GiGi
Frequent Contributor (5K+ posts)
Member # 259
posted
Cholesterol - Your Body's Best Friend
Cholesterol is the body's repair substance. Scar tissue contains high levels of cholesterol. When your arteries develop irritations or tears, cholesterol is there to do its job of patching up the damage.
Along with saturated fats, cholesterol in the cell membrane gives our cells necessary stiffness and stability. When the diet contains an excess of polyunsaturated fatty acids, these replace saturated fatty acids in the cell membrane so that the cell walls actually become flabby. When this happens, cholesterol from the blood is "driven" into the tissues to give them structural integrity. This is why serum cholesterol levels may go down temporarily when we replace saturated fats with polyunsaturated oils in the diet, even though the body's overall cholesterol levels actually go up.
Cholesterol acts as a precursor to vital corticosteroids, hormones that help us deal with stress and protect the body against heart disease and cancer; and to the sex hormones like androgen, testosterone, estrogen and progesterone. Cholesterol is also a precursor to vitamin D and to the bile salts. Bile is vital for digestion and assimilation of fats in the diet.
Recent research shows that cholesterol acts as an antioxidant. This is the likely explanation for the fact that cholesterol levels go up with age. As an antioxidant, cholesterol protects us against free radical damage that leads to heart disease and cancer.
Cholesterol is needed for proper function of serotonin receptors in the brain. Serotonin is the body's natural "feel-good" chemical. Low cholesterol levels have been linked to aggressive and violent behavior, depression and suicide.
Mother's milk is especially rich in cholesterol and contains a special enzyme that helps the baby utilize this nutrient. Babies and children need cholesterol-rich foods throughout their growing years to ensure proper development of the brain and nervous system.
Dietary cholesterol plays an important role in maintaining the health of the intestinal wall. This is why low-cholesterol vegetarian diets can lead to leaky gut syndrome and other intestinal disorders.
Men who have cholesterol levels over 350 mg/dl are at slightly greater risk for heart disease. For women, there is no greater risk for heart disease, even at levels as high as 1000 mg/dl. In fact, mortality is higher for women with low cholesterol than for women with high cholesterol.
Cholesterol readings are highly inaccurate. They vary with the time of day, time of the patient's last meal, levels of stress and the type of test used. Tests for HDL and LDL are especially subject to inaccuracies.
Since contracting lyme, my cholesterol (I'm female) has ranged between 239-259. I have stress from wrangling two little ones, finances and lyme. It's good to reframe the thought that some of that cholesterol might be positive. Nonetheless, LLMD says we might look into sterols; I am purely resistent since I think with Lyme I take more than enough chemicals.
Your take?
wiserforit
Posts: 508 | From Banks of the Hudson | Registered: Jul 2006
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I have exceptionally low LDL in comparison to HDL. This is three generations that have this on my mother's side.
My nutritionist did tell me however that super low cholesterol can be just as bad as high cholesterol.
Your post is a big reminder that I need to address this.
Thanks!
-------------------- �Pride is concerned with who is right. Humility is concerned with what is right.� - Ezre Taft Benson Posts: 655 | From NC, Exit 88 on the Deer SuperHighway | Registered: Dec 2004
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When my cholesterol drops below its normal level of 250 I get a little worried. That means that the body immune system is fighting something (cholesterol fuels the immune system)...
Yes, you are correct. Cholesterol tests are very inaccurate time wise. I have a home tester (test strips are $5 each and not easy to use). So I don't test very often. I test only when I feel something is not right...
Another myth is that you can change your cholesterol level with diet (perhaps if you went on a starvation diet). The liver controls cholesterol levels on a demand basis.
This how anti-cholesterol statin drugs work. They cripple the Liver and can cause permanent liver damage...
Transfats in the blood irritates the arteries then cholesterol forms a patch in the irritated area to help the artery to heal.
When transfats continue to irritate then a buildup of cholesterol blocks the artery. Now cholesterol gets the blame not transfats (ducks make more money)..
Tj
Posts: 192 | From Phoenix, AZ | Registered: Apr 2005
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Marnie
Frequent Contributor (5K+ posts)
Member # 773
posted
Except when pathogens use VLDL to help build THEIR cell walls too.
Or when LDL+Ca forms plaques.
Low cholesterol a problem..oh, yea! My son's went down to total level of 86. I freaked, our doctor did not. He thought it was good! We switched doctors.
Go to pubmed and type in "low cholesterol cancer" and read, read, read.
[ 16. November 2006, 11:48 AM: Message edited by: Marnie ]
Posts: 9426 | From Sunshine State | Registered: Mar 2001
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klutzo
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 5701
posted
Excellent article. I agree about diet not having much effect. I did an experiment before my last testing.
I deliberately ate a lot of fat for a whole month before, and the day before my test, I ate an entire half gallon of buter pecan ice cream!
My total cholesterol dropped 44 pts. and my LDL droped 30 pts.! My blood sugar, which had been borderline high, dropped 12 pts. into the normal range, despite all that sugar.
How accurate are these tests?
When seeing that 44 pt. drop, my Cardiologist said, "I don't know what you did, but keep doing it"! I just smiled and kept my mouth shut.
Klutzo
Posts: 1269 | From Clearwater, Florida, USA | Registered: May 2004
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