Cholesterol, no longer a bogeyman to be afraid

As we age, we are introduced to new terms like cholesterol. Folks say it's bad and we take their word for it. Our body synthesizes cholesterol on its own. How can something that our body makes be bad? Let's look at why our body produces cholesterol. Cholesterol is used to make sex hormones like testosterone and estrogen without which the human race cannot propagate. Cholesterol is needed to produce Vitamin D and our stress hormone cortisol. Bile, secreted by the liver to digest fats, is made from cholesterol. Every cell in the body is lined with cholesterol to provide stability.

Dietary cholesterol is not the same as the cholesterol found in our blood. That's why we are told to fast for 8-12 hours before our blood cholesterol test. By then, all the cholesterol we ate previously would be fully absorbed by our body. So, when we see high cholesterol in our blood tests, it is not due to high cholesterol in our diet. As we saw before, our body produces its own cholesterol. Also, when we do eat cholesterol, our body accordingly reduces its own production of cholesterol [1]. That's why in the US all dietary restrictions on cholesterol have been removed since 2015 [2]. Unlike bad news, good news travel slowly. That's why we still have so many folks unnecessarily cutting down on nutritious but cholesterol-rich foods like eggs, and shellfish.

Why did cholesterol get such a bad rap? It is because we found that plaque in our arteries contains cholesterol. Plaque reduces blood flow in our arteries and may cause heart attacks. Cholesterol being fat is used to heal damaged blood vessels. It has to be fat as otherwise, blood will just wash it away. It is akin to fixing water pipes. We won't use cement or glue as it will get washed away but epoxy putty as it can resist water. But cholesterol by itself does not cause plaque. When the cholesterol is oxidized, plaque results, we must eat more fruits and vegetables to reduce oxidation. Plaque contains not only cholesterol but other fatty compounds, calcium, and a blood-clotting material called fibrin. It is very similar to how our body heals a cut on our skin. I wonder why only cholesterol got the blame and not calcium.

Instead of finding what caused damage to our blood vessels, we got misled by folks claiming its cholesterol. That's why in spite of stopping our body from producing cholesterol with medications like statin, heart attack still remains a major cause of death these days.

Sources:

[1] https://www.cabdirect.org/cabdirect/abstract/19331404579

[2] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6024687/