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Dr. Mercola
February 02 2008
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Cholesterol Has Benefits, Too

cholesterol, milk, eggs, cheese, butterCholesterol may not be all bad, and may in fact have some benefits, according to a new study from researchers at Texas A&M University.

The study involved 55 men and women between the ages of 60 and 69 who exercised three days a week for 12 weeks.

A significant association was found between dietary cholesterol and change in strength. It was found that lower cholesterol levels reduced muscle gain that occurred with exercise, while those with higher cholesterol intake also had the highest gains in muscle strength.

“Our findings show that the restricting of cholesterol -- while in the process of exercising -- appears to affect building muscle mass in a negative manner,” the researchers said.

They suggested that the effect may be due to cholesterol’s role in the inflammation process. More cholesterol in your blood may lead to a greater inflammatory response that is useful for building muscles.

Dr. MercolaDr. Mercola's Comments:
I have significant personal experience with low cholesterol. I bought into the low-fat myth in the ‘70s and ‘80s, and with my diet and long-distance running actually got my cholesterol level down to 75 without taking any drugs.

At the time it seemed to be a good thing -- but now I know it was a prescription for disaster and was likely one of the major reasons I lost my hair.

The fact that your body naturally makes some cholesterol, and uses it for producing cell membranes, hormones, vitamin D, and the bile acids that help you digest fats, among many other things, it is a major clue that cholesterol is necessary and beneficial for your health.

Your body requires cholesterol to survive, which is why it produces it. So please don’t let anyone tell you that cholesterol is completely bad for you.

And while many people worry that their cholesterol is too high, few give a thought to the damage that can result if your cholesterol is too low. When it comes to cholesterol, lower is not always better.

If your cholesterol dips too low, you will increase your risk of:
Where do Sugars and Grains Fit In?

About 75 percent of your blood cholesterol is made by your body. The other 25 percent comes from the foods you eat.

Certain foods that contain cholesterol will throw your body off balance, while others will actually push it toward homeostasis.

One of the most important things I advise people looking to lower their cholesterol to do is to reduce, or eliminate, sugars and grains from their diet.

What do sugar and grain have to do with cholesterol and your heart?

Eating too much sugar and refined grains is the primary cause of high triglycerides, and restricting sugar and grains seems to normalize triglyceride levels in most everyone who tries it.

Triglycerides, like cholesterol, belong to the lipid family. They’re a major source of energy for your body, and are either obtained from your diet or produced in your liver.

When your body has more triglycerides than it can use, the excess triglycerides end up being transported to fat cells (rather than being used by your body for energy). If your triglyceride levels remain elevated it can lead to atherosclerosis and heart damage.

In other words, high triglycerides are an incredibly potent risk factor for heart disease. In combination, high triglycerides and low HDL levels are an even bigger risk; this ratio is even more important to your heart health than the standard good vs. bad cholesterol ratio.

In fact, one study found that people with the highest ratio of triglycerides to HDL had 16 times the risk of heart attack as those with the lowest ratio of triglycerides to HDL.

So while you strive to keep your HDL cholesterol levels up, you’ll want to decrease your triglycerides. How? You can increase your HDL levels by exercising and getting plenty of omega-3 fats like those from krill oil. Triglycerides are easily decreased by exercising and avoiding grains and sugars in your diet.

The “Healthy” Cholesterol Guidelines Have Never Been Proven

It is also worth mentioning, while we’re on the subject of cholesterol, that the cholesterol levels the experts tout as those you must reach to be healthy have never been proven to be healthy.

So rather than focusing on how to get your cholesterol levels lower, focus on eating the right foods for your nutritional type while avoiding sugar and grains. (And by all means do not get caught up in the hype that you need to take dangerous statin cholesterol-lowering drugs!)

