Cholesterol is Healthy!

There is much hoopla in the media today about the terrible effects of cholesterol in your body, and how even previously considered “normal” levels of cholesterol can cause arterial and heart disease. As a doctor who has studied the human nervous system in great detail, I think it is necessary to put out a logical perspective on the cholesterol discussion. Here is the big shocker: cholesterol is good. Cholesterol is fantastic, even. You need cholesterol for everything that you do. How can I make this sweeping claim? I have two compelling reasons. Reason number one: hormones, such as testosterone, androgens, and estrogen. These are important chemicals that your body makes…out of cholesterol. Reason number two: your brain. This organ is so important that if your body loses connection with it, you die. Your brain cannot function without cholesterol. Your nervous system is bathed in cholesterol, enabling it to relay messages from the brain to the body, and enabling thoughts and memories to form through synapse connection. In addition, cholesterol is the building block for many tissues throughout your body.

Even a cursory internet search on the helpful effects of cholesterol in the human body will yield solid, scientific facts in support of cholesterol. In July of 2005, Chris Masterjohn wrote an article, published at www.cholesterol-and-health.com, about the effects of cholesterol on the brain. What’s more, this article shows that drugs which destroy cholesterol in your body have the effect of disorientation, memory loss, and aches and pains in the body. I ask new patients who present in my office with back pain whether they are on cholesterol medication. Cholesterol-lowering drugs are often a contributing factor to joint and muscle pain.

Then why is it that cholesterol levels are so high when someone has a heart attack? Let me put it into perspective: do umbrellas cause rain? Think about cause and effect for one moment. If cholesterol is the building block for nervous system function, as well as skin and membrane creation, then of course it will be high after the body experiences a traumatic event. Your body knows how to fix itself innately, and it will send in the reinforcements when there is a problem. Your body does indeed concentrate plaques of cholesterol in damaged arteries, because it is trying to fix the artery. 

Cholesterol is made by your body, in the amount that your body needs. Excess cholesterol is removed by fiber, naturally, through feces. And blood cholesterol levels are lowered when you eat well and exercise in a healthy lifestyle—because you are healthy, and need less internal repair. Having too little cholesterol mimics the disease Multiple Sclerosis. M.S. is caused by de-myelination—the loss of the insulating layer which enables the nervous system to function. Myelin is made of at least one-fifth cholesterol. I am not asking you to take my word for it; go to www.cholesterol-and-health.com. Read the evidence for yourself.