The Cycles of Cholesterol

This may blow some peoples socks off, but guess what… Cholesterol is necessary for our health! (gasp)

What many people are unaware of, is that most of the cholesterol in our bodies does not come from food. Our bodies produce cholesterol as necessary. Almost every single cell in our bodies produces cholesterol all of the time. The cells do this, because every cell and its surrounding membranes which make up every organ is partially structured by cholesterol. Nearly half of each membrane is made of cholesterol!

What does cholesterol do for us? Well, a variety of things!

Cholesterol is what substantiates our tissues and allows their permeability and fluidity. Our bodies distribute different levels of cholesterol to each cell of the body, depending on its function. Where we need strong, protective cells – We will have a lot of cholesterol. If a cell needs to be soft and moveable, it will have small amounts of cholesterol. Cholesterol is essential to any mammalian cell membrane, for without cholesterol, we would be like worms – Structure~less!

Our cells need protein in order to communicate with one another, leading to the function of our body. These proteins reside in the cell membranes, fixed there by cholesterol. So, cholesterol builds our body and facilitates its function! Cool! About 25 percent of the body’s amount of cholesterol is found in the brain. There is a large amount of it in the brain, because our brain is abundant in myelin (coating which protects and nourishes our nerves) and 20 percent of myelin is made of cholesterol! Interference with the production of cholesterol in the body has been found to cause the disease multiple sclerosis; the loss of memory. It has also been found that babies deprived of cholesterol during infancy have wound up with poor eyesight and memory. Therefore, cholesterol plays a huge role in the development and health of our memory and brain function as a whole!

The health of our immune system, or ability to fight bacteria and disease, relies strongly on cholesterol. It uses the cholesterol to bind to the toxic bacteria and inactivate it, preventing illness and damage to the body. Cholesterol plays the role of infection fighter. The specific kind of cholesterol which does this is LDL-cholesterol, which has been referred to as the “bad” cholesterol by general society. Therefore, people with low levels of cholesterol are more prone to getting sick! We can not heal infections of wounds without cholesterol and fat, so our livers send cholesterol right to the area in distress to aid the healing process. Interesting fact: Staphylococcus aureus, or Staph infection, which has become an epidemic in the world, is literally unable to work in the presence of LDL-cholesterol. Wow!

Cholesterol also plays a large role in the production of hormones (my favorite topic)! The hormones thrive in cholesterol, as they do in fat as well. They are the carriers for hormones. Cholesterol is the precursor for all steroid, sex, and adrenal hormones, and is necessary for the production of them. Women ~ In relation to my previous post regarding our hormone Progesterone: Cholesterol converts the hormone pregnenolone into Progesterone for us, so it totally essential for us! So, lack of cholesterol can lead to serious hormonal imbalances, which as we know from my last post can bring on a variety of other disorders. On the note of infertility: Could that be any relation to the excessive deficiency and fight against cholesterol, thus decreasing the production of sex hormones within their bodies? Hmm…

With that being said, it is quite obvious the importance of cholesterol for our health. From my research and experience, I see it to be very important to maintain and build our cholesterol levels. Even those people out there attempting to eliminate all of the cholesterol out of their bodies in fear of disease will find this impossible to do, considering our bodies are made of it and constantly producing it! Maybe, instead of trying to rid ourselves of our cholesterol, we should be working to build and maintain our cholesterol levels! Knowing this information, I see it to be important to ingest cholesterol through high quality, grass-fed animal products. Sources I use are raw, organic dairy such as eggs, butter, milk, cream, chicken, buffalo, venison, some occasional beef and turkey, and  if I am lucky – Moose or bear! Yum! Doesn’t it make sense to consume the foods containing cholesterol to support all of the work that it does for our system? I say yes!

In health, happiness, and high cholesterol levels…