Add to your new healthy diet some regular exercise, and your body should be able to keep its cholesterol levels where they should be, naturally.
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Community Comments ( 35 )
 Comment on this Article
  
  
Matt79
 [ Joined on 08/06 ] [ Posted on January 11, 2008 ]
20 Points        
   
 
Savvy User
It is known that cholesterol is the building block for our bodies hormones, and that anabolic hormones increase when we are active and exercise.  So if we don't have enough building material then muscle growth would be slowed.
Does this seem like common sense to anyone else?
 [ Reply ]
Mercola
  
foxtroter
 		[ Joined on 09/06 ]  [ Posted on January 11, 2008]
25 Points        
   
Savvy User
  Mercola

“We were not expecting to get these kind of results,” Riechman explains. 

“Needless to say, these findings caught us totally off guard,” he explains.

1)  It seems to me that these researchers perhaps should study endocrinology 101.

2) It is my understanding that weight training increases HDL and decreases LDL and triglycerides.  Might this not be a better approach than trying to reduce cholesterol levels with drugs?

Mercola
  
Russ Bianchi
 		[ Joined on 09/06 ]  [ Posted on January 13, 2008]
7 Points        
   
Savvy User
  Mercola
High Fructose Corn Syrup consumption, at 94 pounds per year per person in the USA, is converted to either stored body fat or blood triglycerides, not blood glucose.

Take and beverage or food with HFCS in it  Having measure triglycerides count prior and then 30 minutes after ingestion; tiglycerides will have increased radically!
Mercola
  
Phantom O' Banjo
 		[ Joined on 09/06 ]  [ Posted on January 15, 2008]
8 Points        
   
Savvy User
  Mercola
Pargamma how many ning nongs does it take to screw in a light bulb? lol
  
  
mmc88121
 [ Joined on 11/06 ] [ Posted on January 11, 2008 ]
16 Points        
   
 
Moderator User
The last line says it all.  "It shows that there is still a lot about cholesterol that we don't know."  Including the fact that many people who have Myocardial Infarcts (heart attacks) have normal cholesterol levels.  There is still much about they body we don't know, and as long as science insists on studying one part at a time they probably will not make much progress.  The human body is more than the sum of its parts.

Mary
 [ Reply ]
  
  
NewYorkGal
 [ Joined on 01/08 ] [ Posted on January 14, 2008 ]
12 Points        
   
 
Novice User
Cholesterol is needed to make testosterone, which builds muscle. Cholesterol is needed to make Vitamin D, vital for muscle tone.
 [ Reply ]
  
  
nanciesweb
 [ Joined on 06/06 ] [ Posted on January 14, 2008 ]
12 Points        
   
 
Savvy User
Everytime I read these articles, I discover how far my eyes can roll back into my head.

How much do you want a bet that we won't hear much of this study in the old media?
 [ Reply ]
  
  
Bridestein
 [ Joined on 12/06 ] [ Posted on January 14, 2008 ]
8 Points        
   
 
Savvy User
Huh. The combination of my high cholesterol and my hip-to-waist ratio must make me some kind of superwoman. Now I just gotta think up a name for myself.
No suggestions, please!
 [ Reply ]
Mercola
  
Reesacat
 		[ Joined on 01/07 ]  [ Posted on January 14, 2008]
6 Points        
   
Savvy User
  Mercola
GammaGirl, I like the other one you thought of.
Mercola
  
energy
 		[ Joined on 08/07 ]  [ Posted on January 15, 2008]
9 Points        
   
Apprentice User
  Mercola
B:  Obviously something must make you some kind of superwoman.

Like shears to Samson, kryptonite to the man of steel, so is Lipitor to our mis*********ed heroine.

Would you suggest lower cholesterol if I prefer to avoid becoming a superwoman, or is it more in the waist?  No offense, it's just easier being a man; especially once you start down that path.
Mercola
  
Bridestein
 		[ Joined on 12/06 ]  [ Posted on January 15, 2008]
7 Points        
   
Savvy User
  Mercola
E- since the majority of my power seems to emanate from my wide hips and small waist, I'd have to say you're probably not in much danger of becoming a superwoman.

