I have previously posted on this topic several times over the past few years – you can read my prior posts by clicking here, here, and here. Having mentioned his film and the screening it will be having in the area (April 13th at the AMC 11 in Dartmouth – click here if you’d like to reserve tickets), I’d like now to come back to this research and discuss my latest thoughts on it.
I’m pleased to announce that on April 13th, at the AMC Dartmouth Mall 11 theater (Dartmouth Massachusetts, that is), there will be a screening of the new documentary, “The Cholesterol Code.” Tickets are on sale now for the price of $22, and can be purchased by clicking here.
Beware – the theater only seats 100, so tickets may sell out soon.
For full disclosure: I am involved in promoting the film, but make no money off of it. My involvement is simply as a labor of love, because I wish to further the interesting research behind the film.
I’ve discussed this research a bit on this blog in the past, and will have more to say on it in the future, but to summarize briefly: what happens to people who go on a low-carb diet, lose weight, dramatically improve all of their metabolic markers (such as blood glucose, blood pressure, insulin levels, and inflammatory markers) but see their cholesterol rise? Does their risk for a heart attack go up, down, or stay the same? The conventional wisdom is that high cholesterol is bad, full stop, and therefore the message from mainstream medicine has frequently been that low-carb diets are dangerous due to the rise in cholesterol that some experience. However, even accepting that high cholesterol is a risk factor for heart disease, it is a much weaker one than high blood pressure, diabetes, or about a dozen other factors, so I believe the question of whether or not low-carb diets increase cardiovascular risk is a serious question and one worthy of study. The Cholesterol Code film documents research into this fascinating area and why – even in those individuals who experience an astronomical rise in cholesterol on a low-carb diet – the effects on risk for cardiovascular disease may be a lot more nuanced than we would otherwise be led to believe.
A few key points:
The film will be shown at 7:00 pm on Monday, April 13, 2026 at the AMC Dartmouth 11 theater
The film will only be shown if a critical mass of people buy tickets (65, to be precise). If you reserve tickets and we don’t hit this critical mass, you will not be charged anything, so there is no risk to reserving tickets now
Again, I have no incentive in promoting the film other than being interested in the topic. I do not make even one penny from the proceeds.
Hope to see you there. Click below to watch the trailer.
I recently came across a paper that was published almost ten years ago (2017) but which I think is highly relevant and very interesting. But before I get into it, let me give a bit of context.
In the study, the famed Dr. Dean Ornish (who is best known for a 1990 study that used a similar intervention to reduce heart attack risk) at the University of California San Francisco took patients with early-stage dementia and divided them into a control group (who didn’t do anything in particular) and a study group who received an intensive lifestyle intervention that consisted of:
A low-fat vegan diet
Regular meditation and yoga for stress reduction
Daily “cardio” type exercise
Prioritizing good quality sleep
The results after 40 weeks were that the people in the control group got worse (as expected), whereas in the people receiving the intervention, 46% improved and 37% stabilized on a series of cognitive tests. Put another way, 83% of people doing the lifestyle program did a lot better than the people not doing the lifestyle program.
I haven’t written yet about the new weight loss medications that are sweeping through society (Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro, Zepbound, etc) but that’s not for lack of experience with them. Patients frequently ask me about these medications and yes – I do sometimes prescribe them. Given that interest in these medications is only growing, I thought it was about time to create a blog post on the topic.
