Before worrying about Cholesterol, you may want to know what it is. It is an organic molecule that is a type of fatty lipid. Oh, my that must be bad. Well people it's not. Your body's cells manufacture cholesterol because it's an essential part of all cell membranes. Cholesterol maintains the structural integrity of your cell membrane so that it may change its shape. Why does your cell membrane need to change its shape? Well, you can't put a square peg in a round hole. It allows the membrane to move through the narrow blood vessels as well as the large ones. These cell membranes allow nutrients, enzymes and fluids to pass between the inside of your cells and their outside environment. Let's give a high five to Cholesterol. Still worried? Ok let's move on.
Cholesterol is a waxy solid fat that comes in two forms, one is in your blood and the other found in foods. Your body on its own can make the required cholesterol so you really don't need to eat any from food. In fact, the cholesterol you eat in food doesn't even become the cholesterol in your bloodstream. So why should we limit the amount of saturated animal fat you eat? Well, that's easy. It's because the liver produces extra blood cholesterol from any saturated fat you eat. Simply said: the more saturated fat you eat, the more extra blood cholesterol you will create.
The extra waxy solid cholesterol will store in your artery walls. This is what is called plaque. By now you know that plaque narrows the width of your arteries causing less blood flow causing you...come on you know the answer...HEART ATTACK. Besides that, the blood carries oxygen, hormones and nutrients throughout the body. This will cause your body to be less oxidative (have less oxygen) and so it will slow down the fat-burning ability no matter how much you exercise.
I know you have heard of LDL (low density protein) and HDL (high density protein), but what exactly do they do? LDL contains more cholesterol than HDL and is known as the "bad" cholesterol, while HDL is known as the "good" one. When you get your blood work done, you probably want to see a higher HDL compared to the bad LDL. HDL's job is to remove cholesterol from your artery's cell membranes and send it back to your liver so it may be reprocessed or removed as waste. If you eat a lot of saturated fat, your poor overworked liver will work extra hard to get rid of all the additional cholesterol. With a higher HDL to LDL ratio, your overall HDL no longer has too much LDL to deal with.
All great so far. Now let's remember back in chemistry lab class when we mixed fat and water. It didn't mix, right? Blood and bodily fluids are mostly water. So how does the body move fatty lipids and cholesterol wax through your body when it has to use your blood? Your body has to use both the HDL and LDLs as transport proteins and the higher the density of your lipoproteins, the healthier it is for you. This transport tunnels across your cell membranes and helps bring the molecules into your cells. HDLs are better for this than LDLs because less fats are stuck to the artery walls, but you still need both types of these cholesterol lipoproteins.
Ok, I know. Your saying "what the hell does this mean"? It means that Cholesterol is made by your body and needed for your body to function. When you are told that you have high cholesterol, the first thing should not to be put you on a statin. First of all, stop treating the symptoms, otherwise you will be treating the symptoms of the medicine you’re taking to treat the symptoms. Say that 10 times, lol. My advice is to eat a better diet. Eating a diet filled with high-fat, high sugar, highly processed refined and fried foods, fast foods, and a large amount of carbohydrates with lots of omega-6 fatty acids is directly linked to an acidic body, inflammation causing many diseases. Change your diet to whole foods. Read the ingredients to everything, and I mean everything. If your mind can not understand what you read your body can not digest it causing you DIS-EASE within your body. Get it now?
If you have any questions concerning this blog or any health related questions, please contact my office at 631-979-8508. I'm here to help.
Stay happy, stay healthy and LIVLIFE.
Dr. Livia Valle, Mom/Chiropractor/Health and Wellness Coach