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Why Are We So Scared of Salt?

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Over the past several decades, the general consensus of health professionals has been to recommend that all people lower their salt intake. Without the recognition of the effects of lifestyle and dietary choice differences, this avalanche of low salt advice hit the general public and as a direct result many became ill. Differences in individual genetic, lifestyle, and dietary factors have completely been ignored in the broad-brush campaign for lowering salt intake. Today, it is unmistakably obvious that a large segment of the population followed the low salt regimen with disastrous consequences.

The professionals who first introduced and propagated the low salt diets had good intentions. They did not know any better. Now we do know better and there is no excuse for not revising a failed treatment regimen in the face of new countervailing evidence. The process of correction needs to begin on a large scale. My work is part of this very much needed correction.

Why Are We Scared of Salt?

In the 1960’s, scientific studies linked salt consumption to hypertension and obesity. I am not quite sure why it was salt they picked on as “enemy number one.” I suspect the reason was the proliferation of precooked and canned food, all of which were salt preserved. To me, it was not logical that only salt was picked on. There were many other dangerous food items that could have been singled out: sugar, margarine, preservatives, pesticides, etc. The American Heart Association still has some of these salt reduction articles on their website. Even today, when waiting for an appointment at my medical institution, the forever-on TV was showing how to cut salt out of kids’ daily lunch to be “healthy.” Indeed, once something is ingrained in our brains, it is habit forming. Habits are very hard to break, particularly when the medical research relied upon showed that salt is something dangerous that may kill you.

Is Salt or Sugar the Enemy?

The problem is that hypertension and obesity are not and have never ever been caused by salt! They are caused by sugar—I am saving the sugar discussion for my next article.

Why not salt? Consider: human fetuses are floating in salt water and are typically not born with heart attack or hypertension. Our bodies are made of over 7% salt, our brains, heart, and all of our cells use salt to function. Humans have always consumed salt. Do they all have hypertension and heart attacks? No, they don’t. In fact, for some time now, studies have been surfacing suggesting that reduced salt does not eliminate the chances for hypertension and heart attack but may even contribute to the problem.

It is scientifically irresponsible to analyze biological processes in the human body involving salt without accounting for the effects of sugar and sugar substitutes and the amount of water consumed.

Probably not many of you have the handbook “Harrison’s Manual of Medicine” (18th edition McGraw Hill Medical by Longo et al.,) but I do. Page 4

…serum Na+ [sodium] falls by 1.4 mM for every 100-mg.dL increase in glucose, due to glucose-induced H2O efflux from cells.

Let me explain this sentence for you: Sodium is part of salt. Salt is Sodium (Na+) and Chloride (Cl-) where the + and – represent the ionic state in which there is either one extra or one fewer electron (electrons have negative charge) and so the atom is looking for another atom it can attach to and form a bond creating a molecule. According to the medical handbook, Na+ drops if glucose, which is blood sugar, increases. If you eat glucose, it causes “H2O efflux from cells” which means that sugar attracts water to the point that it pulls it out of the cells, thereby emptying the cells of sodium, and thus, the cells are dehydrated.

Sugar causes a very serious problem that can result in hypertension and heart attack. The volume of blood inside the cells reduces by dehydration of the sugar and higher pressure is required to pass the dehydrated blood to traverse the same route and be able to oxygenate organs at the same rate as hydrated blood cells. Think of a water hose when suddenly the pressure drops (unfortunately we cannot replicate reduced water molecule size the same way dehydrated cells become smaller). You instinctively squeeze the hose end to increase pressure so the water can continue to reach to the same distance. You have just given a hypertension to your water hose!

Note that if sodium (page 3 in same book) falls below 135 mmol/L, it is an electrolyte abnormality whose symptoms include “nausea, vomiting, confusion, lethargy, and disorientation”; if Na+ falls below 120 mmol/L it is a life threatening emergency that may cause “seizures, central herniation, coma, or death.” Not having enough salt (sodium) in the body is called hyponatremia and is “primarily a disorder of H2O homeostasis” meaning too much water and not enough salt. In common parlance, this is called water toxicity. Water toxicity can be caused by drinking too much water—e.g. drinking only water.

