Spiking Cholesterol levels

There’s a lot of new research indicating that everyone except middle-aged men with cardiovascular disease seem to do better with higher cholesterol levels. My recent blood profile last week showed a spike in my total and LDL levels for cholesterol. I couldn’t figure out where I was screwing up – I mean, I am eating right, I exercise ten times a week with walking, cycling and floor routines. I don’t have any abnormal stress levels. It made no sense. Yes, I am pre-diabetic and was prescribed just Metformin for it – no real anti-diabetic that.
Then I combed through research and journals for new insights into this and came up with a crap-load of stuff that makes sense. For whatever it’s worth, here is the deal. First, total and LDL cholesterol levels are increased by brewed black coffee. There is evidence that Turkish type coffee, where the ground coffee is soaked in hot water over time, as opposed to filtered coffee where the water quickly passes through the mix, elevates both these levels. I totally didn’t know this and since I drink a lot of ‘soaked’ black coffee which I especially get from the south, this is likely a contributing factor. There is evidence also that if you are losing weight your cholesterol levels increase – and I am losing weight, ridiculously slow for my efforts but it’s there.
The fastest way out seems to be through the use of statins. But from whatever I have researched, things are not clear cut with their use. The apparently godsend statins show little or no evidence of their efficacy in those without cardiovascular diseases. Some research suggests the possibility that statins do exert their favorable effects on those with cardiovascular diseases through their anti-inflammatory or other effects, rather than by directly lowering cholesterol. And there is little actual evidence, except on the pharmaceutical manufacturers’ sites who make these medicines, that we need to have arbitrarily low levels of cholesterol to begin with. On the contrary, very low total cholesterol is associated with deaths from cancer, suicide, and violence. Not cool. Besides, it’s not LDL per say but its subset, the very dense LDL particles (pattern 2) that can reduce the inner diameter of arterial walls.
From the papers I’ve read statins have side-effects which most people shouldn’t ignore. Almost 50% of patients using statins experience significant muscle pain and deterioration of muscle tissue as a consequence. Since our heart is nothing but a muscle, damaging it does not seem like a good route to improve overall health.
It is actually our liver that manufactures cholesterol and contrary to popular belief, cholesterol is not a type of fat, but a form of alcohol. That’s why the alcohol we consume tends to increase our cholesterol levels, just like simple (read processed) sugars. Realistically only 15% of our cholesterol comes from the food we eat; the rest, 85%, is made by our liver. So even if you stop eating anything which adds cholesterol to your body, your liver will simply make more.
That’s not all. Some of the problems can be attributed to a deficiency of b-vitamins – B-6, B-12, Folic acid. When these are inadequate in our body a protein homocysteine is produced. This amino acid causes our blood to become sticky and causes some bulging of arterial walls. This increases a buildup of plaque – also increasing the blood pressure.