High cholesterol: It’s your stress, not your diet
Remember when eggs and butter were deemed to be bad because they could cause high cholesterol levels? Now you hear they may be OK to eat after all. And maybe high-cholesterol foods aren’t to blame. With all this flip-flopping back and forth, how do you know what to believe?
Are high-cholesterol foods an issue or not?
In the same way that all fats were once thought to be bad for you—we now know that some fats are important for good health. Recent scientific research indicates that cholesterol may not be the demon it’s been made out to be.
What is cholesterol?
It is “a waxy, fat-like substance that’s found in all cells of the body,” according to the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. The body produces the cholesterol it needs and the liver uses it to make vitamin D, some hormones, and bile acid to help digest fatty foods. It is also needed to build and maintain cell membranes. Plus it’s an important component of the brain. In fact, cholesterol is vital to brain neuron function, according to Dr. David Perlmutter, M.D., neurologist and author of the book Brain Maker.
Cholesterol is also used by the immune system’s white blood cells to help fight off bacteria. It occurs naturally in all animals, including humans, and is found in animal foods like eggs, butter and animal fats, shrimp, crab, lobster, and other shellfish.
So what is good or bad about cholesterol?
Cholesterol became a household term in the 1960s when the American Heart Association first introduced cholesterol guidelines and labeled one type of cholesterol (high-density lipoprotein or HDL cholesterol) as “good” and another type (low-density lipoprotein or LDL cholesterol) as “bad”.
“Good” or HDL has traditionally been considered “good” because this type of cholesterol travels through your blood collecting excess LDL cholesterol and returning it to the liver where it can be broken down rather than adding to plaque buildup in your arteries.
“Bad” or LDL has traditionally been considered “bad” because this type of cholesterol has the potential to accumulate in your arteries as plaque and eventually clog your arteries.
Cholesterol in food
When it comes to food, the cholesterol you eat may have been wrongly implicated all along. It now appears that dietary cholesterol has little to no effect on levels in the body. One study evaluating the association of saturated fat with cardiovascular disease by Ronald M. Krauss, M.D., senior scientist and director of atherosclerosis research at Children’s Hospital Oakland Research Institute, indicated that dietary fat does not increase cardiovascular disease mortality.
Dr. Krauss also found that there are actually multiple types of LDL cholesterol, not just one type. These different types of LDL cholesterol contain different sizes and densities of particles, ranging from very dense to fluffy, and from extra small to large. The smaller the particle, the denser it is. The larger the particle, the fluffier it is. The large, fluffy types seem to pass right through the arteries and pose no medical problems.
Small dense or light fluffy?
On the contrary, the small, dense types correlate with heart disease. As it turns out, Dr. Krauss and other researchers determined that a diet high in carbohydrates is linked to the small, dense type of cholesterol, and diets higher in saturated fats and animal fats are linked to the larger, fluffy type.
Recent studies have shown that high cholesterol levels may not increase the risk for heart disease or morbidity after all, and one study by the Department of Internal Medicine at Yale University School of Medicine even showed those with lower overall cholesterol had a higher morbidity rate than those with higher overall cholesterol. Again, this may have more to do with the actual type—small and dense, compared to large and fluffy.
The standard cholesterol tests your doctor may prescribe do not generally distinguish among the different types of LDL. You may have high LDL but it may all be large and fluffy, or you may have low LDL but it may be predominately small and dense. More advanced tests are available that can show these differences.
Why cholesterol itself isn’t a bad thing
When arteries are damaged by a lifestyle event such as stress, high blood pressure, nicotine, or other toxins, cholesterol is the body’s first response to help repair the artery, according to Dr. Alejandro Junger, M.D., cardiologist and author of Clean Gut. Similar to forming a scab on a wound, the body sends cholesterol plaque to help repair the damage.
This is the small, high-density type of cholesterol. In a healthy body, healthy cells would then continue to repair the artery, and the cholesterol plaque would be reabsorbed back into the body and not accumulate and become a health issue.
You can also think of cholesterol as being like asphalt to repair potholes in a road. When there is tissue damage, it signals the body to create more cholesterol. If you have high cholesterol, you need to consider where the damage is occurring, and what is the root cause of the damage. Stress is a big component of inflammation, which triggers cellular damage. Oxidative stress is internal stress (similar to oxidation or rust on a car), where you have too many free radicals damaging cells.
How stress increases cholesterol
When the body experiences chronic stress (of any type: mental/emotional, physical, oxidative), the signal to stop sending cholesterol to that damaged area never gets turned off—and the cholesterol plaque continues to build up. Chronic stress creates chronic inflammation. Chronic inflammation exacerbates this process and keeps the plaque building until the affected artery is clogged.
Some causes of chronic stress (besides mental/emotional) include:
- poor diet (from processed and ultra-processed “food-like-substances”)
- nutrient deficiencies (vitamins, minerals, and amino acids are necessary to build healthy new cells)
- environmental toxins (phthalates, parabens, medications, air pollution, water pollution, etc.)
- excessive exercise OR a sedentary lifestyle
- chronic infections (Lyme, viruses, bacterial infections, SIBO, H. pylori overgrowth, Candida, etc.)
Living a healthy, low-stress lifestyle, including mindfulness practices like meditation and yoga, can help turn off the conveyor belt of plaque being sent to a damaged artery.
How statins can harm your health
Statins work by limiting the body’s ability to produce cholesterol. So in our asphalt example above, you may have cellular damage (potholes) but now the body is unable to make cholesterol (asphalt) to repair the damage. This is akin to putting a piece of tape over the engine light on your dash. You’ve maybe stopped your high cholesterol, but not the underlying damage, and now the body has no way to repair itself.
Statins increase muscle loss. Considering we lose about 1% muscle mass per year after age 60, (and many people on statins are over age 60), this percentage of muscle mass lost is increased for those on statins. Statins also deplete CoQ10, a fat-soluble antioxidant that functions as a coenzyme in the body’s energy production process, which can lead to or exacerbate fatigue and energy loss.
There is very little research to show that statins help prevent a first-time heart attack or stroke. (However, they may help prevent a second heart attack or stroke if you have already had one.)
And for women in particular research shows taking a statin increases your risk of diabetes by 71%
What does new cholesterol research mean for you?
Keep in mind that diets high in carbohydrates are linked to an increased risk of heart disease, and diets high in healthy fats —with some animal fats—may be healthier than they were once thought to be.
If you’re currently taking statin drugs or being treated for high cholesterol, talk to your doctor about the risks vs. benefits of taking statins—especially if you’re a woman. And work with a functional wellness provider to get to the true root of WHY you have high cholesterol to begin with. It’s NOT from a statin deficiency. Book a free call, I can help.
Leave a comment, what was your biggest takeaway?