Interestingly, in the same book under the section of hypertension (page 834-835), the causes of hypertension are listed. Increased salt (or sodium) is not mentioned at all, but glucose intolerance is. However, under treatment, on page 836, it recommends lifestyle modifications that include lowering salt intake. So increased salt did not cause hypertension but lowering will cure it? I do not understand. Do you? Seems the authors of even this highly respected medical reference book could not escape the fallacy of the low salt campaign. Hypertension is clearly listed to be caused by sugar under the causes. So for heaven’s sake, if something is caused by sugar, treat it with removing sugar from our diet and not salt.

Confusion in the Ranks

In recent years a major fight started between the academic groups, not-for-profit organizations, and the government. Test after test shows that earlier hypotheses were all wrong about salt. Not only is added salt not hurting us, reduced salt does. Even the American Heart Association (AHA) and other heart organizations are in complete confusion. Next to the article of “lower your salt for health” are articles saying “that is all wrong and increase your salt.” I find this kind of funny. Here is an article from the AHA suggesting to increase salt. Here is another from the HealthAffairs organization; one from the American Journal of Hypertension, one from the Journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges, and there are now dozens more proving that indeed, reduced salt is actually bad for you.

How Bad is Reduced Salt on Health?

This particular article is my favorite because it shows how bad reduced salt diets really are on the heart. In detail, for a healthy individual reduced salt diet reduces BP by 1% (that means your systolic BP of 120 just dropped to oh my 118.5!!! gasp) and in patients with hypertension it reduced their BP by 3.5% (that is if it is say 160 systolic, which is high, it is reduced by a whopping 5.6 to 154.4! gasp again) but at the same time triglycerides, which contains the accurate measure of the sticky type of bad cholesterol in the LDL increased by 7% in people with hypertension (triglyceride should be less than 149). So if an individual with hypertension and triglyceride levels at 150 went on a low salt diet, that low salt diet would increase their triglycerides by 10.5 to 160.5, which is a significant jump for bad cholesterol. In a healthy individuals, the triglycerides jumped by 2.5%. Armed with such details, do you still believe that salt is bad for you?

Which Would You Rather Eat?

If I handed you 2 teaspoons: one was full of table sugar and the other full of table salt, which would you chose? For taste, we all would choose the sugar. What happens to our salt levels when we eat sugar? Refer back to the Harrison’s Medical Manual I mentioned earlier: eating glucose drops salt in our body because it sucks up all water and dehydrates. Eating a teaspoon of sugar will effectively dehydrate you and put you at risk of hyponatremia. By contrast, what will happen if you chose the teaspoon of salt? You will be thirsty, drink a couple of glasses of water and will feel like you are on top of the world.

My Recommendation

Stop being scared of salt and start being scared of sugar!

Sources

Longo et al., Harrison’s Manual of Medicine; 18th Edition, 2013; McGraw Hill Medicine

We Need Your Help

More people than ever are reading Hormones Matter, a testament to the need for independent voices in health and medicine. We are not funded and accept limited advertising. Unlike many health sites, we don’t force you to purchase a subscription. We believe health information should be open to all. If you read Hormones Matter, like it, please help support it. Contribute now.

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This article was first published on June 13, 2015.

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Do Statins Induce Atherosclerosis and Heart Failure?

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Statins are some of the most popularly prescribed medications on the market with 1 in 4 Americans taking statin drugs (2011). Do they work? To read the read the early reports statins were wonder drugs, capable of reducing heart attack and extending lifespan with few side effects. No need to change one’s diet or lifestyle, simply take a statin and live longer.

Over the years, the statin market has expanded to include kids as young as 8 years old: “statin therapy is considered first-line treatment for pediatric patients with abnormal lipid levels.” When combined with our love affair with vaccines, the latest proposal includes a cholesterol vaccine for children at risk for heart disease. And since 75% of Americans are still not heeding the anti-cholesterol warning, intense industry lobbying successfully changed the risk equation for statin prescriptions, immediately expanding the market potential by millions more Americans and billions of additional revenue.

Statins for Health – Maybe Not

With 1 and 4 Americans taking statins and cholesterol levels presumably controlled to within the designated healthy ranges, one might expect a concomitant reduction in heart disease and heart disease related mortality across the population. One would be wrong. Despite controlling cholesterol, Americans are as unhealthy as ever, living with increasingly more chronic diseases and dying at higher rates than ever before. Is it possible we were wrong about the relationship between cholesterol and heart function? Is it possible in our exuberance to offer simple solutions to complex disease processes we have been exacerbating the very conditions we seek to treat? Indeed, it is.

