HDL was 76. My LDL was 129. I'm very happy with my blood work and of course my doctor wants me to take a statin. 🙂 I had metabolic syndrome for almost 20 years before I went keto and low carb.

Thank you. Very good and beneficial information.

Great vid, clear explanations. 👍

You draw like Dr. Arthur Guyton (the famous Physiologist). But he could write with his right and left hands at the same time, starting with the beginning and ending of a sentence, finishing in the middle. Smartest, kindest person I had the pleasure to know.

Believe it or not, you got through my thick 70 year old head with this one! I vow to improve my diet (there is a _lot_ of room for improvement) and to pay attention to triglycerides. My doctors have been telling me to do that but none adequately explained why. I will also add fish oil capsules to my daily vitamins; can't hurt, might help. I would add one thing, though: my nomination for the most important factor in reducing heart attack deaths. (Drum roll)... know what heart attack symptoms are and commit yourself _now_ to getting to an ER if any of them appear. Everybody I have known who had a heart attack when I was there said, "I don't feel good." When it comes from a middle age person I ask, "what kind of 'don't feel good'?" Several times I have had to point out those are cardiac symptoms and really should be checked out soonest. Nobody did until our manager got involved; one had bypass surgery later that day. I have promised my wife I will not ignore cardiac symptoms and I had to honor that promise once. Fortunately, the near faint, the lump under my sternum when I was out of the faint, and especially the sudden unexplained fatigue made me bum a ride to the ER from my friend. It was ultimately narrowed down to an anxiety attack with attendant esophageal spasm. I'm not sorry I did it.

Outstanding content, thank you!

Thank you for talking about the "elephant in the room" towards the end of the video - industrually produced seed oils, in all our ultra-processed "food" (if you can call it that), oxidation and inflammation caused by them. There are many different "diets" that improve health a lot, reducing metabolic syndrome, from carnivore to vegetarian, but the common factor amongst all of them is eliminating ultra-processed edible material.

Fantastic presentation, Dr. Hansen. What do I do if I want to deal with with existing plaque? Thanks.

Great video. I do wish you would have touched on Lp(a) as well. I really think more people need to be aware that this genetic risk factor exists and is NOT part of a normal blood panel. You have to ask for an advanced lipid panel to show LDL particle size and Lp(a) number.

You didn't mention LP(a), a lipoprotein 6 1/2 times more atherogenic than regular LDL-C, or ApoB, the most predictive marker for heart disease. I liked your very clear explanations of what the various studies actually say. cheers

I love your videos, and liking your new two camera angles and your drawing :) i see you are working out too, looking more fit and lean. ❤