Well . . . not really, but it isn’t bad either.
Research over the last fifteen years has shown that cholesterol is part of the body’s natural defense against inflammation. If you get rid of the cholesterol without getting rid of the inflammation, you’re removing one of the tools that your body uses to heal itself. It would almost be like taking a medicine to remove the white blood cells in the blood when a person has cancer.
The answer is to remove the underlying inflammation and we know how to do that—good diet, moderate exercise, manage stress, and stop smoking.
A 2002 study of 28,000 women found that a test for inflammation was twice as good an indicator of future heart attacks or strokes when compared to cholesterol levels. Chronic inflammation can irritate blood vessels and cause a buildup of plaque. This plaque can form clots that restrict blood flow or break off and block off smaller blood vessels—one of the causes of strokes.
One way of looking at high cholesterol is this—it is an indication of a very unhealthy body. Your body is warning you that it is struggling. It might be telling you that:
- Your body likes movement but you are too sedentary.
- Your body likes natural foods but you’re feeding it processed foods.
- Your body likes fresh air and clean water, but you’re drinking coffee in a smoke-filled room.
Listen to your body. It is very smart.
Is Low Cholesterol a Good Thing?
Many studies have found that older people with high cholesterol live longer than older people with low cholesterol. This makes sense; if you’re older and you have inflammation, you would want higher cholesterol to protect yourself from the inflammation. In other words, older people with low cholesterol tend to die of infectious diseases more often than older people with high cholesterol die of heart disease. Professor David R. Jacobs and other participants at a conference on cholesterol at the University of Minnesota reported on 19 large studies of more than 68,000 deaths in which low cholesterol was correlated with an increased risk of dying from gastrointestinal and respiratory diseases.
On the other hand, young people with high cholesterol have more health problems and die sooner of cardiac disease than those with low cholesterol. This also makes sense. If a 40 year old man dies of a heart attack, he must have been extremely unhealthy and it would make sense that his body would have created more cholesterol in its efforts to manage the inflammation. An exception is younger people with HIV/AIDS; those with higher cholesterol live longer than those with low cholesterol. Remember that the cholesterol is fighting infection and inflammation.
It’s an indicator of a disease—not a disease in itself.
Should You Take Cholesterol-lowering Drugs?
You need to talk to your doctor who will consider your age, your sex, and your other health issues. She may want to order a CRP test to find out if you have an underlying infection or inflammation that hasn’t been addressed.
You may come from one of the families with familial hypercholesterolemia. If so, make sure your doctor is aware of that fact. These families have very high cholesterol yet their members live to very old age without cholesterol-lowering drugs.
It’s a complicated issue. Probably you can improve your health and lower your cholesterol naturally through exercise, diet, reducing stress, and stopping smoking, but your doctor should guide you through that process.