Over the last several years, a growing body of evidence suggests that statins are not only not the wonder drugs we had hoped for, but instead, may be quite dangerous, especially for women. Statins induce diabetes (a major contributor to the metabolic dysfunction implicated in coronary artery disease), increase atherogenesis (the buildup fatty plaques responsible for coronary artery disease), and damage mitochondria, an effect that is exacerbated by exercise. As a result, and in non-industry sponsored studies, statin use is associated with higher rates of all-cause mortality, cancer, heart attack, stroke, than non-statin use. Yikes.

Cholesterol Blues

Just how statins induce such negative effects is linked, in large part, to their primary purpose, cholesterol reduction. We need cholesterol. Cholesterol – fat, forms the structure of all cell membranes. We need healthy cell membranes. Fatty acids provide fuel for the production of mitochondrial energy – ATP. ATP is required for all cell functions. Cholesterol is the primary ingredient for steroid hormone synthesis. Steroid hormones regulate everything from reproduction to heart function to central nervous system activity. We need healthy steroid hormone systems. And if those aren’t reasons enough to reconsider cholesterol, the brain needs cholesterol. Reduce the cholesterol in the brain and brain activity deranges, as evidenced by the increasing recognition of statin induced psychiatric and cognitive sequelae. When we reduce cholesterol artificially, we diminish the functioning of every cell in the body by multiple mechanisms.

Cholesterol and Heart Attack

What about the link between high cholesterol and heart attacks? Isn’t it the cholesterol that causes the plaques that block our arteries and cause all sorts of problems? And, aren’t our high fat, high cholesterol diets to blame for this build up? Perhaps not, and especially for women. According to our good friend Kelly Brogan, atherosclerotic plaques and heart disease represent a ‘multi-factorial inflammatory problem with disparate drivers in different people.’ The latest research suggests that these plaques are ‘not merely the passive accumulation of lipids within artery walls‘ but rather represent oxidative stress (mitochondrial damage) with incessant immune mediated inflammatory signals driven by dietary and other factors. This makes sense when we consider that 90% of first time cardiac events can be prevented with dietary and other lifestyle changes and diet and lifestyle effect mitochondrial functioning significantly (the mitochondria drive inflammation).

The most recent research on diet and nutrition suggests diets high in empty calories, carbohydrates and sugars and low in fat are to blame for heart disease, not the high fat diets we have all been taught to avoid. It should be noted, however, that the relationship between fat and health is complex. Too much or too little impairs mitochondrial functioning.

But Wait, There’s More

A research group out of Japan has gone so far as to claim that statins are not only dangerous for the reasons stated above, but statins induce the very diseases they are promoted to protect against. In their most recent publication, Statins Stimulate Atherosclerosis and Heart Failure: Pharmacological Mechanisms, the researchers boldly argue that:

“statins may be causative in coronary artery calcification and can function as mitochondrial toxins that impair muscle function in the heart and blood vessels through the depletion of coenzyme Q10 and ‘heme A’, and thereby ATP generation.”

In English – statins block a whole bunch of important chemical reactions that induce coronary artery disease where there was none before. They argue, rather persuasively, that statins cause the very disease process that they are promoted to prevent. Whoa.

According to this research group, statins create the environment where fatty plagues grow and thrive. They derail our innate mechanisms to clear those plaques by damaging the mitochondria and, in so doing, damage the very foundation of cell function: mitochondrial energy (ATP) production. Without functioning mitochondria (which we have written about on many occasions), cell damage and cell death occur. With enough damage, tissue and organ damage ensue, and complex multifaceted disease processes develop. Mitochondria are the engines of health. ATP is the fuel. No fuel, no function. Statins damage the engine and block the fuel line.

What’s Worse?

Statins are frequently co-prescribed with Metformin (gluocophage) to reduce glucose in Type 2 diabetes. Metformin damages mitochondria and reduces ATP production even further (more on this in a subsequent post). Combined, these two drugs set the stage for chronic disease and increase the need for additional medications that will also damage mitochondria; a rabbit hole that is not easily climbed out of unless one is willing to look beyond the medical model. Remember, one of the largest global studies on heart health found that 90% of first time cardiac events in men can be prevented with dietary and other lifestyle changes, 94% in women. Diet and lifestyle. Sit with that for a moment. Diet and lifestyle changes are all that are needed for most people to prevent heart attack. Diet and lifestyle.

