cholesterol?

Question

what is it what is good what is bad

Answer 1

What is cholesterol? Dispite mounting debates against cholesterol, the average American has no idea what it is but is quite certain that it is dangerous. Cholesterol in all reality, is a vital component for life. This waxy/fatty substance is the building block from which the body makes several important hormones: The adrenal hormones ( aldosterone, helps to regulate blood pressure and hydrocortosone the body's natural steroid ) and the sex hormones ( estrogen and testosterone ). Without enough cholesterol you won't make enough sex hormones and you will have a difficult time regulating your blood pressure.

It is the main component of bile which aid in the digestion of food. Without cholesterol we could not absorb fat soluble vitamins such as vitamin A, K, D and E, from the food we eat.It is cholesterol that is converted into vitamin D when we are exposed to sunlight. It is important to treat the cause and not treat the symptom.

There is much more that cholesterol is responsible for but I lack the time to present it all here. However, I want to dispel any preconceived notions that cholesterol is evil.

Although some cholesterol does come from food, it is the liver's duty to manufacture and regulate the production of cholesterol. Regardless of how many eggs or steaks you might eat, if all is well systematically, the liver will compensate. When the liver fails to regulate cholesterol, levels will become elevated. THis is a sign that there is a systematic problem that often goes neglected.

With this in mind, people with insulin resistance, namely diabetes type 2. often experience elevated cholesterol levels. If you study cholesterol synthesis you will learn of 2 hormones that affect the activity of the rate limiting enzyme HMG-CoA. This enzyme increases cholesterol levels when insulin is high because insulin stimulates its production. When glucagon levels are high this enzyme becomes dormant.Glucagon is insulin's partner hormone that is activated when insulin is stable. Glucagon, instead if causing cholesterol to rise, inhibits the production of the enzyme, HMG-CoA. This slows down the production of cholesterol especially the LDL ( bad ) and it is eventually absorbed by the body's cells as it is needed. HDL also rises and helps to eliminate any over abundance of the bad cholesterol.

If insulin remains elevate it stimulates more production of LDL until it spills from the cells into the blood stream. Also if insulin is elevated glucagon is inactive and HDL will remain too low.

By eating food that stabilizes insulin we are enabling our bodies to use cholesterol more efficiently. To stabilize insulin, we should eat a diet balanced in nutritious foods that do not cause insulin levels to spike. Protein , natural fats, low glycemic fruits and vegetables are leaders in supporting healthy insulin levels. This explains why I am successful in keeping my cholesterol at levels that do not overwhelm my body even though I include fats and eggs in my diet.

It is improtant to know what your cholesterol numbers are.
1. Total cholesterol divided by HDL should equal 4.
2. LDL divided by HDL should be below 3

This is what the ratio should be regardless of the total cholesterol number.

Answer 2

I'm almost an expert on cholesterol. Read the labels on the products. Everything is good except saturated fats, this is animal fat. To lower your cholesterol, take two garlic tablets and drink lots of grape juice or red wine, one glass is plenty. Do this every night before going to bed. Eat as little animal fat as posiable it's a killer and is what causes bad LDL cholesterol.

Answer 3

nothing is good or bad, if we want to live a healthy life style, I think we could survive on salads & fruit alone, mabey we should all try that, for a week & see what happens.

Answer 4

The LDL cholesterol is bad and the HDL cholesterol is good. When you eat any oil, you have cells in the intestine connected to the stomach that excrete an enzyme called enterokinase that goes into the blood stream and within less than a minute hits the gall bladder (it's specific to the gall bladder, not the liver) and causes it to squeeze causing bile to flow down and break up the oil into cholesterol & water. If the oil is good oil, you will get good cholesterol, if it is bad oil or degraded oil from high heat cooking, you will get bad cholesterol.

