Updated June 15th, 2023

I recently got a blood test and I have high cholesterol. Womp. Womp. I don’t want to take a statin, I want to get my cholesterol down by diet and lifestyle. So naturally I did a Google search and found this book on Amazon.

What can you do to lower your cholesterol naturally?

Well, good question! That’s what this book is about. It was written in 2006 so some of the studies are outdated, but I gleaned all the positive stuff that will work for me. I’m going to follow this program and report back several months later with any progress, so next time you read this, hopefully it will be updated. See my update at the end of this post.

Cholesterol Down- Book Summary

The book is broken down into three basic sections. One is the science behind cholesterol and why so many Americans and people around the world have such high cholesterol. If you’re not interested in that, you can get right to section two, which are the 10 steps you can take to lower your cholesterol. Section three is the heart-healthy recipes. To cut to the chase, here are Dr. Brill’s 10 steps for lowering your cholesterol without statins.

• Eat Oatmeal
• Eat Flaxseeds
• Eat Margarine (plant sterols)
• Eat Soy
• Eat Garlic
• Take Metamucil
• Eat Almonds
• Eat an apple a day
• Eat Beans
• Go for a walk

That’s the book in a nutshell. Each part is explained well and I appreciate this work from Dr. Brill!

–> Check out the book here <–

Personally, there are steps I just won’t do. For example, I don’t do grains well, so I ain’t doin’ no oatmeal. And I also ain’t doin’ no margarine. Given that this book was written in 2006 and there is still confusion about some things health, I for sure try to stay away from all vegetable oils, including canola oil. There’s nothing in Cholesterol Down that mentions the dangers of canola oil. And also she cites “The Seven Countries Study” so right there I knocked off a point in my rating since that study is misleading at best.

Um, so what now?

Another good question, reader! I’m going to get bloodwork again in a few months, so from now until then, I’ll add more fiber to my diet, start using soy milk and flaxseeds in my daily smoothies, and add a handful of almonds and eat an apple each day. Beans- well, we’ll see about that one- I already eat chickpeas fairly often. I already eat a ton of garlic and exercise pretty much daily, and I’m doing a hard pass on oatmeal and margarine.

How Many Stars for Cholesterol Down?

4 🙂 3

Minus one point for recommending margarine and not really informing readers about the dangers of all vegetable oils, and for citing Ancel Keys’ “Seven Countries Study” without disclosing that he studied more than seven countries, but just cherry-picked the seven countries that fit his theory that fat causes high cholesterol and leads to heart disease. But other than that, the rest of the my science in Cholesterol Down seems sound and I’m excited to see if I get results.

My Cholesterol Down Update

A lot has changed since I last read this book. I even lowered the ranking a half a point! For reasons beyond the scope of this book and article, I believe cholesterol is not the evil molecule society has made it out to be. There are way better ways to assess your heart disease risk such as:

• C-Reactive Protein
• Liproprotein(a)
• Calcium Score

There’s also lots of evidence for keto or carnivore diets, which raise cholesterol, so it could be more about particle size (light and fluffy vs hard and dense). You want to avoid the hard and dense cholesterol. So can I wholeheartedly (no pun intended) recommend this book? Not really.

BOOK DETAILS ONE MORE TIME

Title: Cholesterol Down: Ten Simple Steps to Lower Your Cholesterol in Four Weeks–Without Prescription Drugs
Author: Janet Brill
Publish Date:  December 26, 2006
ISBN: 0307339114  ISBN-13: 78-0307339119

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Amazon Affiliate Disclosure:
Ryan’s Reading Reviews is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com

Updated October 16th, 2022

Yes, I do read more than just books on health. I read books on financial health, too!

I don’t know what I was expecting from a Dave Ramsey disciple. They all preach the same thing: Debt is bad (to the point that you should pay off your 0% car loan instead of taking advantage of your company 401(k) match), live like a pauper in the prime years of your life so that you can enjoy your life when you are older. This is also know as the deferred life plan. It’s a system that works for people and has some merits, but to quote Oscar Wilde, “Anyone who lives within their means suffers from a lack of imagination.”

Everyday Millionaires is an Everyday Book

The theme of the book is, the average person can become a millionaire; Hogan claims he undertook the largest study of millionaires and found that millionaires aren’t anything special- they didn’t inherit their money, they just saved and had good money habits. Well, I can tell you that this book is nothing special.

There was nothing really new in it, at least if you know or follow Dave Ramsey. It was just a rehash of with motivational pep-talk and contained not much actionable advice other than get rid of all debt and save your money, in that order.

