Cholesterol is a standard part of routine blood tests to see how “healthy” you are. Cholesterol has been given a bad rap over the last 50+ years and has become the scapegoat for unhealthy reports from your doctor and deemed the evil substance of your body that is out to kill you! In reality, cholesterol is a very important part of your body’s physiology and helps with energy levels and keeping you healthy.

Lets start with understanding some myths surrounding cholesterol and its effect on your body. Cholesterol gets the worst accusation when talking about heart disease. Many people believe that cholesterol itself is what causes heart attacks. In reality cholesterol is only doing its job to help reduce inflammation in your arteries that has been caused by other factors, specifically unregulated sugar levels and trans fats. Sugar causes irritation in the lining of the arteries; the body then sends the cholesterol to patch up the irritation. If you don’t stop the inflammation the cholesterol keeps piling up and causes trouble with blood flow that leads to heart attacks.

I’ll give you a good example of how your cholesterol numbers are not really a good predictor of your overall cardiovascular health. Healthy cholesterol numbers should be between 160-200 mg/dl. During president Dwight D Eisenhower’s term he suffered a heart attack. Of course being president he was treated with the most up to date medical care. When he had his heart attack his cholesterol was 165 mg/dl, which is a very good cholesterol number if you listen to the “experts”. After changing his diet, not eating any cholesterol in his food and consuming more hydrogenated oils like margarine, which are cholesterol “safe”, he left office 5 years later with cholesterol levels of 259 mg/dl.  These facts where published in Gary Taubes book, Good Calories Bad Calories in 2008.

The opposite is also true, you may hear some people say “I’ll never die of a heart attack; my cholesterol is 120”. The truth is your cholesterol can be too low, which causes other health problems. You might not have a heart attack but you won’t be able to have sex either. Cholesterol is a precursor to the production of our hormones. If you don’t have the proper amount of cholesterol in your body you will start to suffer the effects of hormone imbalances. Females will see period or menopause problems along with decreased libido, slow healing time and significantly decreased energy. Men often see decreased energy with low cholesterol, as well as erectile dysfunction and trouble maintaining muscle mass. Low cholesterol also significantly increases your risk of cancer because your body does not have the ability to heal itself.

Why all the hype about cholesterol, and using cholesterol medications to lower your cholesterol? For one thing if you have a heart attack you can die instantly. It is imperative that we keep the blood moving around our body to stay alive. If the pump stops working the game is over. Medicine has used this scare tactic to sell us on cholesterol lowering medication. Unfortunately those medications are not making us healthier. Statin drugs, which are the popular cholesterol lowering medications, have many side affects that detract from our health and well-being. Statin drugs decrease the amount of Coenzyme Q10 in our muscles as well as reducing B vitamins. If you take a statin drug you must supplement with both of these in order to protect your muscles, and avoid muscle aches, pains and spasms. Over long-term studies the use of cholesterol lowering drugs has not been shown to decrease patient mortality.

As mentioned above cholesterol has a significant effect on our hormone health, but our hormone health can have a significant effect on our cholesterol numbers as well. Often hormone troubles will cause the body to increase cholesterol to help decrease inflammation or boost the hormone precursors to allow the body to increase hormone production. The body is not doing anything haphazardly; there is always a reason for what our physiology is telling us. If you have high cholesterol you have to stop and ask why that is.

Cholesterol will be high if you have too much inflammation. The best thing to help decrease inflammation in the body is to clean up your diet. Decrease the amount of processed foods and sugars in your diet. Increase your good oils, Omega 3’s and Omega 6’s will be very helpful and always avoid trans fats (partially hydrogenated oils) that are found in processed foods. Cholesterol will also increase if you have a toxic bowel. Making sure your bowels are moving daily is essential for good health and balanced cholesterol. Increasing fiber from good fruits and vegetables will help and if needed fiber supplements can be helpful. Probiotics including fermented foods such as yogurt, kombucha, and sauerkraut are good for bowel health.

A healthy liver is essential for healthy hormones and good cholesterol. Cruciferous vegetables (broccoli, cauliflower, kale and Brussels sprouts) are important for liver detoxification. Beets are also a super liver cleansing food and adding a little lemon to your drinking water can go a long way in keeping your liver healthy.

Our bodies are wonderfully organized and systematically put together to keep us alive and have the ability to accomplish great things. We have to know how to read the signs and look at what the real underlying cause of our health issues are, and then we can truly correct them and live a healthy optimal life.

Dr. Phil Cameron DC is the owner of the Bozeman Wellness Center. He is a Chiropractic Physician and Professional Applied Kinesiologist. He Treats every patient as an individual and strives to help each patient Live Healthy, Live Naturally, and Live Optimally. Visit www.bozemanwellnesscenter.com for more information.