The Cholesterol Code

Heart disease, still the single leading cause of death, the number one killer.

The number one killer in the U.S.

We're spending so much money, and yet the outcomes are all worse.

Heart disease has become the most frequent cause of death.

Cardiovascular ailments continue to take American lives.

You can reduce the risk of heart attack.

Eat a diet low in cholesterol and saturated fats.

We're still taught that high-fat diets cause heart disease because they raise LDL cholesterol.

We would talk about cholesterol being bad, higher cholesterol, we're going to clog your vein.

Is that what we should be focusing on the most?

And I think no, it absolutely is not.

The only reason to focus on cholesterol is because we have drugs.

There's no other reason.

More drugs, more illnesses, and it's not working.

It's a broad failure of the medical system, I think.

It's just the paradigm is wrong.

You go to the medical literature, it's all on flimsy data based off of a sick population.

Cholesterol was not a good predictor of who's going to have a heart attack.

Now is our chance.

This one study could change everything.

These people could finally help us crack the code.

I'm sorry, that's not ethical.

Incredibly reckless, no regard for human life.

I feel like I've underestimated the win that's in front of us.

If we think high LDL in everybody is equally concerning, if that's wrong,

then we've been wrong for a very long time.

All over the world, people are looking for ways to live a healthier life,

free from medication and disease.

I have traveled so many places to get some of these stories from people like me.

People have suffered, sometimes for decades, with chronic illness.

And then, in what seems like a miracle, a simple change in diet turns it all around.

My symptoms all improved dramatically.

Many people lowering or getting off medication, finding relief from pain.

It really did change my life.

It literally felt like the lights had come on.

They have hope again, life again.

So many people have found their solution in a ketogenic diet.

I was surprised at first that just changing my diet had such a night and day effect on my mental health.

There's new hope for the reversal of mental illness.

It's almost like a different existence.

The resolution of eating disorders.

I had never been able to go that long without eating or without, like, obsessing about it and thinking about it.

The reversal of type 2 diabetes and safe management of type 1.

Because diabetes is completely under control.

It just looks healthy.

Every day is just a better day.

There is hope.

And that is what I want everyone to know.

That was my story, and it's a story I've seen tens of thousands of times.

I wish the story ended here.

A new report from the Americans.

The American Heart Association is shedding light on the risks associated with some popular eating plans.

The problem is, modern medicine believes that ketogenic diets can also kill us.

These diets that were very low in carbohydrates raised the risk for bad

cholesterol, and that is a risk factor for heart disease.

If you have that much fat, the bad cholesterol goes up, increasing your risk of heart problems.

There's an assumption that if someone starts a ketogenic diet, automatically you

increase your risk of heart disease, and that really is unfounded.

Most people on keto see little change in their cholesterol.

But surprisingly, it's the leanest, healthiest individuals who can see their levels go up a lot.

The cholesterol went through the roof.

My LDL is way up.

It was the highest I've seen it.

It was in the best shape I've ever been in, yet one lab number was saying that this was bad.

I just knew how good I felt when I was low carb, but I did freak out a little.

I was really afraid.

I was really scared.

Modern medicine believes there's no debate.

These people are a heart attack waiting to happen.

LDL cholesterol causes heart disease and stroke.

LDL cholesterol is causative without a doubt.

LDL causes heart disease without question.

You have more heart attacks and more strokes.

A lot of times LDL is described as though it is the disease.

If you have high LDL, it's as good as if you already have heart disease or at least that it's right around the corner.

But what if modern medicine is wrong?

We like to see your heart on three dimensions.

What if this isn't a medical problem but a scientific opportunity?

We have the anterior descending artery here.

Why not just go ahead and study these folks?

That's one of the fascinating things about Dave.

He's an outsider who came in and is starting to sort of upend medicine.

My story began when I saw my own cholesterol skyrocket on this diet,

and I became obsessed with finding out why.

But I'm not a medical professional.

I've gathered hundreds of blood tests, and I track everything I consume,

but I don't work for a lab.

I've authored peer-reviewed papers to share these discoveries.

With that diet piece coming, tell us more about it.

And now I'm spearheading a highly controversial research study with a team

of doctors and PhDs across multiple institutions.

But I'm not a trained researcher.

I'm an engineer, chasing this medical mystery around the world and seeking an

answer for the countless individuals who rely on ketogenic diets for their health.

I need for what they're experiencing to tell the story for us.

And that's what's exciting, getting to see how different each of the locations are,

but yet how common a phenomenon is.

This isn't to say the ketogenic diet is a panacea.

It's not for everyone.

It's certainly not for every medical condition, but for some medical conditions

and for some individuals, it seems to be a lifeline.

And yet they have this one problem.

They see this extraordinary increase in their LDL cholesterol.

