Cholesterol 101
Cholesterol is the mother of all hormones. It is produced and regulated by your body, and is responsible for a host of bodily functions. It is a necessary component of every day life.
Cholesterol is a critical component of cell membranes, the precursor to all steroid hormones, a precursor to vitamin D, and the limiting factor that brain cells need to make connections with one another called synapses, making it essential to learning and memory.
Here’s a few examples.
Brain function
[1] In the late 1990s and early 2000s, research was pointing to an unknown compound made by glial cells that was responsible for the ability of neurons to form synapses, or connections between each other.
Thoughts, memories, learning, and all mental function is dependent on the formation of synapses, so the ability to form them will directly impact mental functioning and health.
In the absence of this– as yet unknown– “glial factor,” neurons formed few synapses, and the synapses they formed were inefficient and poorly functioning. In the presence of glial cells, which secrete the unknown factor, neurons formed many, highly efficient synapses.
So what is this “glial factor”?
Research in 2001, by Mauch, et al., published in volume 294 of Science magazine, determined that the unknown glial factor is cholesterol, which is released by the glial cells in a carrier called “apolipoprotein E.”5
Steroid Hormones
Cholesterol is the precursor to all steroid hormones, including:
- Glucocorticoids (blood sugar regulation)
- Mineralcorticoids (mineral balance and blood pressure regulation)
- Sex Hormones (many functions)
Cholesterol is the precursor to a hormone called pregnenolone, which has important functions itself, but is also the precursor to all other steroid hormones.
Pregnenolone is converted to progesterone, a sex hormone, which in turn is converted into cortisol, which regulates inflammation and blood sugar, aldosterone, which regulates mineral balance and blood pressure, or testosterone, a type of sex hormone referred to as an androgen, which regulates libido, muscle mass, and plays other roles.
In females, and to a lesser degree in males, testosterone is further modified, undergoing conversion to estradiol, a different type of sex hormone called an estrogen.
Harvey et al., Biochemistry: 3rd Edition, Baltimore: Lippincott, 2005, pp. 235-238.
Vitamin D
Since cholesterol is a precursor to vitamin D, inhibiting the synthesis of cholesterol will also inhibit the synthesis of vitamin D. Since sunlight is required to turn cholesterol into vitamin D, avoiding the sun will likewise undermine our ability to synthesize vitamin D. And since vitamin D-rich foods are also rich in cholesterol, low-cholesterol diets are inherently deficient in vitamin D.
Vitamin D is best known for its role in calcium metabolism and bone health, but new roles are continually being discovered for it, including roles in mental health, blood sugar regulation, the immune system, and cancer prevention. Yet standard modern advice — take cholesterol-lowering drugs, avoid the sun, eat a low-cholesterol diet — combined with a recommended daily intake of vitamin D that is only a tenth of what many researchers believe to be sufficient all seems to pave the way for widespread vitamin D deficiency.
Perhaps that’s why, according to Dr. John Cannel, President of the Vitamin D Council,most whites and nearly all blacks in modern society are deficient in vitamin D.
Cellular Helth
[2] Surrounding each of our cells is a membrane called the plasma membrane. The plasma membrane is a continuous double-layer of phospholipids, interweaved with cholesterol and proteins. Phospholipids are composed of two fatty acids attached to a phosphate compound as a head.
The phosphate head is water-soluble, also called “hydrophilic” (water-loving), and the fatty-acids are water-insoluble, or “hydrophobic” (water-fearing). Since outside the cell is a water-containing, or aqueous, environment, and inside the cell is also aqueous, the phosphate heads of the phospholipids face both the cell’s inside and the environment outside the cell, while the fatty acids face the inside of the membrane.
Without cholesterol, cell membranes would be too fluid, not firm enough, and too permeable to some molecules. In other words, it keeps the membrane from turning to mush.
Cholesterol does not play a role in Heart attack, stroke, or atherosclorotic plaque formation
Read the clear and detailed explanation [here] Near the bottom of that page. It outlines exactly how plaques form. I’ll give you a hint…it’s not related to cholesterol at all.
Side Effects of Cholesterol Lowering Drugs
The list of statin side effects is a long one. Known side-effects of statins include muscle weakness and/or pain (myopathy), liver damage , kidney failure and cataracts. It gets worse. Statins inhibit CoQ10 synthesis. Statins also cause memory loss, transient global amnesia, and lowered sex drive. Low cholesterol has even been strongly linked with diabetes and cancer.
And it’s not surprising, given that cholesteol is responsible for so many critical bodily functions (see above). And side effects are likely much more common than is actually reported, yet cholesterol itself appears to play no functional role in heart disease.The FDA also issued a new warning against statins because of the occurrence of side effects.
But What About the Studies?
Most of the studies are produced and funded by the same corporations that make statins, and it’s a multi billion dollar industry. They are rife with conflicts of interest. They are heavily biased towards “positive results”. They even continue to lower the “standard for healthy cholesterol levels” so they can justify prescrbing it to children. What an industry!
Many of the studies done only look at the fact that the drugs were able to lower cholesterol. But a closer look at any of them will show you that heath either declined or did not improve. Now we can see this deception, because we understand that cholesterol has noting to do with it!
The studies that attempt to link high cholesterol with heart disease are only epidemiological, which means they are nothing more than surveys that attempt to make correlations between two variables. And as any good scientist will tell you, CORRELATION IS NOT CAUSATION CORRELATION IS NOT CAUSATION CORRELATION IS NOT CAUSATION CORRELATION IS NOT CAUSATION CORRELATION IS NOT CAUSATION CORRELATION IS NOT CAUSATION CORRELATION IS NOT CAUSATION!!! Not to mention, the correlations are often weak with little supporting evidence.
Epidemiological studies are incapable of drawing conclusions and proving causation. You can not discover a factual mechanism of action by utilizing an epidemiological survey. All these people are doing is linking ice cream sales with murders. Ice cream sales correlate very strongly with murders, but this does not mean that we should ban ice cream, it means that more murders happen in the summer time. A very simple but effective example of the drawbacks of “survey studies”.
Stop Popping Pills!
New studies continue to punch holes in the cholesterol/heeart health hypothesis. It’s becoming abundantly clear that we are going about it the wrong way. But the system (health insurance, doctor salaries, pharmaceutical industry) has a vested interest in keeping things the way they are. It’s true that it’s difficult to get a man to see the truth when his salary depends on ignoring it.
Taking statins may reduce your cholesterol, but the effects on health are negative. You will be weak, fat, and stupid, if the low cholesterol levels don’t kill you first. (Or if you don’t kill yourself first because your dick doesn’t work anymore…)
Dublin S, et al. Statin use and risk of community acquired pneumonia in older people: population based case-control study. BMJ 2009;338:b2137
Benati D, et al. Opposite effects of simvastatin on the bactericidal and inflammatory response of macrophages to opsonized S. aureus. J Leukoc Biol. 2010;87(3):433-42
Hippisley-Cox J, et al. Unintended effects of statins in men and women in England and Wales: population based cohort study using the QResearch database BMJ 2010;340:c2197
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