Dr. Batman Thumbs His Nose at “Bad Cholesterol”
By Hardly Waite, Pure Water Gazette Senior News Analyst
—If all the primary ingredients are available for its normal functions, the human body does not engage in making things that are bad for its survival.–Dr. Fereydoon Batmanghelidj, M.D.
If there’s one thing medical science is incapable of, the late Dr. Robert Mendelsohn used to say, it is admitting that it doesn’t know something. That’s why every human ailment, real or imagined, very quickly gets a cause assigned to it. Causes can change quickly and be replaced by more plausible and more profitable ones, but no disease goes long without its corresponding culpable germ or human foible to explain it. Lyme Disease, I am told, had 17 successive causes before a really good one was settled upon.
Once a guilty microbe or lifestyle flaw gets assigned to a disease and thoroughly rooted into the public mind, there’s no way to change it. That’s because there quickly develops a powerful loop of self-interest that takes in the insurance industry, drug sellers, medical practitioners, university researchers, professional fundraisers, and even the victims and the would-be victims of the condition. Examples are numerous. Polio and “AIDS” are the most obvious. With “AIDS” we have an ill-defined disease caused by a fabricated virus and blown into a media-driven epidemic that has spawned a robust industry. “AIDS, Inc.,” as researcher Jon Rappoport calls it.
For a number of years one of the most sacred and seldom-challenged nuggets of medical dogma has been the idea that human heart ailments result from “bad cholesterol” and that heart disease can be kept in check by measuring this evil substance and controlling it through drugs. Although we vegetarians like to take comfort in the thought that it’s eating fatty flesh that causes human hearts and arteries to gum up and fail, I’ve never totally believed the cholesterol story. While there may be a correlation between cholesterol readings and the likelihood of having a heart attack, treating the cholesterol itself as if it were a disease is probably just one more example of the old medical strategy of shooting the messenger. Again, examples are numerous.
Medical mythology, which is fond of depicting the human body as a war zone, makes good use of the metaphorical battle between the good and evil forces within us. On one hand, we have “good” cholesterol that is there to help us, but on the other is “bad cholesterol” that is as evil as the Demon Himself. This catchy concept grabs the public attention and is easily communicated to patients. It gives the doctor something to treat with drugs, and lowering the amount of bad cholesterol while raising the good becomes the objective of treatment.
This concept has not been without its detractors. Back in the late 1960s, for example, Dr. Joseph Price put forth a very plausible alternative to the cholesterol theory in his interesting little book called Coronaries/Cholesterol/Chlorine. Dr. Price argued convincingly that heart disease was virtually unknown before the 20th century, although high-cholesterol food consumption certainly wasn’t. What was new in the 20th century, he pointed out, and what seems to parallel exactly the onset of heart problems as a major disease, is the practice of disinfecting public water supplies with chlorine.
To prove his theory, Dr. Price did an experiment with chickens and seemed to prove that chickens who eat a diet containing oleo and lots of chlorine quickly develop heart problems, while chickens eating oleo without the chlorine don’t. Price himself cautioned that no conclusion should be generalized to humans from animal research. But the theory and some of the evidence he presents are strong. Although an EPA scientist replicated some of his research and basically endorsed his findings, Price was totally ignored by the medical community.
A more recent alternative to the cholesterol theory has been presented by Dr. Fereydoon Batmanghelidj, author of the popular and thought-provoking Your Body’s Many Cries for Water.While serving time as a political prisoner in an Iranian jail, Dr. Batmanghelidj made some initial discoveries which led him to hold strong beliefs about the critical importance of water consumption. He later applied his findings to heart disease as well a wide number of degenerative diseases, pains, and ailments–asthma and arthritis, for example.
Regarding heart disease, Dr. Batmanghelidj takes the medical profession to task for ignoring the vital roles of cholesterol in the body, and he points out some obvious flaws in the cholesterol theory. “The pharmaceutical industry,” he says, “has capitalized on the slogan of ‘bad cholesterol’ and has produced toxic-to-the-body chemicals that minimally lower the level of cholesterol in the body and in the process cause liver damage to thousands of people, some who die as a result of using the medication.”
Here’s how Dr. Batmanghelidj explains the cholesterol question:
In truth, the so-called ‘bad’ cholesterol is actually far more beneficial than is appreciated. The reason for its rise in the body is because of complications caused by chronic unintentional dehydration and insufficient urine production. Dehydration produces concentrated, acidic blood that becomes even more dehydrated during its passage through the lungs before reaching the heart–because of evaporation of water in the lungs during breathing. The membranes of the blood vessels of the heart and main arteries going up to the brain become vulnerable to the shearing pressure produced by the thicker, acidic blood. This shearing force of toxic blood causes abrasions and minute tears in the lining of the arteries that can peel off and cause embolisms of the brain, kidneys and other organs. To prevent the damaged blood vessel walls from peeling, low-density (so-called ‘bad’) cholesterol coats and covers up the abrasions and protects the underlying tissue like a waterproof bandage until the tissue heals.
Dr. Batmanghelidj says, therefore, that low-density cholesterol actually performs a life saving function by compensating for the effects of dehydration. He continues:
Cholesterol is an element from which many of our hormones are made. Vitamin D is made by the body from cholesterol in our skin that is exposed to sunlight. Cholesterol is used in the insulating membranes that cover our nerve systems. There is no such a thing as bad cholesterol. If all the primary ingredients are available for its normal functions, the human body does not engage in making things that are bad for its survival. Until now we did not know water was a vital nutrient that the body needed at all times–and in sufficient quantity. Water itself–not caffeinated beverages that further dehydrate–is a better cholesterol-lowering medication than any chemical on the market. It is absolutely safe and is not harmful to the body like the dangerous medications now used.
As you can guess, Dr. Batman’s treatment for heart disease has about as much chance for immediate acceptance by the medical establishment as the idea that “AIDS” isn’t a communicable disease caused by a virus. Imagine the headline:
PHARMACEUTICALS STOCKS PLUMMET AND CLINICS CLOSE WITH NEW AMA TREATMENT PLAN–“DRINK MORE WATER”
The AMA notwithstanding, you should take a long look at Dr. Batmanghelidj’s website, where you’ll find some pretty amazing information about the importance of drinking adequate amounts of water. It’s at http://www.watercure.com/.
And don’t forget Dr. Price’s advice about chlorine. Actually the two go together, because people naturally drink much more water when it doesn’t have chlorine in it. That’s a fact I’ve been observing in practice for a long time, so I was glad to find it described nicely by a genuine Kahuna. Here’s how Lono Kahuna Kapua A’O describes the chlorine/water relationship in his book,Don’t Drink the Water (Without Reading this Book):
Doctors and patients alike have a hard time understanding the problem of dehydration because the patient doesn’t feel thirsty. But it’s erroneous to assume that anyone who is dehydrated feels thirsty. That’s because thirst is a biological response subject to the influence of conditioning. Humans instinctively dislike the taste of the chlorinated chemical beverage that passes for water in most places. As a result, they learn to avoid drinking it, substituting flavored diuretic beverages like coffee, tea, soda and beer. This causes even more water loss! Gradually, people who do this learn to turn off their thirst response and recognize thirst only when it is severe. That’s why those who drink water only when they feel thirsty are usually dehydrated!
The Gazette urges you to find a source of pure, delicious, unchlorinated water and drink copiously and immoderately.