If you’re new to this stuff…

Sure, why not. Give it a read. It might give you some insight into how to get your finances on track. For the rest of us…meh.

–> Get the book here <–

How Many Stars?

2 🙁

You know, the Dave Ramsey crowd says to save your money. Well here’s a tip- save your money on this one! Read The Millionaire Next Door instead.

Book Details One More Time

Title: Everyday Millionaires: How Ordinary People Built Extraordinary Wealth―and How You Can Too
Author: Chris Hogan
Publish Date:  January 7, 2019
ISBN: 0977489523  ISBN-13: 978-0977489527

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Amazon Affiliate Disclosure:
Ryan’s Reading Reviews is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

Updated May 29th, 2023

I’ve been a fan of Dr. Fung for a while now (see here and here), and as soon as I heard he was coming out with a new book on cancer, I picked it up.

The Cancer Code by Dr. Jason Fung: Book Summary

The Cancer Code essentially walks us through a brief history of cancer, and tries to explain why we’ve made so much progress in other areas of life…think computers, technology, iPhones, and even heart disease survival. But we really haven’t made much difference in cancer prevention and survival – until very recently. For example, Coley’s Toxins was the start of immunotherapy, but that was back in the 1890s! The 1890s!!! The Internet wasn’t even a twinkle in our world’s eyes, yet immunotherapy is still not the answer for all cancers after 130 years of refinement and discovery. We have 5G networks and you can get anything you ever want from your phone though. This is not to downplay all the great medical advances in cancer care, but compared to a lot of other areas of life, cancer sure is one frustrating biological monster!

Other shocking findings from the book:

• Most cancer deaths have gone down not from medicine, but from people quitting smoking.
• Pharmaceutical companies have more of an incentive to copy rather than innovate.

What does that second point mean?

Dr. Fung likens developing a new drug to writing a book. If you want to write a bestselling book, it is extremely difficult and financially risky. The same is said for new medicines- it’s risky and expensive for the pharmaceutical companies to launch a new drug. The way the laws work (at least in America) is that pharmaceutical companies can keep the same basic chemical formulas and add or subtract certain molecules and tweak the formula a little bit and then sell and pass it off as their own product. Dr. Fung is great with analogies, and to continue the book analogy, he says drug companies can write a new book from scratch or take a book like Harry Potter and change the name to Henry Potter, and sell that as their own product. So another reason we haven’t made much progress in cancer medicine is because the incentive for drug companies it to copy rather than innovate.

–> Click here to buy the book <–

Not all is Lost

Don’t get me wrong- the main message of the book is not that we are hopeless and there’s no way to ever cure cancer. We’ve actually made a lot of progress in cancer technology, especially in the 2000’s! Here are a few discoveries that doctors and scientists have made:

• Cancer is so hard to treat because it’s not an “external” disease like a virus, it’s a disease within our bodies.
• We have more and more proven carcinogens like H. pylori or smoking.
• Branch chain mutations make it very hard for targeted therapy- think of a tree with branches- we’d need a target to block each branch! There are 2 medicines that chop down the tree from the trunk- Herceptin and Gleevec.
• Cancer may actually be atavism – a reverse evolution back to single-celled organisms. (I don’t understand how people don’t believe in evolution!!! But I digress).
• The Seed and the Soil – Why do some people have cancer genes in their body but never develop cancer? It’s because not only do you need the gene (seed), you also need an environment that allows the cancer to grow (soil). Environment can mean literally the environment or it could mean crappy food, stress, or lifestyle. Cancer genes would be the seed, and the environment would be the soil. This was one of my biggest takeaways from the Cancer Code.
• Insulin and Cancer- There is a fascinating connection between insulin and cancer that Dr. Fung goes into detail about. All cancer patients should get their c-Peptide levels checked.
• If you have type 2 diabetes, you need to reverse it! And drink green tea! These are 2 important anti-cancer strategies! Oh, and of course, just don’t smoke in the first place.

–> Click here to check out the book <–

In Conclusion

The Cancer Code was a great book -albeit it scary and frustrating at times!- and one that may revolutionize how our society looks at and treats and cures cancer. It is backed by science (more so than Chris Beat Cancer I’d say) and if you or a loved one are suffering from cancer, read this book and talk to your oncologist/medical team about it.

How Many Stars?

5 🙂

This is a new book, and the best book about cancer that I’ve read. Read it and it may save your or your loved one’s life, and will just make you more informed about this horrible disease and how we can cure/treat it. It will give you hope that despite some shortcomings, medical technologies and advancements around cancer are now becoming more and more promising, although advancements were slower than we expected over the last few decades. But each passing day we are learning more and more about how to cure this awful disease!

