The Cholesterol Myth

First of all, there are no good and bad cholesterols. Cholesterol is cholesterol, period. LDL stands for low density lipoprotein. HDL stands for high density lipoprotein. Lipoproteins are a combination of cholesterol and protein, and they serve an entirely different function than cholesterol does. Cholesterol is a steroid manufactured in the liver and is used in the cellular membrane of every cell in the body. It is also used as part of the body's inflamation response.

"Cholesterol is not necessarily the monster we have been led to believe that it is. It helps the liver digest fats and works with protein and lecithin to transport fats through our blood. Not only that, but cholesterol helps manufacture important male and female sex hormones. In addition, cholesterol helps keep skin moist. Cholesterol is so important that if not enough comes from food, the liver manufactures it. It is so essential that, unless it is oxidized, it is produced daily to build the membranes of new cells that must be formed in place of dead and dying cells." – Gary Null, Ph.D. The Complete Encyclopedia of Natural Healing, p317

So how did our medical community correlate cholesterol with heart disease? The key is in the word correlate. Let me give you an example. There is a correlation between the amount of ice cream consumed and death by drowning. As the rate of ice cream consumption goes up, the number of deaths by drowning also goes up. This is a correlation, not a cause. The cause of both effects, if you haven't guessed, is the summer heat.

Likewise, heart disease and cholesterol levels rise at the same time. But just as ice cream does not cause death by drowning, neither does cholesterol cause heart disease. What is the missing causal factor? Our sugar habit. The repeated over-consumption of processed carbohydrates and refined sugars causes resistance to two important hormones - insulin and leptin. Insulin's job is to regulate blood sugar levels, and leptin maintains body fat balance. As our body becomes more insulin and leptin resistant, two things happen: our chance of heart disease increases, and the liver creates more cholesterol. In fact, cholesterol levels have very little to do with the intake of dietary fat. This research is decades old news, but we still treat for cholesterol and not for insulin/leptin resistance.




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