  
  
sixtyandsupple
 [ Joined on 12/07 ] [ Posted on February 2, 2008 ]
7 Points        
   
 
Novice User

In the late 70's, in a clinical dietetics course we were taught that cholesterol below 150 was an indicator of malnutrition, often due to the catabolic effect of cancer even if the cancer was subclinical.  Having been out of the loop, I was stunned several years ago to read about getting cholesterol levels to 100-125.  I just figured there was "new research".  Silly me.  Then a few years ago a co-worker had a test and was proud of her 135.  I had a knee-jerk response.  "Yikes Cancer".  Two months later she was in chemotherapy.  So which came first, the low cholesterol or the disease?  

Re: Vitamin D.  It starts with a cholesterol derivative (7-dehydrocalciferol) that sits under your skin waiting to be activated by sunlight.  Then It goes to the liver, then the kidney which does the final conversion to Vitamin D, which is a hormone as well as a vitamin.

 [ Reply ]
  
  
Tzaddi
 [ Joined on 01/08 ] [ Posted on February 2, 2008 ]
7 Points        
   
 
Novice User

When my best friend was still a smoker (and he was for a long time), his bad cholesterol was "off the charts"--like 300+.  It wasn't from his diet, because he has always been a fanatical Vegan.  Instead, his body wisely was protecting him from the chronic inflammation caused by cigarettes.  Despite his healthy diet, the constant smoking made his body overly acidic-- potentially tearing holes in his arteries, organs, and intestines among other things.  His high cholesterol probably saved his life.  Health is a really huge and very complex picture.  Knowing one tiny part of it does not make someone an expert.

 [ Reply ]
  
  
New to Natural
 [ Joined on 11/07 ] [ Posted on January 14, 2008 ]
3 Points        
   
 
Savvy User
Anyone see a correlation between this article and the one about vitamin D shortage?  The previous article said that a vitamin D shortage leads to higher risk of heart attack and stroke.  From the posts I've been reading, cholesterol is (please correct me if I'm wrong) needed to process Vitamin D?  So, cause and effect:  If we're not getting enough vitamin D, we're not using our cholesterol, hence a build up - which is linked to heart attack and stroke.  So, is the problem really the cholesterol or the Vitamin D deficiency? 
 [ Reply ]
Mercola
  
New to Natural
 		[ Joined on 11/07 ]  [ Posted on January 14, 2008]
       
   
Savvy User
  Mercola
Thanks! 
Mercola
  
samurai
 		[ Joined on 04/07 ]  [ Posted on January 15, 2008]
3 Points        
   
Savvy User
  Mercola
PPARGammaGirl,
Is nitrate-free pork bacon good for you? 
  
  
Dynamic Wellness
 [ Joined on 08/07 ] [ Posted on February 8, 2008 ]
2 Points        
   
 
Novice User

If you look in any medical biochemistry text book, you will see that cholesterol gets broken down into many things.  Some of which are glucocorticoids (stress hormones), mineral corticoids (controls bp by affecting sodium levels, and Estrogen and Testosterone in the form of DHEA which basically our are anti-aging hormones.  All of these awsome products come from cholesterol, why would you ever want to decrease it.  As long as your inflamtion levels are low, tryglycerides are in check along with your insulin levels, your money.  Its like Cholesterol entered the Darkside...along with the sun and saturated fat...atleast thats what the drug companie want you to think.  On a side note, just as many people die from cholesterol levels under 160, than they do over 160.  Eat according to your metabollic type and exercise anaerobically as well as aerobically and you'll have a better life insurance policy than money can buy!

 [ Reply ]
  
  
memez
 [ Joined on 10/07 ] [ Posted on February 2, 2008 ]
2 Points        
   
 
Novice User

I keep reading that we should all be eating the foods that are right for our "Nutritional type"  How do we know what our nutritional type is?

This may be a silly question for some of you, but I have just embarked on this new, healthier way of living and eating.  It is all new to me.

Can anyone help me with this question?

Thank you,

memez

 [ Reply ]