In comparison to HDL, which has been privileged with the name ‘good’ cholesterol, LDL and VLDL are relatively large cholesterol molecules; in fact, they are the richest in cholesterol. There is good reason for their large size. Unlike their smaller cousin, which easily passes through blood vessel walls, the LDL and VLDL versions of cholesterol are meant to take a different pathway; they leave the blood stream in the liver.

The blood vessels supplying the liver have a very different structure from the ones supplying other parts of the body. They are known as sinusoids. Their unique, grid-like structure permits the liver cells to receive the entire blood content, including the large cholesterol molecules. The liver cells rebuild the cholesterol and excrete it along with bile into the intestines. Once the cholesterol enters the intestines, it combines with fats, is absorbed by the lymph and enters the blood, in that order. Gallstones in the bile ducts of the liver inhibit the bile flow and partially, or even fully, block the cholesterol’s escape route. Due to back-up pressure on the liver cells, bile production drops. Typically, a healthy liver produces over a quart of bile per day. When the major bile ducts are blocked, barely a cup of bile, or even less, will find its way to the intestines. This prevents much of the VLDL and LDL cholesterol from being excreted with the bile.

Gallstones in the liver bile ducts distort the structural framework of the liver lobules, which damages and congests the sinusoids. Deposits of excessive protein also close the grid holes of these blood vessels (see the discussion of this subject in the previous section). Whereas the ‘good’ cholesterol HDL has small enough molecules to leave the bloodstream through ordinary capillaries, the larger LDL and VLDL molecules are more or less trapped in the blood. The result is that LDL and VLDL concentrations begin to rise in the blood to levels that seem potentially harmful to the body. Yet even this scenario is merely part of the body’s survival attempts. It needs the extra cholesterol to patch up the increasing number of cracks and wounds that are formed as a result of the accumulation of excessive protein in the blood vessel walls. Eventually, though, the life-saving cholesterol begins to occlude the blood vessels and cut off the oxygen supply to the heart.

In addition to this complication, reduced bile flow impairs the digestion of food, particularly fats. Therefore, there is not enough cholesterol made available to the cells of the body and their basic metabolic processes. Since the liver cells no longer receive sufficient amounts of LDL and VLDL molecules, they (the liver cells) assume that the blood is deficient in these types of cholesterol. This stimulates the liver cells to increase the production of cholesterol, further raising the levels of LDL and VLDL cholesterol in the blood. The ‘bad’ cholesterol is trapped in the circulatory system because its escape routes, the bile ducts and the liver sinusoids, are blocked or damaged. The capillary network and arteries attach as much of the ‘bad’ cholesterol to their walls as they possibly can. Consequently, the arteries become rigid and hard.

Coronary heart disease, regardless of whether it is caused by smoking, drinking excessive amounts of alcohol, overeating protein foods, stress, or any other factor, usually does not occur unless gallstones have impacted the bile ducts of the liver. Removing gallstones from the liver and gallbladder can not only prevent a heart attack or stroke, but also reverse coronary heart disease and heart muscle damage. The body’s response to stressful situations becomes less damaging, and cholesterol levels begin to normalize as the distorted and damaged liver lobules are regenerated. Cholesterol-lowering drugs don’t do that. They artificially reduce blood cholesterol, which coerces the liver to produce even more cholesterol. But when extra cholesterol is passed into the bile ducts, it remains in its crystalline state (versus soluble state) and, thereby, turns into gallstones. People who regularly use cholesterol-lowering drugs usually develop an excessively large number of gallstones. This sets them up for major side effects, including cancer and heart disease.

Cholesterol is essential for normal functioning of the immune system, particularly for the body’s response to the millions of cancer cells that every person makes in his body each day. For all the health problems associated with cholesterol, this important substance is not something we should try to eliminate from our bodies. Cholesterol does far more good than harm. The harm is generally symptomatic of other problems. I wish to emphasize, once again, that ‘bad’ cholesterol only attaches itself to the walls of arteries to avert immediate heart trouble, not to create it. This is confirmed by the fact that cholesterol never attaches itself to the walls of veins. When a doctor tests your cholesterol levels, he takes the blood sample from a vein, not from an artery. Although blood flow is much slower in veins than in arteries, cholesterol should obstruct veins much more readily than arteries, but it never does. There simply is no need for that. Why? Because there are no abrasions and tears in the lining of the vein that require patching up. Cholesterol only affixes itself to arteries in order to coat and cover up the abrasions and protect the underlying tissue like a waterproof bandage. Veins do not absorb proteins in their basements membranes like capillaries and arteries do and, therefore, are not prone to this type of injury.

‘Bad’ cholesterol saves lives; it does not take lives. LDL allows the blood to flow through injured blood vessels without causing a life-endangering situation. The theory of high LDL being a principal cause of coronary heart disease is not only unproved and unscientific. It has misled the population to believe that cholesterol is an enemy that has to be fought and destroyed at all costs. Human studies have not shown a cause-and-effect relationship between cholesterol and heart disease. The hundreds of studies so far conducted on such a relationship have only shown that there is a statistical correlation between the two. And there should be, because if there were no ‘bad’ cholesterol molecules attaching themselves to injured arteries we would have millions of more deaths from heart attack than we already have. On the other hand, dozens of conclusive studies have shown that risk of heart disease increases significantly in people whose HDL levels decrease. Elevated LDL cholesterol is not a cause of heart disease; rather, it is a consequence of an unbalanced liver and congested, dehydrated circulatory system.