We Need Your Help

More people than ever are reading Hormones Matter, a testament to the need for independent voices in health and medicine. We are not funded and accept limited advertising. Unlike many health sites, we don’t force you to purchase a subscription. We believe health information should be open to all. If you read Hormones Matter, like it, please help support it. Contribute now.

Yes, I would like to support Hormones Matter.

This article was published originally on June 10, 2015.

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Statins: Who Needs Them?

I was asked by several people to write about statins. There is much confusing information about what they are, what

The Misguided Battle Against Dietary Fat and Cholesterol

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I was at my medical provider the other day waiting for my turn for an MRI test. I shared the lobby with over 100 people. As I looked around, for the first time I noticed something odd. About 80% of the people in the lobby were overweight. I found a seat, the only seat. It was a single small seat. Most of the seats now are double sized to allow the obese to sit. I am claustrophobic and was concerned about this on my way to the MRI machine. The nurse gave me a wink and smile and we walked into the room. I was nailed to the floor. I have never seen anything like this though I have been in MRIs many times before.

I recall having been pushed into a narrow tube many times before where I could not lift a hand, usually dimly lit with some wind blowing in my face and a terribly loud echoing hammering as the image slices were taken. Yet here I was, glided silently into an MRI machine that was almost big enough for me to sit up in. “Ah the benefits of having obese people” I thought as I entered this brightly lit giant tube that was so wide that even the noise was reduced, lacking the echo we all are familiar with and hate. The radiologist told me that all MRI scanners are being replaced. As I was scanned for 45 minutes, I had no claustrophobia at all and not too much noise to block my thinking. The time gave me a chance to pause about the obesity epidemic: how did we get here? Why are entire new industries created to cater to our new weight rather than help us become healthy? Why are so many of us overweight to begin with? What has gone wrong?

Coincidentally, for unrelated reasons, I was already researching the nutritional recommendations of the USDA for the past several months; reading all of the books and academic research papers available to me. The USDA recommendations sparked my interest because I run a migraine group full of glucose intolerant migraineurs. I merely wanted an answer to why migraineurs (like me) are glucose intolerant, when I came across the huge nutritional boxing ring with major academic fights in this arena. The real science was hid, even by the NIH, unpublished.

The obesity epidemic starts with the theory of Ancel Keys who in the mid 20th Century US decided that coronary heart disease (CHD) was the most important thing to focus on (Eisenhower just had a heart attack). He found support for his hypothesis that high cholesterol is caused by high dietary fat—in particular saturated animal fats—and those with high cholesterol will most certainly have CHD, will flip and die very soon. His findings were dubious at best, but still garnered support (Ancel Keys – Seven Countries Study)

Researchers all over the world presented conflicting evidence but they were not only not able to publish these data in reputable academic journals, they were ostracized for even trying. Eventually so many scientists lost their reputation as a result of trying to fight Keys’ hypothesis that many left academia or changed fields of research and gave up (1-3).

Nina Teicholz spent eight years digging up files never published and hidden in the archives of the NIH (3). The reason for not publishing? The findings did not support Keys’ theories. It was assumed that the results had to have been wrong and therefore could not be published. In scientific research the role of science is to try to refute the theory by proving it wrong. In the case of Keys’ theory, the law of science changed: a theory was accepted as truth and no one could publish anything unless they found supporting evidence to THAT theory. Thus, science moved backwards and has effectively stalled for decades where cholesterol and fat are concerned.

When nutrition research began in the early 20th Century, we did not have the all of the tools available that we have today. Today we know that cholesterol is not made from fat at all but from Acetyl CoA and Acetoacetyl CoA (source). So if cholesterol is not made from fat, what is the connection of eating saturated fat to CHD? Nothing actually—today we know but shhhhh… this still cannot be said loud!

Cholesterol Is Made from Acetyl CoA and Acetoacetyl CoA, Not Fat

Cholesterol is made from two molecules in a total of about 39 hard steps by our liver (or we can eat it like egg yolks). Would our body go through such hard work of creating something if it ended up causing our death? It is not even plausible that human evolution would have supported such counter mechanism.