How I did it:

1. I make sure I eliminate all SOY products and all CANOLA oils from my diet. These oils are very high in omega 6 fatty acids and have a negative effect on various organs such as the liver, thyroid, and gall bladder. Don't trust companies like KRAFT foods that provide genetically altered oils for their mayonaises, even their cheeses contain soy as a filler to cheapen their products. Read labels. Do not buy anything that says "vegetable oils" because these oils are usually soy or canola and contain genetically engineered oils that are designed to help farmers and manufacturers, not you the consumer, regardless of how many claims they make on the label to the contrary. The FDA looks out for them, not your health. If you don't believe this, then ask the head of the FDA or EPA that were ex-Monsanto executives that makes the genetically altered garbage, why they allow manufacurers to NOT label foods containing genetically engineered foods. You have no way of knowing unless someone tells you.

2. Good oils are: Olive oil, palm oil, coconut oil, avocado oil, grape seed oil for cooking due to it's very high cooking temperature resistance to breaking down.

3. Eliminate all deep fried foods because in order to deep fry you need to raise the temperature of the oil beyond the point where it breaks down the fatty acids in the oil and contributes to the LDL cholesterol. LDL cholesterol is low density lipids and this combines with your coronary calcium in your blood to clog your arteries.

4. Get your coronary calcium checked. This test should cost about $250 to have this done. It is probably more important to know what this level is than cholesterol because even if you have a low LDL cholesterol test, you can have a high coronary calcium level and get a heart attack. Eliminate anything that has Calcium Carbonate in it. This is the cheapest form of calcium the manufacture can use and it is toxic to the body causing all kinds of problems. It doesn't build strong bones, it contributes to many diseases and things like kidney stones. Use only dietary calcium. This what they make chalk out of and it comes from crushed rocks.

5. Check the condition of your liver and gall bladder. These two organs are the weak link in your body that will determine how you are digesting your oils. If you eat bad oils and have a weak or compromised liver and/or gall bladder, your cholesterol LDL will go up because the oils will not be digested properly. This is the one thing that most doctors ignore and drug companies don't want you to know about. Drug companies love to sell cholesterol lowering drugs that shorten your life, create side effects like damaging your liver, the very thing that you need to protect.

You can test your gall bladder & liver very easily in the comfort of your own home and do not need to get a fancy, costly, and most likely not very effective test the doctor will give you. Just swallow one or two cod liver oil capsules in the morning. If you burp it up during the day, you have a problem with your gall bladder and/or your liver.

You need to detox these organs on a regular basis to make sure they are working at their optimum. The liver is the most ignored organ and probably the most abused because ALL drugs affect the liver. When you detox these organs, it is imperative that you have a morning pH that ranges 6.4 to 7.0.

O.K., you can see why doctors like to give cholesterol lowering pills because it's much easier to allow a person to go on living the dream and not changing their habits that put them in the position of having high LDL cholesterol and also, most doctors don't really understand or want to take the time to work with a patient to really fix the problem that is causing the high LDL.

6. Don't listen to the crazies that tell you saturated fats are bad for you and to eat the high omega 6 fatty acid oils to lower your cholesterol like Canola, margarine, etc. But don't eat commercial beef you buy at your local grocery store either because these saturated fats are very bad for you. Any food that contains Hydrogenated Oils and especially partially Hydrogenated Oils is the worst. These oils, even if you have a healthy liver & gall bladder, will produce LDL cholesterol.

In the 1930's, a dentist named Weston Price, traveled around the world studying indigenous people, their diet and examined their teeth and health. He made an amazing discovery that cannot be denied, even though many food companies, the FDA, EPA, and many, many nutritionists today would love to ignore. He found that people that ate diets high in saturated fats were the healthiest! The saturated fats were not from beef sources that are sold in America today, but from cows that were eating grass, animals that were eating off the land on fertile soils rich in minerals. These animals produce high omega 3 fatty acids to low omega 6 fatty acids. Look at one group of these people you are probably familiar with, the eskimos. They eat large amounts of animal fat and they are very healty with very low heart problems.

Fish oils, flax seed (you need a healthy liver to process the flax because it turns the omegas in the flax to omega 3's if your liver is working well), beef from grass fed cattle is very good for you (also contains high CLA that is cancer fighting).

Follow this as I have done and you will have the best chance of solving the cholesterol problem. It really worked and is working for me today.