Lipid metabolic pathways converge in motor neuron degenerative diseases
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At this point in my life, and after careful study and application of Ray's work, I can only say I hope to never set foot in a hospital or doctor's office ever again. (Barring some accident or trauma, knock on wood). Put simply, I've never been as vital or radiantly healthy as now
The last numbers I have show LD/HD ratios all good, HDL good, Triglicerides good, and LDL slightly higher than normal (138 vs 130). Now putting it in context, that testing happened right after a month of eating multiple times out for dinner, so I'm not too concerned about LDL.
The thing with cholesterol is that you need to consider the context. I find the standard course of treatment with statins to be incredibly myopic (plus almost everyone I know who takes them have side effects). Cholesterol in a healthy body (adequate thyroid function and metabolism) simply gets transformed into hormones (and the good stuff, not cortisol and related stress hormones). Statins, sure they might block a pathway so cholesterol shows up lower when you measure, but how is that number in any way indicative of good health?
Not getting super detailed in here, but let's just say that I can easily picture different persons having the same number for cholesterol and radically different health outcomes. In one case cholesterol is properly used by the body to increase vitality, in the other some issue is causing less cholesterol generation but since little is being actually processed further the number remains stable.
Going back to saturated versus unsaturated, there is an angle that might help you clear the apparent disconnect between Ray's perspective and current mainstream.
In general, we can agree that life is at its core, self-organizing structure. Now this structure being self-organizing can deviate from equilibrium, due to disturbances in the environment, but it will try to adapt and preserve its structure as intact as possible; this is simply how life evolved, to be resilient.
Now, let's take a step back and consider for a moment fat rancidity. I think even the mainstream holds this view. "Rancid fat is very bad, don't overheat oil cause it will go bad." Rancidification is basically premature oxidation of the fat. Now, you know which fats never go rancid? Saturated; look it up, coconut oil (practically all saturated), chocolate, very hardly go rancid. Common cooking oils begin to go rancid just from being exposed to air, not to say high temperature.
Why is rancid fat so bad? At a cellular level, mostly because it both is more susceptible to free radicals and it creates more free radicals. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lipid_peroxidation . Saturated fat on the other hand, due to its higher inherent stability, can be processed by cells at a more controlled rate or used as a better building block so to speak.
Tying back to life as structure. Radicals being highly energetic reactants and their creation occurring almost spontaneously in the presence of unsaturated fat, they are damaging of this structure. While sure, saturated fat is processed by our bodies to release energy, this energy release is a much more controlled process than for unsaturated ones, which occur spontaneously and thus stress our cells. This stress leads cells to take defensive measures but some damage is inevitable.
Downstream consequences of this, saturated fats actually speed up metabolism (in the context of an otherwise nutrient rich diet). There are studies where they tried to fatten animals with sat fat and the pesky creatures would get leaner.
Now, one last point that cements my perspective that mainstream understanding is misguided. Look at the history of unsaturated fat in our diets. Turns out about a century ago, some cotton farmers had no use for the seed left after processing cotton. It was so bad that it was used illegally to dilute olive oil and animal fats. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cottonseed_oil#Economic_Histor... Similar kind of motivations for the pushing of canola, soybean. Let's just say that a hundred years ago, most vegetable oil was held in very low esteem as it concerns edibility. Take flax for instance, no one in their right mind would consume it; it goes rancid so quickly it was used to finish wood furniture (linseed oil).
Hope this wasn't too long and it further piques your curiosity to investigate these topics.
PS. this was focusing mostly on fat, but to more or less follow Ray Peat's view, eat lots of nutrient dense food, plenty of carbohydrates (our body's structure is more adequate for using this energy source) inc fruit, and procure that the fat you eat (not in excess) is mostly saturated.
For example, when your wrote "statins, sure they might block a pathway so cholesterol shows up lower when you measure, but how is that number in any way indicative of good health?", You're making way too many assumptions. Statins have been shown to reduce strokes and heart attacks. Does having a lower likelihood of having a stroke means you're healthier? Not necessarily. But what does it mean to be healthy, anyways? You can define it in so many ways.
Last I checked it was unsaturated fats good, saturated fats bad, trans fats literally Hitler.
How much time should we spend becoming novice nutritional researchers to make sense of this all?
Scientists say they have discovered a possible underlying cause of the neurological disorder, motor neurone disease (MND).
The University of Exeter team says it has found evidence that MND is linked to an imbalance of cholesterol and other fats in cells.
It says the research could lead to more accurate diagnosis and new treatments.
MND affects around 5,000 people in the UK and causes more than 2,000 deaths a year.
Motor neurone disease is a group of diseases that affect the nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord that tell your muscles what to do.
Also known as ALS, it causes muscle weakness and stiffness.
Eventually people with the disease are unable to move, talk, swallow and finally, breathe.
There is no cure and the exact causes are unclear - it's been variously linked to genes, exposure to heavy metals and agricultural pollution.
Scientists at the University of Exeter say they had a "eureka moment" when they realised that 13 genes - which, if altered, can cause the condition - were directly involved in processing cholesterol.
They say their theory could help predict the course and severity of the disease in patients and monitor the effect of potential new drugs.
The theory is outlined in a paper, published in Brain: A Journal of Neurology.
Lead author Prof Andrew Crosby said: "For years, we have known that a large number of genes are involved in motor neurone disease, but so far it hasn't been clear if there's a common underlying pathway that connects them."
The finding particularly relates to what is known as the "spastic paraplegias", where the malfunction is in the upper part of the spinal cord.
Dr Emma Baple, also from the University of Exeter Medical School, said: "Currently, there are no treatments available that can reverse or prevent progression of this group of disorders. Patients who are at high risk of motor neurone disease really want to know how their disease may progress and the age at which symptoms may develop, but that's very difficult to predict."
Dr Brian Dickie, director of research at the MND Association, said the work raises some interesting ideas.
"At the moment, it is unclear whether the imbalance observed is a cause of MND or a consequence of the disease. We look forward to seeing the outcome of further research in this area."
ALS is not an alias for MNDs in general. Instead, it's an example for an MND.
I've been telling people that cholesterol is a kind of alcohol, because -ol. Am I way off?
"Although the term "lipid" is sometimes used as a synonym for fats, fats are a subgroup of lipids called triglycerides"
It looks like sometimes people refer to triglycerides and cholesterol together as "fat", and other times say triglycerides in particular are "fat".