Office Hours: Cholesterol and Heart Disease — What I’ve Changed My Mind About

The podcast addresses the outdated approach to heart disease, particularly the focus on lowering cholesterol at all costs. It challenges the conventional wisdom that high LDL cholesterol is the primary cause of heart attacks, noting that many heart attack patients have normal LDL levels. The discussion highlights the importance of considering inflammation and metabolic dysfunction, especially insulin resistance, as key drivers of heart disease. Dr. Hyman advocates for advanced testing, such as ApoB and lipoprotein fractionation, to assess the quality and quantity of cholesterol particles, and emphasizes that sugar, not fat, is the main culprit in metabolic dysfunction and related heart issues. He also shares his personal experience of gaining belly fat after consuming a high-starch diet.