"Cholesterol Is Your Enemy"…And Other Nutritional Nonsense You Should Ignore. (Part?One)

If you’ve been around the block a time or two, you know there's a critical mantra to embody when it comes to nutrition “research”. This mantra is “Follow the Money”. Always has been, always will be.

I’ll go on record all day, everyday with the following, “We are continuously sold out by our policy makers. U.S. nutrition policies are crafted by lobbyists and bureaucrats. Both of whom are funded by Big Food & Big Pharma."

The wiser amongst us seek guidance from those who have their best interests in mind, not the best interests of stockholders. They also know that their mental, emotional AND physical energy must be available 100% of the time so they can focus on what’s important, not what’s for lunch!

One major distinguishing factor of an experienced person is their ability to think for themselves and they are in the habit of making decisions based upon fact, not fallacy. Unfortunately fallacy has been in the driver’s seat for far too long…and greed was riding shotgun. Not a pretty combo, especially when it comes to nutritional “advice” handed down to the American public for the past 60 years, give or take.

In this 2 part series I have lovingly titled, “ ‘Cholesterol Is Your Enemy’…and other Nutritional Nonsense You Should Ignore”, I will shine a bright light on the cholesterol controversy with the intent of helping you make your best and most informed decision.

I am a huge proponent of eating real food as the solid foundation upon which to build optimal human health. Same goes for all animals in fact, which comes into play when we eat the animals.

When it comes to having the mental and physical energy you want (not just enough to get by), what you do and don’t do play equally important roles. Real food has within it incredible potential when it comes to fueling our bodies and brains. Don’t leave out the brain, for it is our most important asset on the book(s) of life. Cholesterol is critical to the brain’s health. And the health of pretty much every cell in us.

“Cholesterol is your enemy.” Or so you’ve been led to believe.

Cholesterol does more than just wander around in our blood trying to kill us! (It doesn’t do that at all, but if you bought in to Conventional Wisdom’s brainwashing, you’d think it showed up with its hooded cape and sickle determined to wreak havoc at every bend in the vessel road.)

If you have a liver and a pulse, you are making your own cholesterol. And be thankful you are.

Cholesterol is critical to life.

The human body uses cholesterol to make a wide assortment of substances needed to sustain life. Cholesterol is the backbone for steroid hormones such as estrogen, progesterone and testosterone, cortisol too. Cholesterol is also at work when it comes to digestion, healing damaged tissue, and forming the cellular membranes discussed when exposing the “Eating Fat Makes You Fat” lie. To add to cholesterol’s resumé, the ever-coveted Vitamin D is made from it.

Cholesterol is not a menace, nor an enemy. It’s the furthest thing from it. In fact, it sounds like it’s a pretty important substance to have in the body, wouldn't you agree?

So, why is something your body makes all day, every day deemed Public Enemy #1?

The long and the short of it…there’s MONEY in the war on cholesterol. Lots of it!

Big Pharma makes Big Moola from statins and all the other mayhem in their wake. I’m talking Big Money; in the neighborhood of $10 Billion yearly on statins in the US alone. Triple that worldwide. Many of the tried and true statins are coming off patent (meaning they’re going generic), so Big Pharma is pumping out newer, shinier versions to fatten up the coffers.

FYI: A drug remains patent-protected for 20 years (on average). It costs more than we mere mortals can imagine along with a decent amount of time to get a drug from patent to approval for sale. So to reward the formulating company, the FDA allows them ample time to sop up all the money their greedy little hands can hold. All while some patients choose between food and medicine. A reality too many face, needlessly.

If only they understood how food can BE their medicine. (This is fuel to my fire for illuminating the truth that your body can heal itself when the choices you make with your fork favor your health.)

Approximately 80% of the cholesterol in your body is made by you in your liver, with a small amount added through resorption by the small intestines along with a tiny contribution from individual cells. The rest comes from your food. The body is constantly regulating the amount it makes based upon need as well as supply.

Statins block an enzyme your liver produces when making cholesterol. In addition to monkeying with the liver, statins have seriously damaging side effects. In addition to muscle cramps, GI problems, headaches and trouble sleeping, statins carry warnings that mental confusion, memory loss, high blood sugar, and type 2 diabetes are possible side effects. And if you’re a peri- or post-menopausal woman taking a statin, you’re 50% more likely to develop type 2 diabetes than your sisters (blood related or otherwise) who are not. Excuse me? I think not!

Especially since 95% of those taking statins have no valid reason for doing so! (More on this to come in Part 2 of this 2-part article.)

Let me lay out some basics so we are on the same page.

It is important to understand the specifics of cholesterol. Cholesterol is waxy and fatty, and like oil in water, doesn’t mix well with blood. This fact dictates the necessity for the protective carriers LDL, HDL and all the other “DL”s known to man.

Two types of ‘cholesterol’ get the most air time. They are LDL and HDL. But neither are cholesterol, by the way. They are actually proteins, lipoproteins to be exact. LDL stands for low-density lipoprotein. And it certainly is NOT “bad” like you have been led to believe. HDL is also a lipoprotein, though one with high density. Lipoproteins function to transport cholesterol to and from various parts of the body through the bloodstream.

I like to use the analogy of fighting a fire. The LDL is the firetruck full of cholesterol fresh from the liver, AKA: the handsome firemen… I know, “Sexist!” Women are firefighters too, and incredible one’s at that. But let me have this one, please? I like to have a little fun when I teach, and this analogy is memorable.

So now, the fresh cholesterol is on its way to do good deeds in the community or to the scene of the fire (injury, inflammation, etc.). And HDL is the firetruck with the exhausted cholesterol (firefighters) returning to the liver for recycling (reinforcements).