If your doctor has told you that lowering your cholesterol with medical drugs protects you against heart attacks, you have been grossly misled. The #1 prescribed cholesterol-lowering medicine is Lipitor. I suggest that you read the following warning statement, issued on the official Lipitor web site: “LIPITOR (atorvastatin calcium) tablets is a prescription drug used with diet to lower cholesterol. LIPITOR is not for everyone, including those with liver disease or possible liver problems, and women who are nursing, pregnant, or may become pregnant. LIPITOR has not been shown to prevent heart disease or heart attacks.”

“If you take LIPITOR, tell your doctor about any unusual muscle pain or weakness. This could be a sign of serious side effects. It is important to tell your doctor about any medications you are currently taking to avoid possible serious drug interactions…” My question is, “Why risk a person’s health or life by giving him/her a drug that has no effect, whatsoever, in preventing the problem for which it is being prescribed?” The reason why the lowering of cholesterol levels cannot prevent heart disease is because cholesterol does not cause heart disease.

The most important issue is how efficiently a person’s body uses cholesterol and other fats. The body’s ability to digest, process and utilize these fats depends on how clear and unobstructed the bile ducts of the liver are. When bile flow is unrestricted and balanced, both the LDL and HDL levels are balanced as well. Therefore, keeping the bile ducts open is the best prevention of coronary heart disease.

1. Sir Isaac Newton
“The last of mages”, as he was called by John Meynard Caynes. One of the most brilliant intellects ever, Sir Newton was a keen follower of Alchemy and its ideas, which lead, as many researchers put it, to discovery of the Law of Gravity. Experimenting with mercury and sulfur, he also made a composition for reflecting mirror surface of reflection telescope thus letting Humanity look deeper into the Space.

2. Goethe
Great German poet, he was obsessed with idea of philosopher’s stone. Many years of alchemic experiments worked in the end, but in some different way: they resulted in Goethe’s immortal Faust, an ode to alchemy, human passions and infinite strive for cognition.

3. Alessandro Cagliostro (Giuseppe Balsamo)
Born on Sicily, this man traveled all over Europe. His unusual personality magically attracted people’s souls and, which was more important, their money. Rumors went that he was able to materialize gold and diamonds from nowhere, and even could raise from the dead. There is not documentary evidence of his achievements in pure alchemy, but results of his studies of human soul outlived him and gave birth to what will be much later called “practical psychology”.

4. Giacomo Casanova
Rarely can we meet such person, name of whom awakes so many associations and used as both swearing and praise. Allegedly the greatest lover of all times, he was undoubtedly a gifted philosopher, physicist and psychologist of a kind. Many admit that his numerous feats of love would be impossible without some little alchemic tricks.

5. Henry Cavendish
He was a man who, unaware of it, erected a gravestone on the tomb of alchemy with his discoveries of pure hydrogen and a reaction of the latter with oxygen, resulting in water. He also was the first to define the gas composition of air. His achievements in science were so remarkable, that some contemporary of his wrote that his human appearance was only a mask, inside of which was something not human after all.

6. Avicenna (Abu Ali al-Husein Abdallah ibn Sina)
There are not so many people in this small World who would experience as much as this person had. Being a bright philosopher and mathematician, he’s mainly known to us as a brilliant physician, whose Canon on Medicine is still one of cornerstones of this science. Cures and medicines he collected and invented are numerous and their origin is believed by many to be supernatural, obtained from somewhere above, not without a help of magic forces of alchemy.

7. Paracelsus (Wilhelm Bombast von Hohenheim)
If some alien civilization ever made an inventory of intelligence on Planet Earth, they should have put the name of Paracelsus somewhere close to Hyppocratus and Galen in the “Greatest doctors” column. Being one of the first “chemists” out of alchemists, Paracelsus discovered lots of remedies for that time incurable diseases. He is one of the founding fathers of toxicology, and his saying “Dose makes poison” is learned by all medical students nowadays.

8. Count St. Germain
If all impostors, alive or dead, had gathered in one place, formed a Guild and elected its Chairman, that would be Count St. Germain. This person allegedly was able to communicate with spirits, cured pearls and transmuted silver into gold. Many believe that he was only an impersonation of some supernatural power, descending to our world from time to time to select prophets and grant them with secret knowledge. He is also claimed to assist George Washington and Benjamin Franklin in establishing the United States as an independent country. In fact, he�s an author of numerous tracts and treatises on alchemy and is still considered one of Great Masters of that craft.

9. Roger Bacon
Greatest of Franciscans, Roger Bacon paved the way for many alchemists with his Opus Majus and Opus Minus tracts, in which he anticipated a lot of scientific achievements we attribute to 20-th century, e.g. Einsteinian Relativity Theory.

10. Tyho Brahe
Tyho Brahe was one of the most celebrated astronomers and philosophers of all times: his tools for calculation of planetary movement are still not yet surpassed in accuracy. Name of Tyho is given to two craters: one on Moon and one on Mars. Besides astronomy, he showed a lively interest in medicine and alchemy in what concerned the influence of metals to human body. He was said to have made a prosthetic nose for himself from gold and silver, which were blended in a way resembling color of human flesh, and an adhesive balm to keep that in place.