Following last week’s discussion on cholesterol and the ways to lower it naturally, we can quote Udo Erasmus as he mentions other ways to lower cholesterol:

1. “Chromium, though not an antioxidant itself, can be combined with vitamin B3, to lower cholesterol in 50% of people with high serum levels. The combination of chromium with niacin (B3) molecules has been patented as a cholesterol-lowering agent”

2. Fiber can help lower cholesterol. He explains that cholesterol is “unique in the body in that , unlike other substances like amionacids that can be broken down, once its made , it cannot be broken down, thus it can only be removed from our body through our stool in the form of bile acids and cholesterol molecules. Fiber helps with excretion . If fiber is low the cholesterol is reabsorbed and recycled. this is why low fiber diets increase cholesterol levels”

3. Furthermore, it has been proven that the more cholesterol we eat, the less the body has to manufacture. This is because cholesterol production is tighly regulated in the body,  “Increased cholesterol consumption decreases cholesterol production”

4. Finally, diet low in refined carbohydrates can lower it. “A diet high in refined carbs and calories forces the body to make a lot of cholesterol”

All this points to a lifestyle issue that can be modified as a preventive method to avoid cholesterol plaques from forming. Udo Erasmus pinpoints “When ascorbate levels (vitamin C) in our blood increase, apo (fat) levels decrease, because less repair protein is necessary when there is enough vitamin C to keep the connective tissue in our arteries strong…While it holds a major key to preventing cardiovascular disease, vitamin C is not the whole answer. Other keys are held by sulphur-containing amino acids, vitamin B3, coenzyme Q10, and for peripheral arterial disease, carnitine and lysine. W3 fatty acids keep platelets from becoming sticky, and have other benefitial effects on arteries. Ultimately, all essential substances must be present in optimum amounts for healthy cells, tiisues and organs”

As we have seen so far, cholesterol is fairly important in the body, so much  that our body makes its own: our cells, liver, intestine, adrenal glands and sex glands all make it. (During pregnancy, the placenta also makes it to make progesterone, which keeps pregnancy from being terminated) But we can also get it from food: fatty acids, sugars (not refined sugars) and amino acids are the raw materials our body uses to make cholesterol. The main food sources of cholesterol are the animal sources: eggs, meat, dairy, fish and shellfish. One egg, 1/4 lb of liver or butter each contain around 50 mg of cholesterol. for every pound of body weight 1/3 is cholesterol which is found in membranes, around 7 grams is carried by the blood.

We can conclude now that we can consume cholesterol without having to be afraid of it. Making sure at the same time that we have a balanced diet where vitamins mineral amino acids and antioxidants are present.

To learn more about the important roles cholesterol plays in the body and how it is needed , please tune in next week.

Thank you for reading.

There is no topic that has been more the subject of controversy, manipulation, fear and scandal than cholesterol. We all have heard about it, bad cholesterol, good cholesterol, high cholesterol, low cholesterol, cholesterol free, cholesterol is good, cholesterol is bad. Hopefully, we can begin to dissipate the clouds of misinformation that have lingered for so long.

But what is cholesterol exactly?  From the ancient greek ‘chole’ meaning bile and ‘stereos’ meaning solid, simply put, cholesterol is a fat. Dr. Joel Wallach describes it as: “a member of a large group of fats known as sterols“. While similar sterols are found in plants, cholesterol is only found in animal tissue. It is literally the difference between being a vegetable and being a human being. The fact is that cholesterol is essential to life and it is made by the body. According to Dr Wallach, it is an ‘essential part of the structure of cell walls, brain and spinal cord’ .

So where does all the ‘cholesterol is bad” idea come from? To answer this question let’s look at a  widely accepted medical explanation on cholesterol:

“What Makes LDL Cholesterol Bad? Here’s how high amounts of LDL cholesterol lead to plaque growth and atherosclerosis. Some LDL cholesterol tends to deposit in the walls of arteries…white blood cells convert the LDL to a toxic (oxidized) form. More white blood cells and other cells migrate to the area, creating steady low-grade inflammation in the artery wall. Over time, more LDL cholesterol and cells collect in the area. The process creates a bump in the artery wall called a plaque. Plaque is made of cholesterol, the body’s cells, and debris. The process continues, growing the plaque and slowly blocking the artery. An even greater danger than slow blockage is a sudden rupture of the surface of the plaque. A blood clot can form on the ruptured area. And that can lead to a heart attack”

To the uninformed, this might sound fairly logical…and scary. Let’s break it down: “Cholesterol tends to  deposit in the arterial walls creating a bump called plaque” This widely accepted medical explanation doesn’t specify why cholesterol deposits may happen in the first place. It does not mention proteins, other fats and minerals are present in the plaque deposits as well, it just singles out cholesterol. It would be fair to look for alternative explanations for why this is happening in the body. Dr. Thomas E Levy in his book “Stop America’s #1 killer!” explains: “Vessel walls physically thicken over areas that had been depleted of collagen, in the form of atherosclerotic plaque. This thickening is the body’s way of focally fortifying the blood vessel wall in the absence of normal collagen formation, as the eventual consequence of vitamin C deficiency in that specific location…Advanced lesions known as fibrous plaques, can subsequently become sites of hemorrhage, complete blood vessel blockage and/or calcification”.

According to Dr. Levy then, the blood vessels, like any other connective tissue, maintain their elasticity with vitamin C. On the contrary, when they are defficient in vitamin C , they become weakened. Cholesterol travels to the vessel in an attempt to reinforce the area. This points to an important issue: vitamin c deficiency. Who could be a candidate for being defficient in vitamin C?, could it be those that follow the RDA (ridiculous deprivation allowance) for vitamin C which is less than 1 gram? ( It might interest you to know that a rat makes 10 grams of vitamin C every day, even more when they are stressed) It looks like we need to pay more attention to why the blood vessel becomes weak in the first place and that would help us keep cholesterol from having to patch up the weakened blood vessel and creating a thickening on the artery.

In this sense, we can see that one of the jobs of cholesterol in the body is being an antioxidant in cases of antioxidant deficiency. Udo Erasmus, in his book “Fats that heal, fats that kill” says cholesterol can act like an antioxidant when our level of mineral and vitamin antioxidants is low, and adds ” High levels of oxidized cholesterol are found in low density lipoprotein (LDL) and high-density lipoprotein (HDL) transport vehicles when our body lacks food-borne antioxidants. Some of these antioxidants like vitamin C, E, B3 and carotene as well as selenium, sulphur, and zinc/copper, can lower cholesterol” He also quotes Dr. Rath and Pauling, the Nobel Prize winner, known for turning the orthodox cholesterol dogma on its head with their simple assertion that “thickening arteries and casdiovascular disease revolve primarily around lack of vitamin C”

Again, it seems that antioxidants like vitamin C are very important both to prevent atherosclerosis in the first place and to lower cholesterol. “Lack of vitamin C, he says, results in weakened tissues…Tissue like arteries which are constantly under pressure require vitamin C to stay resilient…Lack of vitamin C results in weakened arteries and bleeding into tissue spaces”.

To learn more about ways to lower cholesterol naturally please join in next week.

Thanks for reading.