A Primer on Metabolism

Acetyl CoA is

“an important biochemical molecule in cellular respiration. It is produced in the second step of aerobic respiration after glycolysis [the breakdown of glucose (think carbohydrates) by enzymes, releasing energy and pyruvic acid] and carries the carbon atoms of the acetyl group to the TCA cycle [Krebs cycle which is a chemical reaction used by all aerobic organisms] to be oxidized for energy production” (source)

and Acetoacetyl CoA is

“intermediate in the oxidation of fatty acids [fats] and in the formation of ketone bodies [fat burning energy bodies]” (source).

Note that neither is a fat but they together form fat (cholesterol) by oxidation. Cholesterol is a lipid (a naturally occurring molecule like fats, waxes, steroids, fat-soluble vitamins like vitamins A, D, E, and K, and also triglycerides). Triglycerides are ester derived from glycerol and three fatty acids – body fat, phospholipids (a major component of all cell membranes), and many other types of lipids. The main biological functions of lipids (such as cholesterol) are storing energy, signaling, and acting as structural components of cell membranes.

It is not the matter of eating fat and oops we now have cholesterol; rather it is a matter of “we must have cholesterol to survive.”

Where do these elements come from in the body to create cholesterol?

As noted above: carbohydrates (glucose is a carbohydrate) and an element that is an intermediate step in oxidizing fatty acid combined create cholesterol, which “then enters the citric acid cycle in the mitochondria…” (source) Note the key word here: carbohydrates. This is important because the “health-heart” movement of Ancel Keys’ “fat causes high cholesterol” is clearly not true if cholesterol is made from carbohydrates and not a fat. How did we end up thinking that cholesterol is made from fat? It certainly is fat but clearly is not made from fat.

Why do we need cholesterol?

Cholesterol is used by our mitochondria (not what we eat but what our mitochondria needs to create energy ATP). (source)

How much cholesterol is needed and what happens when we reduce cholesterol?

You would think that these questions were asked over the 80+ years but no reputable scientist dared asking. The moment such question was asked, the sticker “black sheep” went up the forehead so researchers just let it go. Thus we have no idea how much cholesterol we actually need. Everyone needs a different level: the thought that a 30-year old 7-foot-tall male Marathon runner needs the same cholesterol level as a little old lady, aged 95, in a wheelchair is just preposterous. Clearly each person needs a different level based on mitochondrial respiration intensity and frequency, which is age, gender, and activity related. A cookie-cutter approach just cannot work. What happens when we reduce cholesterol? As noted above, cholesterol stores energy, it is a signaling agent, and acts as structural components of cell membranes among other things. If we reduce cholesterol, we effectively reduce our body functions.

The Combustible Vegetable Oils

Since it was decided that fat creates cholesterol and thus saturated fats had to be removed from everyone’s diet, the research was about how to make vegetable oils, unsaturated or polyunsaturated, edible and digestible (the kind flies won’t eat in your garage). Hydrogenation could only produce dangerous fats, such as hydrogenated vegetable oils (trans fats) or partially hydrogenated vegetable oils, both of which were said to have randomly combusted in delivery trucks while being taken for cleaning and also while taken back to the restaurants after cleaning. Apparently the fumes vegetable oils create settle in the clothing (and the lungs of the chefs) and even after professional cleaning are still capable to burst into flame without any provocation (3). These vegetable oils have polyunsaturated fats that have the unfortunate “poly” (multiple) bonds. These bonds break easily, transforming fats into ugly sticky goo and free radicals. This goo replaces animal fats in human mitochondria, blocking the mitochondria from creating energy.

This makes a lot of sense: fats in vegetable oils are not the same chemical components as fats in animal bodies. There is a huge difference in how they work and to what they bond. Animal fats become energized by thermal heat referred to as internal combustion whereas vegetables use external energy (the sun) and in heat they disintegrate, oxidize, and become goo. They chemically change from being fats to something that cannot be used by the human body as fats (4). Olive oil does not combust but at higher temperatures oxidize, creating free radicals.

Fat provides a lot of energy, 9 Calories per gram as opposed to carbohydrates and proteins, each producing only 4 Calories per gram. This implies that by removing fat calories from our diet, a very large part of the daily calories needed to be made up by something other than fat. Since protein also contained fat (saturated fat in particular), the Food Pyramid and later “My Plate” both reduced the protein amount as well. Thus, what we were left with was increased carbohydrates in our diets. However, as noted above, carbohydrates are part of cholesterol creation. This has become a catch 22 that no one in the “heart-health” supporter group accepted or did not see or decided to ignore because it was too complex or decided to ignore because then they too would become black sheep.

