Cholesterol gets a bad rap.
Many people don’t realize how incredibly important cholesterol actually is. What if I told you: cholesterol is here to heal you?
In order to get a handle on how important it is, let us reverse engineer our understanding of cholesterol by first looking at the side effects of suppressing
cholesterol synthesis with a statin drug:
- Increased risk of developing cancer [1]
- Increased risk of developing diabetes [2]
- Increased risk of developing cataracts [3]
- Increased risk of erectile dysfunction [2]
- Increased risk of kidney failure [3]
- Increased risk of liver dysfunction [3]
- Increased risk of cognitive impairment [4]
- Increased risk of developing Parkinson’s disease [5]
- Increased risk of developing mood disorders, depression, and anxiety [6]
- Increased risk of developing myopathy/neuropathy [3] (including a nasty-sounding condition called statin-induced nectrotizing autoimmune myopathy [3a])
- Increased risk of contracting herpes zoster [7] and increased risk of infection after stroke [7a]
- Increased risk of developing CoQ10 and Vitamin K2 deficiency [8]
- Increased risk of developing coronary artery disease and aortic calcification (very ironic) [2, 8]
If decreasing the concentration of a single molecule in the body could cause all of these problems, then it must be vital. Indeed, cholesterol is one of the most important molecules in animal biology.
Let us look at some of its functions:
- Cholesterol is the precursor to all sex hormones. If you want testosterone, estrogen, progesterone, or DHEA – you need cholesterol.
- Cholesterol is the precursor to Vitamin D. If you want to make Vitamin D from the Sun – you need cholesterol.
- Cholesterol is necessary to make bile salts. If you want to be able to digest fat (or burn fat) and have a healthy gallbladder – you need cholesterol.
- Cholesterol is necessary for a healthy immune system. You need it to fight infection.
- Cholesterol is necessary for a healthy nervous system. It forms part of the myelin sheath. 25% of the cholesterol in your body is found in your brain and half of the brain by weight is pure cholesterol.
- Cholesterol is necessary for wound healing and for the body to repair any damage.
- Cholesterol is embedded in every cell membrane in your body and is required for proper cellular function.
- Cholesterol is anti-inflammatory and anti-bacterial (it can kill MRSA).
There is a reason why women’s cholesterol can double or sometimes even triple while they are pregnant – cholesterol is a necessary building block of life. If I get a tiny cut on my finger, my cholesterol will go up just a tiny bit. That’s because my body is healing itself.
“The more cholesterol you eat, the less your body has to work hard to produce it.” – Dr. Natasha McBride
Your liver makes 2,000 mg of cholesterol per day. Being a compound only found in animal products, when you eat cholesterol (like from an egg or from butter) the cholesterol is absorbed directly and goes exactly where the body needs it. Eating more cholesterol does not cause elevated cholesterol, it simply allows the liver to occupy itself doing all the other things your liver does.
Well then what does cause elevated cholesterol? This is the 40 billion dollar question.
We now know that what causes abnormally high cholesterol is chronic inflammation, chronic infection, and chronic stress. Cholesterol is actually trying to save your life.
When there are glycation end-products (little bits of oxidation) floating around the blood stream, it damages the vessel walls. These bits of oxidation are caused by inflammatory lifestyle, high-carbohydrate diets, and anything that causes cellular damage. Cholesterol, being necessary to repair tissue and for cell-wall integrity, comes to save the day. This is how increased inflammation leads to increased cholesterol. If you have inflammatory markers in your bloodstream, your body will respond by increasing the production of cholesterol.
It is important that we treat elevated cholesterol as a symptom of chronic inflammation rather than a disease in-itself. Once you bring inflammation down, the body’s natural intelligence can regulate cholesterol levels on it’s own – because with less inflammation, excess circulating cholesterol becomes unnecessary.
Elevated cholesterol may also be a sign that you need to get in the Sun! Cholesterol is required for Vitamin D synthesis – one of the (other) most anti-inflammatory substances in your body. Cranking out more cholesterol may literally be the body’s way of reaching for the Sun.
If you have high cholesterol, one of the first lifestyle changes you should make (as we all should) is to reduce oxidative stress on the body. This means, for most people, stopping the consumption of high-carbohydrate and processed foods (especially trans-fats). Certain foods, like nightshades, can also contribute to chronic inflammation. It also means stopping inflammatory habits and lifestyle choices (see my articles on plastics and microwaves). Exercise and movement have been shown to normalize cholesterol levels as well (see Qigong).
Taking a statin, on the other hand, is a bit like discovering that your house is on fire and, rather than running to the fire hydrant, you run to the water main for your house and turn it off. Now, all that’s left is to watch your house burn.
In my practice, I have developed a keen sense for guessing how long a patient has been on a statin by how severe their chronic disease progression is. The more chronic muscle and joint pain, chronic fatigue, cognitive dysfunction, gallbladder disease and diabetes, erectile dysfunction, and other disorders are present, generally, the longer they have been on their statin medication.
I hope this article has been informative and even eye-opening for you. If this information is relevant to you or to someone you know, please share it.