Cholesterol

Confused About Cholesterol?

Nothing is more confusing about heart health than cholesterol levels.  It seems that every couple of years the levels that are determined to be safe are lowered.

The only thing that is certain about it is the fact that after 30 years of aggressively attacking cholesterol levels, heart disease remains the #2 killer in America.

Something is wrong with that picture.

The National Institute of Health issued a statement in 1977 that said “cholesterol has nothing to do with heart disease”.

Why the emphasis on lowering cholesterol?

To really explain that is too big a topic and I don’t want to get into the whole mess of how medicine and pharmaceutical companies run the business of health care.  Save that for another day, my interest is in helping you understand a little about cholesterol.

You Actually Need Cholesterol

Did you know that your body makes it’s own cholesterol because you actually need it to be healthy?  You have to have adequate supplies of it everyday because it’s used for a wide variety of functions and without it your health suffers.

That’s right.  Not enough cholesterol is detrimental to your health.

You see the body needs it to repair cellular membranes that have been damaged and for the production of steroid hormones.  These include estrogen and progesterone in women and testosterone in men.  It’s used to produce cortisol and is involved with the process of making Vit D from sunlight.

It’s easy to see how having it lowered too much can present a problem. Yet you’d be hard pressed to find a doctor who knows anything about the dangers of low cholesterol.

I’ve suffered with low cholesterol being around 100 for years.  Suffered might not be the best word here but it definitely compromised my health.

I’ve experienced bouts of liver inflammation and tension that disappeared when I managed to get it up to 125.  It hovered around 140 for over ten years and then finally this year I got it up to 175!

You’re probably laughing…..I’m sure you’ve never heard of anyone trying to raise they’re cholesterol.

I did it by raising my HDL, considered the good stuff, by 22 points.

Remember the part about cholesterol being used to create hormones?  My testosterone went up 220 points at the same time.

WOW!  It’s nice to see how nature really works.

Cholesterol is Not Really Good or Bad.

LDL is considered bad because it’s the part that leaves your liver and goes out into your bloodstream.  This is happening partly in response to cellular damage and it’s role in repairing cellular membranes.

It only makes sense that to reduce LDL you just have to reduce cellular damage.  There isn’t any magical substance for lowering cholesterol.

Any nutrient that promotes cellular health lowers your need for it and the body then regulates it.  It’s as simple as that.

LDL is implicated in heart disease because it turns rancid and then starts a process by which it attaches to the arteries and creates inflammation. This only happens because you don’t have adequate levels of Vit C and E to keep it healthy.

This lack of specific nutrients is hurting you in other ways but this one starts you on the road to heart disease. It’s not that LDL is bad for you but the fact that your diet is sadly lacking in the nutrients needed for basic health and this is one of the more lethal ways it shows up.

One of the factors often overlooked in controlling cholesterol is that having a healthy liver plays a role in processing LDL cholesterol.  When the liver is inflamed from nutritional and emotional stress it doesn’t fully perform its duty of processing excessive cholesterol from the bloodstream.  CRP or C-reactive protein is produced in the liver and higher levels are associated with stress.  High levels of C-reactive protein are often a more dangerous marker for heart attack than high cholesterol.

Many of the herbs I used in formulating TianChi to control stress and inflammation have been historically used to treat liver issues.

(click here to learn more about TianChi)

Can You Imagine Your Car Running On the

Same Oil for 100,000 Miles?

No, because it would become so dirty and cause so much damage to your engine that it would break down under stress.  Does that mean having oil is a problem?  Should you lower your oil levels?  No.  Basic maintenance keeps it clean and reduces wear and tear.

Eating well and supplementing with basic nutrients and herbs is great way to maintain your arteries and cholesterol levels.

HDL cholesterol is considered the good stuff because it transports cholesterol back to the liver to be recycled and reused.  Levels over 80 are considered to be ideal for a healthy heart.