Mitos, realidades y guía para detectar si sus niveles de colesterol son peligrosos

Myths, facts and a guide to detecting if your cholesterol levels are dangerous

CHOLESTEROL: Learn how to detect if your cholesterol levels are dangerous

The term cholesterol is composed of the Greek cole = bile, ester = solid, followed by the suffix ol = alcohol and is an organic molecule with a waxy consistency similar to fat that is found in all cells of the human body. Due to the bad publicity that has been given to it, perhaps due to a lack of understanding of its function, we are wary of having high levels, even if it is the “good cholesterol”.

What you should know about cholesterol

If you suffer from high cholesterol, you should know certain facts before deciding to take any medication.

Our body is intelligent and, thanks to this, it manages in a synchronized and purposeful way all the mechanisms that we need to survive in a balanced way. Therefore, it should not surprise you that our body produces cholesterol (about 2000-3000 mg per day), which is equivalent to approximately 75% of all the cholesterol that our body needs.

  1. If you try to control and reduce the cholesterol you consume from your food, your body will take care of producing it; if you consume zero cholesterol, your body will produce 100% of the cholesterol necessary to survive. This is so that you understand that the cholesterol present in food has nothing to do with the cholesterol levels in the body .

  1. Why does our body need cholesterol? First of all, it is a component of every cell membrane in the body, providing balanced conditions inside the cell, as well as signaling to allow nutrients to enter and toxic substances to leave the cell, among other functions . In the cell membrane of the brain, for example, specific signaling takes place protecting neurons.
Our hormones are based on cholesterol . Steroid hormones (testosterone, progesterone, estrogen, etc.) are, as their names suggest, made of cholesterol. If the body does not have enough cholesterol, the production of these hormones becomes difficult.
Bile production . Bile is composed primarily of cholesterol and its functions include helping with the digestion and absorption of fats. If fat cannot be broken down and absorbed, then the absorption of fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E and K becomes difficult.
The body needs available cholesterol to repair and recover from exercise, wound healing, and other tissue damage. In fact, when you are stressed, your body anticipates the damage and produces LDL cholesterol for repair.

  1. Familial hypercholesterolemia . This is a hereditary disorder that causes very high levels of LDL (bad) cholesterol and can cause heart problems at an early age. This is the only situation in which it is valid to take medications to modulate the production of total cholesterol in the body.

 

  1. Low cholesterol levels are not synonymous with good health . What matters is that there is an adequate ratio between HDL (good cholesterol) and LDL (bad cholesterol). Very low cholesterol is just as bad as too high cholesterol.

  1. Cognitive ability, capacity and mental health are directly associated with cholesterol . In older adults, very low cholesterol levels (+-130) make them very vulnerable and have the highest rates of dementia.

  1. Total cholesterol is the sum of good cholesterol or high-density lipoprotein (HDL) and bad cholesterol or low-density lipoprotein (LDL). In fact, HDL and LDL are carriers that help transport cholesterol throughout the body. HDL picks up cholesterol and takes it back to the liver, while LDL carries cholesterol to the tissues and increases fat deposits in the tissues. This is not a bad thing, remember that point 2 mentioned their important functions.

  1. A cholesterol imbalance is not resolved with medication . Cholesterol can be lowered by force with statins, which are cholesterol-lowering medications. The problem is that it lowers the total cholesterol level, which is not good because it is interfering with a natural process in the body, in addition to blocking the functions mentioned in point 2.

  1. Balance in cholesterol levels can be achieved when the right amount of HDL enters the liver and the right amount of LDL reaches the tissues. In healthy people the ratio should be 3:1 total cholesterol to HDL. It has been found that a person with 1/3 or less of the ratio has less than half the risk of heart disease regardless of the total amount of cholesterol because HDL is considered protective and this is where the balance really lies.

  1. The real problem is in what has been called inflammation . Inflammation causes deterioration in the body. There is normal inflammation like when someone gets hurt and part of the body's care program is to cause inflammation around the trauma. When the inflammation is excessive and becomes chronic, the body must produce repair agents so, if the LDL is activated all the time, plaque is produced in an exaggerated way and it is because the LDL is oxidized due to inflammation. If you want to know more about chronic inflammation, check out my article here .
Low-density lipoprotein or LDL can be classified into two: large, bulging LDL, which is an efficient and healthy transporter; and small, dense, oxidized LDL.

