The Important Functions of Cholesterol

For this article, I conducted a short survey with some of my patients. I asked, “What is cholesterol?” The following answers come from a college-educated woman:

• “Bad fats.”
• “Clogs up your veins.”
• “You have to eat healthy to not get it.”
• “You get it from trans-fats.”
• “Bad for your heart.”

Actually, cholesterol isn’t a fat, nor does it come from eating fat. In fact, every cell in the body makes cholesterol. Cells engage in a long process and use their energy to create cholesterol from triglycerides (oils). If we eat more cholesterol, our cells make less. If it were bad, why would our cells be making it?

Cholesterol is a different kind of lipid that is essential to the functioning of cells. All animal cells make cholesterol, since it is vital to every cell membrane.

The fat we eat has very little cholesterol in it. However, all animal products contain some cholesterol. Plants don’t make cholesterol; they make something similar called phytosterols.

Important functions of cholesterol include:

• Synthesizes vitamin D – important for calcium regulation and immune function
• Produces Co-Q10 – re-energizes your cells
• A precursor to testosterone – keeps your strength, stamina and muscle mass up
• A precursor to progesterone – important for brain function, as well as regulation of menses in women
• A precursor to estrogen – allows a woman to do all the functions of females
• Derives adrenal hormones (cortisol, aldosterone) – regulates metabolism, immune function, minerals, and many other processes
• Produces bile – aids in the absorption of oils, fats, and vitamins A, D, E, and K
• Forms myelin – A sheath that protects nerve conduction like the plastic around an electrical wire
• Regulates cell signaling – the ability of the cells to receive signals from hormones and proteins

Besides that, cholesterol is essential for keeping the cell membranes stable. Cholesterol decreases the fluidity of the cell membrane to get nutrients into the cells and keep toxins out.

This cholesterol functions like your skin. If you didn’t have the protein, keratin, in your skin, then it would tear easily and not be able to protect your body from invasion by germs or toxins. Cholesterol is that important for the integrity of every one of your cells. You cannot make any cells, or keep them alive, without cholesterol.

Lack of Cholesterol Dangers

When people don’t have enough cholesterol, the production of hormones, energy, cells, and immunity go down as well. A cholesterol deficiency produces:

• Early aging – Cells cannot reproduce when they lack cholesterol
• Immune dysfunction – This includes frequent infections and hypersensitivity reactions, such as allergies. (The instability of immune cell membranes causes the excessive release of chemical granules that cause a reaction.)
• Brain dysfunction – Nerve cells require cholesterol to conduct and generate an impulse. For example, multiple sclerosis shows areas where there is a lack of myelin in the brain.
• Depression and anxiety – Without sufficient cholesterol, serotonin doesn’t bind to its receptor.
• Muscle fatigue/pain/cramps/cell death- Mitochondria require cholesterol to make energy from lipids. Without enough energy, the muscle cell fatigues easily, cramps, and dies.
• Hepatitis – Without cholesterol, the liver cannot produce energy. Moreover, the fluid cell membranes comprise the cell. Liver cells cannot get rid of toxins efficiently so they may build up.
• Low testosterone – Many men may worry about low testosterone. They may not realize that medications that lower cholesterol also lower testosterone.

Dangers of Statin Side-Effects

Compare the cholesterol deficiency list to the side-effect profile of a “STATIN,” or a drug that lowers cholesterol. This is taken directly from the package insert:

• Skeletal: myopathy, muscle cramps, rhabdomyolysis, arthralgias, myalgia.
• Neurological: dysfunction of certain cranial nerves (including alteration of taste, impairment of extra-ocular movement, facial paresis), tremor, dizziness, memory loss, vertigo, paresthesia, peripheral neuropathy, peripheral nerve palsy, anxiety, insomnia, depression, psychic disturbances.
• Hypersensitivity Reactions: An apparent hypersensitivity syndrome has been reported that included one or more of the following features: anaphylaxis, angioedema, lupus erythematosus-like syndrome, polymyalgia rheumatica, dermatomyositis, vasculitis, purpura, thrombocytopenia, leukopenia, hemolytic anemia, positive ANA, ESR increase, eosinophilia, arthritis, arthralgia, urticaria, asthenia, photosensitivity, fever, chills, flushing, malaise, dyspnea, toxic epidermal necrolysis, erythema multiforme, including Stevens-Johnson syndrome.
• Gastrointestinal: pancreatitis, hepatitis, including chronic active hepatitis, cholestatic jaundice, fatty change in liver, cirrhosis, fulminant hepatic necrosis, and hepatoma; anorexia, vomiting.
• Skin: alopecia, pruritus. A variety of skin changes, (e.g., nodules, discoloration, dryness of skin/mucous membranes, changes to hair/nails), have been reported.
• Reproductive: gynecomastia, loss of libido, erectile dysfunction.
• Eye: progression of cataracts (lens opacities), ophthalmoplegia.
• Laboratory Abnormalities: elevated transaminases, creatine kinase, alkaline phosphatase, γ-glutamyl transpeptidase, and bilirubin; thyroid function abnormalities.