Book Details one more time

Title: The Cancer Code: A Revolutionary New Understanding of a Medical Mystery
Author: Dr. Jason Fung
Publish Date: November 10, 2020
ISBN: 0062894005 | ISBN-13: 978-0062894007

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Amazon Affiliate Disclosure:
Ryan’s Reading Reviews is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

A game-changing book in the fight against cancer. But read the first half of the book at your own risk!

Updated June 8th, 2023

A close family member of mine was recently diagnosed with cancer. So this book was definitely so personal to me. In fact, I’ve read and reviewed a couple books about cancer and am learning more about health and lifestyle and diet every single day.

The Story of Chris Wark

All you have to do is Google “Chris Beat Cancer“to find out Chris Wark’s story. He was diagnosed with Stage 3 colon cancer at age 26. He had surgery to remove his tumor and turned down taking chemotherapy, which his oncologists said was basically suicide. Over 16 years later he is alive and healthy!

His book goes through his cancer journey, a damning take on the cancer medicine industry, and what lifestyle and diet changes you as a cancer patient can do to heal. And if you don’t have cancer, it’s a good book to read on how to prevent it or decrease your risk.

This book was amazing- well, half of it anyway. It’s a controversial book, but I think some of the things in this book could potentially be lifesavers. What are those things?

“Amazing” Half of the book

• Diet
• Rebounding
• Exercise
• Environmental toxins
• Spiritual Healing
• Stress Relief
• Beating Cancer Mindset
• The Corruption in the Pharmaceutical Industry

Why are these amazing?

Because your doctor isn’t going to talk about them, so they supplement the care of your oncologist and medical team. The me, these parts are just as important as the medicines you take. In other words, I’d rely on your oncologist, and supplement with the gems in this book. You could also use this book to challenge your oncologist with questions and suggestions to help you beat cancer!

What is rebounding?

It’s jumping up and down on a mini-trampoline to exercise your lymphatic system. Tony Robbins does it before a lot of his speeches. I thought this was an excellent gem- I’ve never heard about it before!

Nutrition

The nutrition is the best part of the book. If I could give you one piece of advice, I’d say take everything else in this book with a grain of salt, but pay attention religiously to the nutrition tips in this book. Hint: Garlic, leeks, and onions are some of the best anti-cancer foods.

I’d pay attention to your medical team but really, the nutrition advice in this book may save your life as well! The nutrition section was worth every single penny of the book, and is something I and my family will take with us forever!

Giant-Cancer Fighting Salad

Here is an example of Chris’ Anti-Cancer salad.

Bad stuff- Quackery?

I’ll leave that up to you to decide if you read the book. Chris gets a lot of support online, but he gets a lot of flak, as well. I really respect him for putting himself out there are going against the grain. What courage he had to stick to his guns while everyone around him told him he was crazy and that he should do chemo! However, with that said, I get the impression that Chris is always against chemo. And I think that is dangerous. In some cases, people absolutely need chemo. So, the first half of the book is kind of terrifying in that regard. There is definitely corruption and incentives for big pharma to take advantage of sick people who don’t have a choice in their treatment plans, but at the risk of sounding like an annoying broken record, I’d recommend reading this book to supplement your traditional cancer plan laid out by your medical team. Cancer is very personal, so take what you think is right for you, and ignore the rest. Your life may just depend on it!

Everyone’s cancer journey is different, but if you or a loved one is battling for their life, I wholeheartedly recommend Chris Beat Cancer.

–>Buy it here <–

Resources

• Chris Wark’s website
• Chris Beat Cancer (aff link) (Non-aff link)
• Beat Cancer Daily (aff link) (Non-aff link)
• American Cancer Society
• Valter Longo on Cancer
• The Cancer Code Book Review

How Many Stars?

5 🙂

While some things in this book are controversial, you won’t get this angle of treatment from your doctors. Thanks to Chris, I’ve bought a rebounder, which I never even knew existed. The nutrition part is the most important part. I think what Chris reveals will be crucial information for your anti-cancer strategy, survival, and well-being.

BOOK DETAILS ONE MORE TIME

Title: Chris Beat Cancer: A Comprehensive Plan for Healing Naturally
Author: Chris Wark
Publish Date:  September 25, 2018
ISBN: 9781401956110  ISBN-13: 978-1401956110

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Amazon Affiliate Disclosure:
Ryan’s Reading Reviews is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.