  1. It is quite possible that chronic inflammation is at the root of cholesterol imbalance and in that sense, the solution is to reduce what causes this inflammation: sugar, flour and allergenic foods such as grains and dairy products. On the other hand, increasing healthy saturated fats, such as Omega-3, EPA and DHA, helps reduce inflammation.

The moment when LDL cholesterol becomes harmful

Both HDL and LDL are carriers and are equally good and important for our bodily functions, but for LDL cholesterol levels to be harmful, it needs to combine with blood sugar in a process called glycation.

In glycation, LDL loses its normal shape and becomes smaller, denser and oxidized, which prevents the liver's receptors from identifying it and therefore not accepting it, leaving this LDL floating in other parts of the body. This is the only situation in which LDL cholesterol can be harmful, if you are a normal person.

How to know if you have benign or harmful LDL cholesterol

A normal cholesterol test will tell you your total level, HDL level, and LDL level, but it will not be explicit as to what type of LDL your test shows.

One option is to ask your doctor for a fractional lipid profile where the different types of LDL in the sample taken can be determined.

Another option is to have a CT scan to measure calcium deposits in your coronary arteries, which will show you if you have plaque in your arteries or something else to worry about.

What happens when doing ketogenic diet cycles and in athletes whose cholesterol levels are high

The ketogenic diet means that most of the calories you consume each day come from healthy fats. In fact, when you are in ketosis, your body is transporting more fats through cholesterol. If we didn't have HDL and LDL cholesterol, we would never be able to burn fat because there would be no way to mobilize it.

Something similar happens with athletes. There is a possibility that if you practice sports and consume a ketogenic diet, you are what has been called a “hyper responder” of lean mass, that is, a person who has an organism that has adapted to move greater amounts of fat because it needs it and without affecting their heart health. This applies to both athletes and those who were athletes at one time and who may have high cholesterol levels.

If you exercise, your cells are used to using fat; if you run, your cells are used to using fat because fat is the main component of your fuel when performing physical activities.

If you have learned and become familiar with ketogenic cycles, it is possible that your cells have already adapted or are adapting to using fat as energy and your body is ready to use that fat. Thanks to this, the body produces more LDL lipoprotein that transports cholesterol and deposits it in the right place.

According to a study published in the journal BMJ Open Sports & Exercise Medicine , 20 individuals were followed, of which 10 were athletes who followed a low-carb diet, while the other 10 were athletes whose diet consisted of a high carbohydrate content. ( study )

Regarding the lipid profile (detailed measurement of cholesterol), it was found that total cholesterol, as well as HDL and LDL, were very high in athletes on a low-carbohydrate diet.

When examining the particle distribution, they found that the low-carb group had a more “diverse” distribution of their particles with significantly lower levels of dense and oxidized LDL. The conclusion is that there is a functional use for this lipoprotein (LDL) and that is that the body uses it for the functions mentioned above and as a constituent source of the fuel necessary for a part of athletic performance.

It is believed that what happens is that the fat is taken to the interior of the cell where the mitochondria are located, which form ketones and take them out of the cells, although sometimes they drip into the cell in a part called cytosol or intracellular fluid and cause what is called Acetyl-CoA . In this way, all the energy contained in nutrients such as glucose can be used, obtaining a maximum amount of ATP (Adenosine triphosphate).

Cholesterol, on the other hand, is synthesized in the cytoplasm (another part of the cell) but is in the neighborhood with ketones and it is inferred that this forces more LDL to be produced.

The only way for LDL to clog arteries is by acting on the immune system. So if your cholesterol levels, and specifically LDL, are elevated, do not hesitate to ask your doctor for a detailed lipid profile that can look at both types of LDL, especially before agreeing to take medications that will block ALL cholesterol production in your body. The latter can lead to complications at the cellular, hormonal and biliary levels.

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