Just Some Final Words of Warning
I’ve had it with medical experts who advise us, on the one hand, that cholesterol will kill us, and those who advise, on the contrary, that it’s good for us.
The last straw was that story in the View section the other day by staff writer Garry Abrams about an article in the September Atlantic magazine asserting, after much research, that cholesterol doesn’t cause heart attacks, and that, in fact, cholesterol-reducing drugs can cause liver damage, cancer, gallstones, cataracts and heart attacks. (A clarification in Tuesday’s paper was not exactly reassuring.)
Enough already. Medics on either side of this question have been playing tug-of-war with us for years. More of us have probably died of anxiety about cholesterol than from its allegedly bad effects.
Not being a medical expert, and not having done any significant research on the subject, I have no right to advise anyone either to quit worrying about cholesterol or to take precautions against it. I’m only saying that I am no longer going to think about it.
I had come to this conclusion several years ago, and said so, in print; but the continual bombardment of warnings against that dread C substance had replanted the fear in my mind, and I found myself asking my doctor, “What’s my cholesterol level?”
He always gave me some figure, whose significance I didn’t comprehend, and told me not to worry about it.
Some years ago, in his book “Type A Behavior and Your Health,” Dr. Meyer Friedman (with Dr. Ray H. Rosenman) quoted me in his first paragraph:
“Some time ago, I quit worrying about what to do, or not to do, to keep from having a heart attack. I was so confused by all the conflicting theories that I began developing the symptoms.”
Dr. Friedman commented: “Mr. Smith’s irritation is justified, and he is probably speaking for many Americans. ‘Don’t smoke,’ ‘don’t eat animal fats,’ ‘eat whatever you please,’ ‘watch your weight,’ ‘obesity bears no relation to heart disease,’ ‘jog,’ ‘don’t jog’ ‘avoid cholesterol,’ ‘avoid sugar and starches,’ ‘avoid whiskey,’ ‘avoid sexual intercourse’--all those statements have been made at one time or another by physicians and researchers. Is it any wonder that some people figure none of us knows precisely what he is talking about?”
Of course, since Dr. Friedman quoted me I have had a quadruple bypass and an “arrhythmic episode” that nearly killed me. Still, nobody knows whether cholesterol or jogging (or not jogging), or sugar, or animal fats or sexual intercourse had anything to do with it.
To tell the truth, I have never known exactly what cholesterol is. It seemed to me wiser not to find out. I have no idea whether you get it from eating bacon and eggs, or chocolate ice cream, or from not jogging, or from sexual intercourse. I don’t really want to know.
Since they don’t seem to be able to make up their minds about cholesterol, I’m assuming they don’t know anything about bacon and eggs and some of the other joys of life they interdict.
Before I had my bypass I used to eat bacon and eggs almost every morning. Afterward, I gave them up. Or gave it up. (I think bacon and eggs should be treated as a singular.) Lately, though, I’ve been backsliding. I almost always order bacon and eggs (or sausage and eggs) when we have breakfast out.
One warning I do believe. Smoking kills. If I hadn’t quit smoking 25 years ago I wouldn’t be alive today. I will never start smoking again. Cancer of the lungs is such a terrible way to die.
For years I have abstained from dessert. Even when we’re attending a banquet, and some tempting dessert is served, I pass. Lately, though, I’ve been eating a chocolate and vanilla pudding (one of those that come in an individual plastic cup) before retiring. I consider this research, and I’ll report on its effects after I’ve been doing it for a significant time.
Also, I’m going back to bacon and eggs. At least until the medics make up their minds.
It is all a matter of priorities. Is longevity worth never tasting a crisp piece of bacon again? Never quaffing a glass of chilled Chardonnay? Never succumbing to the seductions of chocolate?
Of course I’ve lived a full life. I can afford to be reckless. But if I were 40 again . . .
I probably wouldn’t change a thing.
