More On Cholesterol

T James Sprott OBE 10 Combes Road

MSc PhD FNZIC Remuera

Consulting Chemist Auckland 5

Forensic Scientist NEW ZEALAND

Phone & Fax:

64-9-5231150

Cholesterol

To understand the cholesterol issue it is necessary to consider a branch of electro-chemistry known as the oxidation-reduction potential, usually referred to as the “Redox Potential”. The word “potential” in this context refers to electric potential (or voltage), and is the voltage developed between a bright platinum electrode of an electrolytic cell and a reference electrode, when the electrodes are immersed in the solution or substrate under consideration. Oxidising conditions give rise to a positive potential (voltage), whereas reducing conditions produce a negative potential. “Reducing” is the proper term for what is popularly referred to as “anti-oxidant”.

Many chemicals, and cholesterol is one of them, enter into Redox reactions. Other examples are Vitamins C and E, and lipoic acid. We hear a lot these days about “free radicals”. Free radicals can occur in two forms, oxidising and reducing, but the term free radical in popular usage means oxidising free radical. It is now realised that excess oxidising free radicals in the body are very harmful, and that the danger they pose can be ameliorated by means of antioxidants (or more correctly) reducing agents. In short, people realise unwittingly perhaps that chemically reducing conditions (anti-oxidation) promote good health. How right they are!

After many years of study as an electrochemist into “health” and the various major diseases which are so prevalent in our society and those of all industrial nations for that matter I have formulated the following proposition, which I refer to as “The Unified Theory of Health”. I might add that of recent years some other scientists, especially chemists, have arrived at the same conclusion.

The Unified Theory States:

The major illnesses, cardio-vascular disease, cancer, diabetes, gangrene etc. are not individual illnesses they are different manifestations of the same illness.

The common illness is the development of oxidising conditions in the body.

Thus the over-riding parameter which mediates health or illness is the Redox potential.

There is little point in treating the symptoms of the various diseases because allopathic (drug-based) treatment does not address the prime cause of the illness the answer is to counter the cause.

So how does cholesterol fit into this equation? Answer: cholesterol is a reducing agent, and if the body is lacking in other reducing agents cholesterol acts as one of the body’s antidotes against oxidation.

This is not as it should be, of course. The prime reducing agents are Vitamin C (ascorbic acid) and E (tocopherol) but in today’s industrial world and because of poor diet many people are chronically short of vitamins, especially Vitamin C.

The Recommended Daily Intake for Vitamin C as published by many regulatory bodies such as the USFDA is about 60~100mg. This is sufficient to ward off scurvy, but falls far short of our actual requirement. Almost all living things can synthesise their own requirements for Vitamin C, but humans and a few other animals cannot do so, having lost this capability in evolutionary times. We have to obtain our needs from diet, and today’s diet is woefully short of Vitamin C.

So in order to counter the ever-present oxidants the body must call on its stores of other reducing agents, and cholesterol which our bodies can synthesise is the most abundant and is readily available. But there is a price to pay; when it functions as a reducing agent the cholesterol becomes oxidised in the process to oxy-cholesterol, and it is the oxy-cholesterol which causes the problems, accumulates in arteries etc. It is a waste product, but our metabolism is not well adapted to deal with it.

We hear a lot about “good cholesterol” and “bad cholesterol”; however this is scientifically incorrect terminology there is only one form of cholesterol, and that is cholesterol. So-called bad cholesterol is a quite different substance. To call oxy-cholesterol “bad cholesterol” is like calling caramel “bad sugar”.

The incessant effort to “reduce cholesterol”, as if this were an end in itself, is scientifically unsound. Dosing with the much-heralded statins isn’t the answer, and may actually be harmful in the longer term because of removal of cholesterol resulting in increased oxidation. A high cholesterol level in the body is not a disease it is caused by the body countering a disease, and that disease is oxidation. Put another way, a high cholesterol level is an indicator of disease.

Having reached that point, the answer to good health (and reducing the build-up of oxy-cholesterol) is obvious. Take steps to counter oxidation, and the pollutants which catalyse the formation of oxidising free radicals.

I have been practising this technique for over 30 years, and at the age of 82 last birthday am in perfect health, to the extent that I don’t even have a doctor. I take no medication other than means of eliminating oxidising conditions, my blood pressure is about 115/80, and I work full-time as a consulting chemist.

This concept is the answer to health policy, yet it is only dimly understood by con-ventional health authorities and is generally disregarded. Health policy should be aimed primarily at prevention of illness, whereas today it is aimed primarily towards the suppression of symptoms at great cost to the community and equally great profit to the pharmaceutical industry.

The amount of Vitamin C for good health is 2000 or more milligrams daily. To put this amount in context, an orange contains about 60mg of Vitamin C; thus one would have to eat 30 or more oranges daily to achieve the intake of an adequate amount of this vitamin (clearly impractical). Thus vitamin supplementation is essential. Lesser amounts of Vitamin E are required, because Vitamin E is recycled in the body provided an adequate amount of Vitamin C is available.

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T James Sprott OBE 10 Combes Road

MSc PhD FNZIC Remuera

Consulting Chemist Auckland 5

Forensic Scientist NEW ZEALAND

Phone & Fax:

64-9-5231150

sprott@iconz.co.nz

THOMAS JAMES SPROTT - CURRICULUM VITAE

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Born: Auckland, New Zealand, 8 August 1924

Marital: Married, three adult children

Educated: Auckland Grammar School 1938-41

University of Auckland 1942-48

Seconded by New Zealand Air Force

Degrees: Bachelor of Science, Chemistry, Physics, Mathematics

Master of Science, Honours in Chemistry

Doctor of Philosophy, Chemistry

Scholarships: University Entrance

National Research Fellow

Rotary Scholar

Auckland Manufacturers Society Scholar

Professional Member, New Zealand Institute of Chemistry 1947-86

Fellow, New Zealand Institute of Chemistry 1986-

Honour: Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services 1995

to forensic science and the community

Consular: Honorary Consul for Canada in Auckland 1983-86

Occupation: L S Spackman, Public Analyst (part time) 1941-47

Joseph Ltd (NZ) Ltd, Plant Chemist 1949-52

T J Sprott & Associates, Consulting Chemists 1952-83

Carter Consolidated Ltd, Consultant & Director 1960-74

Carter Oji Kokusaku Ltd, Director 1968-74

Sharland & Co Ltd, Consultant & Director 1953-74

Northern Pulp Ltd, Director 1964-86

Consulting chemist, forensic scientist 1952-

(Resident in Canada 1986~1993)

Cot death: Sudden Infant Death research (voluntary) 1981-

Consultant (honorary) to Central TV (UK) 1994

Cot Life 2000 Campaign 1994-

Publications: The ABC of Injustice 1986

The Cot Death Cover-up? (Penguin Books, NZ; UK) 1996; 1997

Cot Death - Cause and Prevention: Experiences in
New Zealand 1995-2004, J Nutr Env Med 2004;

14(3):221-232 2004

CotLife 2000 brochures 1997-