We hear all the time about "good" and "bad" cholesterol. These expressions are a load of rubbish, intended to demonise compounds that Humans can not live without. It appears to me the lemming-like rush to dish out statins and to make huge profits is completely out of whack with the facts.
Fact: Cholesterol is good for you. Without cholesterol you will wither and die. This is fact. This is why a cholesterol free diet and cholesterol lowering medications are associated with declining health.
Fact: Statins do not increase life expectancy or improve quality of life. To the contrary: Statins cause harm
Fact: Most of the cholesterol floating about your body is manufactured by your own body.
Question: If cholesterol is so "bad" then how come the body makes so much of the stuff?
Fact: Hormomes, your cell structure and thousands of biological actions are dependent on a ready supply of cholesterol. The sure way to reduce a randy man's libido is to mess with his cholesterol and, hence, testosterone.
Fact: Cholesterol does not harm the body. Oxidised cholesterol is what does the damage.
Good chlolesterol - Bad cholesterol: What's the real difference?
HDL (high density lipoprotein) is more stable than LDL (low density lipoprotein) and therefore more likely to oxidise and cause harm. LDL is not "Bad". LDL is merely less stable than HDL. LDL is equally, if not more important for health than HDL since it is essential for production of the steroid hormones.
Both HDL and LDL are "Good" cholesterol. There is no such thing as "Bad" cholesterol.
There is no place in medical science for emotive terms like "good" and "bad". In this case, we should be using "stable" and "less stable".
How do you prevent cholesterol from oxidising (going rancid)?
Prevent oxidising by encouraging rapid turnover of the cholesterol in your body and creating conditions that reduce the rate of odidisation of fats:
- Regular exercise
- Lots of sunlight on your body (UVB radiation converts cholesterol into cholecalciferol which is in turn converted into steriodal hormomes like testosterone, adrenalin, thyroxine and oestrogen)
- Have fat antioxidants circulating, including L-Carnitine, vitamin E and vitamin C
- Eat a wide range of healthy fats while avoiding hydrogenated and homogenised fats and oils
Important
If you are diabetic or have elevated blood sugar levels: It is the oxidative stress on fats in your body, including the cholesterols that causes much of the damage to your blood vessels and, hence, the cardiovascular and peripheral vascular diseases associated with raised blood sugar levels.
Medicated or not, supplement daily with the nutrients that are known to reduce the oxidative stress on fats. This especially includes L-carnitine, as well as the others mentioned here. For more about L-Carnitine and its importance for diabetics, please read this article here.
Do you have a question?
Email Gary: gary at myotec.co.nz (Replace the "at" with @ and remove spaces). Please include any relevant background information to your question.
3 comments:
Gary
Here's an article in the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons whish speaks to this asa well.
http://www.jpands.org/vol10no3/colpo.pdf
I also reference it on my blog at www.wmodavis.com under Credible Evidence if you go back a ways.
Bill
there IS bad cholesterol
when you cook cholesterol at too high a temperature you get OXYCHOLESTEROL.
A soft boiled egg has little oxycholesterol, A hard boiled egg is loaded with it,
oxy cholesterol will damage your tissues, such as the lining of your arteries, tis this damage from substances like this along with free radicals that enable cholesterol to stick to artery walls in teh first place beginning arthereosclerosis.
frying food is a sure fire way to convert cholesterol to oxycholesterol because of the high cooking temperature.
adeuquate consumption of omega three faty acids emulsifies cholesterol to prevent it forming as hard matter on arteries, and will reverse the accumulation on the artery walls.
Excessive consumption of cooked animal flesh and fat reduces the beneficial effects of omega three fats.
Wayne,
Where is the evidence to all of this? Please show the proof? We don't even know the process by which the food we consume goes thru our body to produce cholesterol and how it goes about to clog arteries. There is absolutely NO proof that dietary consumption of fats or cholestorol, whether cooked or not, has any contribution to heart disease. NO evidence at all!!! If there is, please referece the scientific laboratory that was successful in replicating this process inside the human body!
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