To sum it up…LDL delivers cholesterol to the site of need and HDL brings it back to your liver for recycling.

One very important distinction to make is that LDL is not just a free ride for cholesterol. LDL also distributes the energy produced from the breakdown of fats to cells throughout the body, more specifically triglycerides. Triglycerides are used for energy by your heart, skeletal muscles, and your adipose tissue (body fat). This here my friend, this is like jet fuel for the human. Along with cholesterol and triglycerides you’ll find the fat soluble vitamins (A, D, E, K) doing some ride-sharing on the LDL truck.

Sounds like LDL is more helper than menace. And while were throwing love its way, it is a multi-tasker extraordinaire. Some would argue that LDL’s primary role in the body is that of triglyceride distributor, especially when fat fueled. Being fat fueled is what I am all about!

Labeling LDL the “Bad Cholesterol” is like blaming the firefighter for the fire.

Just because s/he is there doesn’t mean s/he’s responsible for it. Nobody in their right mind would think that anyway. So why do we blame cholesterol for the clot when it is just trying to put out the flames of inflammation and tend to the damage?

Makes no sense to me either.

LDL gets a bad rap, although it is just reporting for duty. To complicate things further, there are different types of LDL…a fluffy kind (Pattern A) and a dense kind (Pattern B). It is at this level of differentiation that LDL gets its reputation as friend or foe. I argue that both are on our side, they’re just doing their jobs.

The smaller, more compact version of LDL (Pattern B) is blamed for being at the site of vessel injury and ultimately the clot. I urge you to look deeper…why is this dense, more compact version of LDL there in the first place?

I’ll tell you. It’s present because there is endothelial damage (more on this in a moment). And the smaller version of LDL is the only particle that can wedge its way into the damaged tissue to try to stabilize the area so the vessel won’t burst with the very next heartbeat.

The fluffy LDL simply won’t fit and due to its fluffiness, won’t plug up much in the way of damage.

(I bet you’ve never heard this information before.)

Let’s review some history. A well-known and often referenced study, the Framingham Heart Study, commenced in 1948 and has followed approximately 5200 people for decades to make conclusions about influences on their heart health. When the evaluators saw instances of heart disease, increased levels of LDL were also noted. Therefore LDL was guilty by association. Never once was the underlying cause of said relationship studied. It was assumed that LDL was the culprit. Ergo, war was waged and the only true beneficiaries have been Big Pharma and its minions. It is well established that inflammation is an underlying cause.

Inflammation along with glycation are primary drivers for disease. ALL chronic disease for that matter. And I infer to you that it is the inflammation which has many potential origins causing the rise in LDL present at the site, not some sinister move on LDL’s part. LDL is merely meeting the demand.

Cholesterol becomes rather sticky in certain scenarios, most notably in the presence of inflammation. When we talk inflammation of the blood vessels (more specifically the arteries) the terms arterio– and athero– sclerosis are used. Often interchangeably.

Arteriosclerosis is hardening of the arteries. The vessels lose their suppleness over time resulting in lessened resilience or bounce back when the powerful heart contracts. Remember how “healing” fats help make cells supple? That is a major player here.

A more specific type of arteriosclerosis is atherosclerosis, AKA clogged arteries. The distinction is a very important one. Atherosclerosis is a big problem in the US…and one of Big Pharma’s Ca$h Cows. When there is damage to the inner lining of a blood vessel (endothelium), the body calls in the cavalry to fix it. Dependent upon the level of damage, it can be a small production or an all-out act of heroism!

Cholesterol is one of the key players in damage control.

How does the damage occur? That is a discussion I could spend hours breaking down. But for our purposes here…it starts and ends with endothelial damage.

This is damage to the inner lining of our blood vessels. The tissue gets irritated, the irritation causes damage, and just as on the outside of the body when you get a cut, the body rushes the area with materials to go to work cleaning up the damage. When the damage is on the surface of our body we call the patch job a scab. When it is inside, essentially the same thing occurs, but in the vessels we call it a clot. The overall process is in response to inflammation.

Inflammation is critical to our survival. Without it we would be defenseless. Inflammation on the inside and outside are essentially the same with small differentiations when it comes to the insides of our vessels. We’ll call it close enough for this discussion.

It is such a complicated process. The “he said, she said” around the causes of said damage could dizzy a bobble head doll at Wimbledon. Seriously, the amount of conflicting information circulating around the topic is ridiculous.

Cholesterol is easily oxidized in the presence of inflammation (think rust) and since inflammation has a plethora of chemical reactions at work, this is where the problems arise. When this damage is inside the blood vessels, it is bad news to say the least.

Not only are we dealing with the narrowing of available space for blood to flow at the clot site (atherosclerosis), we have more rigid vessels to boot (arteriosclerosis). Bottom line, the vessels do not dilate as well as healthy ones when pressure comes their way from the powerful heartbeat. Both vessel narrowing as well as the increase in vessel wall rigidity occur in response to chronic inflammation. This natural and advantageous response to chronic inflammation of the vessels has fattened the wallets of many a drug-pushing Big Pharma executive and their multitude of sponsored minions (policy making bureaucrats and lobbyists).

In Part 2 of this article I’ll tackle the issue of why we should shift our focus to what’s causing the inflammation in the first place. You know, that whole “getting to the root of the cause” discussion. Be sure to Follow me here on LinkedIn to be notified when I publish Part 2 of “Cholesterol Is Your Enemy”…And Other Nutritional Nonsense You Should Ignore.