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Good & Bad
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Cholesterol
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overwhelmed by that sinking feeling that, “Oh no, it’s the same old stuff again” (and most of them will of course use the same word Tim did in place of “stuff”).
.....But hey, I urge you to give me your attention for a few more paragraphs because even if you think you know everything there is to know about “cholesterol”, even the” same old stuff” is perhaps the most important health issue you will read this year and if you pay it adequate attention, it might just save your life.
.....To start, for a number of reasons, I dislike the term “cholesterol.” Rather, for me, the much more appropriate (and accurate) word to use is “lipids” as cholesterol is just one of several lipids (or fatty substances) you should worry about, and by no means is cholesterol the worst.
.....What I am about to cover here, then, is lipids, and I warn you right off the top that a lot of experts disagree with some of my views, so you will have to figure out for yourself whether they’re right or whether I am.
.....I believe that early in adult life, everyone should get a blood test of their lipid profile consisting of a total cholesterol count, as well as a measure of the levels of LDL (the so-called “bad” cholesterol), |
.....A few years ago, my son was watching me practice the standard talk I give on how to live a healthy lifestyle (I’m an obsessive, so even though I’ve given various versions of this talk hundreds of times so that I can probably give it word-for-word at 3 AM while completely asleep, something my wife claims that I occasionally do when I’m restless, I still practice it aloud every time I have a new speaking gig), so unbeknownst to me, my son had probably heard me go over this very same material many times prior to that occasion (to be honest, up to that point, I had just assumed, as every parent does, that my son never actually pays attention to anything I say but rather immediately tunes me out as soon as he sees my lips moving).
.....After about 3 minutes of listening to me, my son slowly shook his head and muttered as he walked away with a sneer, “Just like Victor Borge, man.”
.....“Oh,” I smiled. “You mean I’m consistently funny?”
.....“No, man,” he shrugged. “It’s the same old stuff every time”, although I must admit that I’ve done some judicious editing (this is a family publication, after all) and replaced the |
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word he actually used to describe what he’d heard with the more appropriate word “stuff”.
 .....The reason that anecdote has come back to me today is that my Peoples Drug Mart editor’s assignment to me this month is “cholesterol,” and as soon as I heard that, it occurred to me that most readers who see the title for this article will immediately be |
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WHERE PEOPLE COME
FIRST