Why not just go ahead and find out?

Are they at a higher risk?

He's throwing strikes.

We really need to have an answer, not just for the adults, but also for the

children, who might have a medical reason to be on a very low-carbohydrate diet.

And they deserve it from us.

91.

Worldwide, the leading causes of death are chronic diseases.

You already know these well.

Heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, Alzheimer's, and kidney disease.

A key driver of most chronic diseases is chronically elevated Insulin.

And a major contributor to chronically elevated Insulin is the overconsumption of sugar and refined carbohydrates.

Ketogenic diets, often referred to as keto, restrict carbohydrates to less than 5% of daily calories.

They include high amounts of healthy fats and a moderate amount of protein.

Studies on keto diets show that they can reduce Insulin, normalize blood sugar,

promote weight loss, and restore metabolic health.

And yet every physician I've met on this journey was taught that keto diets cause high cholesterol.

And high cholesterol causes the number one killer, heart disease.

Just cholesterol is bad.

It causes heart diseases.

We would talk about cholesterol being bad.

Higher cholesterol is going to clog your veins.

The assumption was just, well, everyone knows that cholesterol is a problem, enough said.

But what is cholesterol?

Cholesterol is an essential molecule found in every cell in the human body.

We cannot live without it.

In fact, whatever cholesterol we don't get from the foods we eat, our liver will make on its own.

And the liver is not alone.

Nearly every cell in the human body can synthesize cholesterol.

Cholesterol is essential for building your cell membranes.

It also helps your liver make bile, which is needed to digest the foods you eat.

Cholesterol also plays a starring role in the central nervous

system, ensuring your brain communicates well with your body.

It also helps synthesize vitamin D, which supports your immune system,

and sex hormones like testosterone and estrogen.

So if every cell in our bodies needs cholesterol and we can't live without it,

how did it become the villain of modern medicine?

Well, here's an interesting fact.

Most studies that show an association between elevated cholesterol and heart

disease are looking at general populations who are, let's face it, generally unhealthy.

There was a recent study that showed 93% of the American population has suboptimal metabolic health.

93%.

So then the question becomes, well, would that same evidence translate to a

metabolically healthy population or a population who's in ketosis?

And we don't have that evidence, right?

That population has not been studied.

What if we back out high Insulin?

What if we back out obesity, diabetes, prediabetes?

What if we take a look at healthy people and see if cholesterol matters the same?

What if high cholesterol and healthy people on a keto diet is telling us a different story?

This is the kind of thing I like to eat eating or this.

Now, you might be like, huh, how many photos of food do you have?

Good question.

About, I don't know, this many.

I've been pretty much a nerd my whole life, and I liked playing with Legos.

I liked reading comic books.

I liked playing video games.

I liked playing around with programs and writing little games for myself and my friends.

I liked building things.

I remember I really impressed myself.

I really impressed my dad one time because I built a transmission for a Lego car.

And it was fun.

Just the building and constructing of things is enjoyable.

But here's one of the things about all engineers.

We actually spend more time taking things apart.

I've been taking photographs of my food and a lot of these metrics for coming on to eight years and a couple months.

I'd just always be sure that my hand was in the shot.

But usually I'd have like my fist nearby so I could get a sense of volume.

Why do you do this?

I wanted to track all my food so that I had the data to match with the bloodwork I

do and have a perfect record of everything I've consumed.

How many photos has Dave taken of you versus food?

Well, I think if anybody looked through their phone, they'd think that something

was very, very off because there are far more pictures of his food, his food and his fist.

I even have a lot of gestures.

While the hand encloses what's showing up shot after shot, I actually have some things like this gesture.

What this means is I decided to start eating two hot dogs without a bun,

but an open hand means that I stopped, and that's because these hot dogs were gross.

Being the engineering geek that he is, he just has a different way of thinking

that maybe somebody who spent their entire life in medicine than how they would think in their thought process.

The more I could take things apart and see how they worked on the inside,

the more I became fascinated, and nowhere did I become more fascinated than with code, with programming.

As early as I can remember, I loved software.

Eventually, I'd be writing my own code, starting businesses and building platforms with teams of engineers.

I loved technology, and technology loved me back, but it came at a cost.

Like my fellow developers, my diet was terrible, and my blood work was showing

higher and higher glucose levels, suggesting I was developing diabetes,

like most of my family.

Finally, in 2015, I decided to do something about it.

The low carb diet was steadily rising in popularity, especially for treating diabetes, which made a lot of sense to me.

And when I cut back on carbohydrates, it worked.

Not only did my blood sugar come down, I dropped 30 pounds, my energy levels

increased, my sleep improved, my running improved.

Everything got better.

Except one thing.

One thing that could not be ignored.

I remember that day like it was yesterday.