How can I get healthy cholesterol levels?
As a substance cholesterol is much-maligned, mostly because there is so much confusion and just plain ignorance about its role in our bodies. But instead of debating the ignorance, let's just get back to basics. Apart from serving as the basis of steroid hormones such as estrogen and testosterone, or as the major constituent of the bile of the liver, one of the most important functions to remember about cholesterol is that it is a membrane-stabilizing molecule, serving as a counter to the unstable poly-unsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) found in the plasma membrane of the cell. PUFAs function as an 'on-demand' source of eicosanoids that among many things, regulates inflammation (e.g. as prostaglandins, leukotrienes, thromboxanes, etc). Think of these fatty acids in the plasma membrane as powder-kegs just waiting to explode, setting off a chain-reaction in adjacent fatty acids. Deposited intermittently within the plasma membrane, cholesterol is a highly stable waxy lipid that functions an insulative mechanism that prevents the entire membrane from "exploding", resulting in the destruction of the cell. Thus one of the roles for cholesterol is that it is used by the body to inhibit inflammation, and so of course is found in inflammatory lesions, such those found in atherosclerosis. But this doesn't mean that cholesterol is the cause of the problem.
Often used markers of cholesterol status include HDL and LDL/VLDL, the "good" and "bad" cholesterol, which strictly speaking, aren't cholesterol at all, but protein carriers that allow the waxy fat-like molecule to be transported in the watery medium of the blood. But rather than being "good" or "bad", HDL and LDL speak to the directionality of cholesterol, and where it's going. Like many physiological activities, the body maintains a yin-yang balance, for e.g. in the role of osteoblasts that lay down new bone, while osteoclasts resorb old bone. LDL and VLDL deposits cholesterol in the periphery of the body, whereas HDL scavenges and returns it back to the liver to be recycled as bile. In atherosclerosis, there is a net deposition of cholesterol in the arteries because of an underlying inflammatory state. If LDL:HDL ratios are wonky it simply means that there is lots of inflammation, and the body is depositing cholesterol to stabilize the injury.
So what causes the inflammation and injury? Well, there are many factors including smoking and environmental pollutants. Even chronic stress creates vascular injury. But the most basic cause of the arterial lesion is the effect of chronically elevated blood sugar, which promotes direct damage to the endothelial lining in a variety of mechanisms (i.e. glycosylation, oxidative stress, protein kinase C activation. The cause of elevated blood sugar of course is the consumption of refined carbohydrates including foods such as soft drinks, flour, bread, pastries, muffins, breakfast cereal, white rice, sugar, candy, sweets, chocolate, dried fruits and sweet fruits. Eliminate these, and you eliminate a major mechanism of vascular injury, and the net impact just may be that your serum cholesterol levels and HDL:LDL ratios normalize all on their own.
More reading, on metabolic syndrome: http://www.toddcaldecott.com/index.php/healing/conditions/222-metabolic-syndrome
On cardiovascular disease: http://www.toddcaldecott.com/index.php/healing/conditions/180-arterial-disease
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ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/.../20957025
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/.../21059540
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/.../15142422
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Low cholesterol actually increases your risk of serious complications and even death - . The likely reason that your body was storing cholesterol in your gall bladder is that you didn't excrete the bile regularly, and so it built up in your GB and became super-saturated, forming first sludge and then stones. Now that you don't have a GB you will need to take bitters before meals and very likely a a digestive enzyme that contains lipase and/or oxbile to digest fat and fat soluble vitamins. For more helpful info see: toddcaldecott.com/.../...
Always told I had low cholesterol, most Doctors were surprised and envious of my levels...
When I had my Gallbladder removed they told me it was full of stones, looking more like a papaya, and the stones were made of cholesterol.
Why was my body storing Cholesterol in my Gallbladder?
What is going to happen now that it is coursing through my body unimpeded?
Thanks, Jan
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