It is interesting that the drug side-effects didn’t mention death. This particular statin, Cerivastatin, was pulled off the market after many died from the above problems, mostly muscle cell death.[1]

Actually, just the opposite is really true of cholesterol. Cholesterol is so important for the functioning of every cell in the body that as it is lowered, the death rate goes up.

Even the Framingham Heart Study, the one that most use to justify lowering cholesterol, showed the following statistic:[2] For each 1mg/dl cholesterol falls, the death rate goes up by 11%, and cardiovascular deaths go up by 14%.

By the way, cancer increases as the cholesterol goes down, as well.

Just recently I gave a talk about hormones. I explained the essential role of cholesterol in the proper levels of steroid hormones. I also discussed the other functions listed above and the problems with taking a drug to lower cholesterol. One woman took out her pack of pills and deposited her cholesterol medication in front of me. “I won’t be needing these anymore!” she said.

Now you know what cholesterol is. It’s NOT:

• “Bad fats”
• “Clogs up your veins”
• “You have to eat healthy to not get it”
• “You get it from trans-fats”
• “Bad for your heart”

Moreover, you know what it does for you and you can understand why it is so important to the body. So, what do you need to do about it?

It’s so simple to understand that the total body cholesterol doesn’t change with diet. Low-fat diets don’t benefit anyone, for any reason. Every cell in your body makes cholesterol on an as-needed basis, so there is nothing you have to do to regulate it. You don’t even ever need a test to know what your level is – for the purpose of determining risks of heart disease, cancer, or strokes.

I had one patient who was put on a statin and started getting heart disease. They put five stents in his coronary arteries over a period of as many years, increasing his dose of the statin drug each time.

We generally call that “failure of treatment” because the drug obviously wasn’t slowing down his need for stents in his heart.

When he came to see me, I took him off of the statins and put him on an anti-inflammatory diet. Controlling inflammation is much more important than controlling cholesterol.

His cardiologist called me and yelled at me. He said it was malpractice to take someone off of statin drugs just because they weren’t working. He said the patient had heart disease and therefore needed the drug. I never saw the patient again.

It is said that good men learn from their own experience, and wise men learn from the experience of others, but fools don’t learn at all.

Anti-inflammatory Diet Prevents Heart Disease

So, to stop the aging process you need more, not less, cholesterol. Cholesterol:

• Keeps your cells young
• Prevents toxic overload
• Digests and absorbs nutrients
• Makes your energy
• And allows conduction of your nerves

The best way to lower your risk of heart disease and strokes is to lower your inflammation. There are many ways to do this. However, the most effective way is to lower calorie intake. We never see heart disease among people who lack food, in famine-laden areas. All of the problems of vascular disease are due to too much energy.

Energy has a by-product causing inflammation: free radicals. Whenever we change energy from one form to another, we get oxygen-free radicals that produce inflammation. This causes aging, and all the effects we attribute to aging including:

• Loss of skin turgor, wrinkles
• Heart disease
• Poor circulation
• Strokes
• Loss of memory, Alzheimer’s disease
• Dementia

Every cell in your body produces normal and natural cholesterol in the exactly the right amounts. BUT, we have to eat good food that is low in calories and high in nutrients and fiber, while avoiding processed foods that contain trans-fats, and lots of calories.

As the great physician, Hippocrates, said, “Let food be your medicine.” That is the best way to “manage” your cholesterol, heart disease, and aging.

 

 

Sources:
[1] http://www.rxlist.com/baycol-drug.htm
[2] https://www.framinghamheartstudy.org