The Catch 22

Perhaps most the most striking aspect of this misunderstanding, is that if we follow the steps, we inadvertently increase the very diseases that we would like to avoid. By increasing carbohydrate intake, we’re increasing cholesterol and inducing metabolic disorders.

reduce cholesterol ==> reduce fats ==> increase carbohydrates ==> increase cholesterol

So here we are today, 80+ years later. Today the Western Diet world has a nightmare of metabolic disorders to fight. Where do metabolic disorder lead to? CHD of course, the very thing Ancel Keys wanted to rid the society from. However, there is more to it than that.

Carbohydrates have some nasty properties—both simple and complex carbohydrates do:

  1. They are addictive; eight times more than cocaine or heroin (5, 6)
  2. Grains (complex carbohydrates we eat the most of) release morphine (7), another drug
  3. Carbohydrates spike insulin and create insulin resistance (8-10)
  4. Insulin in the blood makes us hungry
  5. The more carbohydrates we eat, the more insulin we release and the hungrier we get
  6. Insulin resistance turns into type 2 diabetes
  7. People with type 2 diabetes are at an increased risk of CHD
  8. Carbohydrates create triglycerides, the type of cholesterol that is know to cause CHD (11)

And so now not only are we back at trying to prevent CHD, where we started 80+ years ago, but we also have massive metabolic disorder epidemic and new diseases, such as cancer, that also appear to be connected to high carbohydrate consumption.

Yet, to this day, the nutrition guideline of the USDA for the American population, now called My Plate, does not even include dietary fat! I challenge you to find a baby food with more than 1% fat in it; babies are only eating carbohydrates.

Luckily there is a new movement toward a healthy diet that goes under a couple of different names: Low Carbohydrate High Fat (LCHF) or ketogenic diet. These types of diets are used now therapeutically for many health conditions; health conditions we could probably prevent if we simply added saturated animal fats back into our diet and dumped all that sugar and grain.

Sources

  1. Taubes G (2008) Good Calories, Bad Calories: Fats, Carbs, and the Controversial Science of Diet and Health (Anchor).
  2. Taubes G (2011) Why We Get Fat: And What to Do About It (Anchor) Reprint edition December 27, 2011 Ed p 288.
  3. Teicholz N (2015) The Big Fat Surprise: Why Butter, Meat and Cheese Belong in a Healthy Diet (Simon & Schuster; Reprint edition, New York) p 496.
  4. Browner WS, Westenhouse J, & Tice JA (1991) What if americans ate less fat?: A quantitative estimate of the effect on mortality. JAMA 265(24):3285-3291.
  5. Ahmed SH, Guillem K, & Vandaele Y (2013) Sugar addiction: pushing the drug-sugar analogy to the limit. Current Opinion in Clinical Nutrition & Metabolic Care 16(4):434-439.
  6. Lenoir M, Serre F, Cantin L, & Ahmed SH (2007) Intense Sweetness Surpasses Cocaine Reward. PLoS ONE 2(8):e698.
  7. Perlmutter D & Loberg K (2014) Grain Brain: The Surprising Truth About Wheat, Carbs, and Sugar – Your Brain’s Silent Killers (Hodder & Stoughton).
  8. DiNicolantonio JJ & Lucan SC (2014) The wrong white crystals: not salt but sugar as aetiological in hypertension and cardiometabolic disease. Open Heart 1(1):e000167.
  9. Schaefer EJ, Gleason JA, & Dansinger ML (2009) Dietary Fructose and Glucose Differentially Affect Lipid and Glucose Homeostasis. The Journal of Nutrition 139(6):1257S-1262S.
  10. Stanhope KL (2015) Sugar consumption, metabolic disease and obesity: The state of the controversy. Critical Reviews in Clinical Laboratory Sciences:1-16.
  11. Gandotra P & Miller M (2008) The role of triglycerides in cardiovascular risk. Current Cardiology Reports 10(6):505-511.

Graphic credit: You shall be obese (picture ©Angela A. Stanton, Ph.D.)

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Happy Ending to Migraines: The Benefits of Milk

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Raw milk migraine

Migraines and Electrolytes

In late June of 2015, I received a PM (personal message) on Facebook from a husband of a migraineur. The husband introduced himself and explained that his wife “suffered with migraines for 15 years (Oct. 2000) after hitting her head under a bathroom cabinet.” She had been through all kinds of typical migraine treatments – just about everything under the sun possible to try, including a neuronal stimulator placed in via surgery – but nothing has worked. As he was sitting in the hospital waiting for some results, he found me on Facebook and asked for help.

I have a standard questionnaire that I ask all migraineurs to fill and send the answers to me via PM so I can see what may be wrong. The first thing that hit me was that she was drinking 256 oz (32 glasses) water a day when the calculator suggested that her petite figure needed only 66 oz (just over 8 glasses) so something was terribly wrong. She also took a ton of medications, though the list he sent was already greatly reduced. Even with these medications, she suffered debilitating migraines every day.

The migraineur was Kristen Cassimatis. Her recovery was covered recently by a local television station on their news. You can watch it here: Raw milk helping woman relieve migraine pain.

What Do Electrolytes, Whole Milk, and Migraines Have in Common?

A lot actually. The very first article I published at Hormones Matter was on the importance of proper hydration to the body. Hydration is not water but a mix of electrolyte minerals with water, of which sodium and potassium (in proper balance) are the most important. An article I wrote somewhat later describes what excessive thirst means for the body and that sugar is really bad for you. Thus, if you look through some of the articles I published, you can see that a meal that is hydrating, contains no added sugar, has protein and some minimal carbs, electrolytes, and fat. Fat is good for you. I have also published several academic journal articles on the cause and treatment of migraine, based on statistical findings in the migraine group on Facebook.

I have not yet discussed fat and cholesterol in great detail but an article shall come about that in the near future. For now, since whole milk is full of saturated fat and cholesterol, I just want to mention a few important findings. It is important to note that over 70% of our brain is fat and 25% of all cholesterol in our body is found in our brain (1) in what is called the white matter where voltage transmitting axons are coated with cholesterol (myelinated). Thus, cholesterol and fat are important for us.

While there is a huge controversy over the benefit versus harm of saturated fats and cholesterol, more studies now show that saturated fats and higher levels of cholesterol are actually better for us, particularly for women. In fact, saturated fat is not associated with heart disease as suggested by many studies.

To add insult to injury, cholesterol is not actually made from fat but from acetoacetyl-CoA (2) by a 19-step process in the liver. We can choose to eat cholesterol but if we don’t eat enough, the liver has to make cholesterol. When we don’t eat cholesterol, the liver makes less cholesterol than each person’s optimal level (2). The only bad cholesterol our liver makes are triglycerides that do clog up arteries but they are made of sugar and under special circumstances. Thus, regardless in what stage studies are at now, something that every single cell is made of in our body – the membrane of each human cell is made of lipid bilayer – cannot possibly be bad for us: we are made of the stuff.

As in the story above, someone who feels the urge to drink a lot of water is usually not getting enough or the right balance of electrolytes. Moreover, the act of drinking too much water is harmful since it dilutes electrolytes. Drinking whole milk, which is full of electrolytes, on the other hand, is good for us migraineurs and others alike. Few people realize that milk is a great source of electrolytes, protein, and good cholesterol. Most of us were told from early on in our lives that milk is for cows and not people; milk is bad for us; it has puss in it; it causes puss; it makes one phlegm up; it makes us fat; it has too much fat; etc. We have been told not to drink milk, and as a result, many folks are having difficulty managing electrolyte and cholesterol balance.

I think that milk is a perfect food, assuming of course, that it is organic, whole milk, not treated with hormones and antibiotics, as in the story above. Raw milk is not legal everywhere so while drinking safe raw milk is healthier, it may not be available to everyone. Reduced fat milk does not have the benefits of whole milk and also contains added sugar and proteins that are not all that great for you. In fact, if you have no time to eat a meal, be it breakfast, lunch, or dinner, a glass of whole milk is an ideal replacement.

So, as Kristin recovered from her migraines and is also preparing to have her brain stimulator surgically removed, she joined the thousands of migraineurs who have joined our migraine community on Facebook. Enjoy Kristen’s story and join the several thousands who have been able to stop all their medicines and remained migraine free.

Sources

  1. Perlmutter D & Loberg K (2014) Grain Brain: The Surprising Truth About Wheat, Carbs, and Sugar – Your Brain’s Silent Killers (Hodder & Stoughton).
  2. Dr. Kendrick M (2007) The Great Cholesterol Con; The truth about what really causes heart disease and how to avoid it (John Blake Publishing, London, England) p 270.

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