Your Cholesterol

Your blood cholesterol numbers could be telling you something quite different from what you've been taught. And so what you should do in response is probably quite different as well.

If you have ever worried that your cholesterol might be too high, and you've done all of the things you're "supposed" to do in response, this could have distracted you from far more important problems festering under the surface.

Your cholesterol could be a very important signal, but if you have focused on silencing the signal by lowering it with drugs, dietary changes, or supplements, then you could be missing the opportunity to discover the real underlying issue. And this could come back to haunt you later.

What the heck am I talking about? I will tell you my cholesterol story, and you will begin to understand.

My Big Drop In Cholesterol

Between March of 2019 and October of 2021 my total cholesterol dropped by 112 points, from 289 to 177, and then by March 2023 it was down another 19 points to 158 for a total drop of 131 points.

Why the big drop? I can't be 100% certain, but I have some strong hunches. 

Before I get into the likely reasons for the big drop in my cholesterol, let's look at what cholesterol is and does because "high cholesterol" is not necessarily a problem. It can be a sign of a problem, but it is generally not the problem itself.

What Is Cholesterol?

Cholesterol is a lipid (fats are also lipids) made by the body and used in cell membranes, bile production, the formation of steroid hormones like the sex hormones, the formation of "vitamin" D (a steroid prohormone), and more.

In other words, "Cholesterol is not a disease," as Nora Gedgaudas exclaimed in one of my interviews with her for the Eat4Earth event.

Cholesterol in the blood is carried by various types of proteins called lipoproteins, each of which has its own unique function and purpose. So when we measure cholesterol in the blood, we are actually measuring cholesterol's carrier proteins. These carrier proteins also carry nutrients like fat-soluble vitamins. 

What Causes "High" Cholesterol?

Total "blood cholesterol" (the sum of various types of cholesterol-carrying proteins) rises under conditions of oxidative stress and inflammation. It also rises if the liver is not metabolizing cholesterol properly, such as in genetic familial hypercholesterolemia.

Blood cholesterol can increase as a result of chronic high blood sugar (as with diabetes or pre-diabetes) or low thyroid function (hypothyroidism). It naturally increases during pregnancy and while nursing, during weight loss, and during ketosis (e.g. while on a ketogenic diet or diabetic ketosis). Many things cause blood cholesterol to rise.  

So blood cholesterol is a measure of what is happening in the body. It is often a measure of the body's need for cholesterol. One of cholesterol's key roles is repair of cellular membranes. So the liver produces it and exports it to the rest of the body via the bloodstream. 

Blood cholesterol can also be a measure of the movement of cholesterol from cells to the liver for recycling or disposal. This sometimes occurs during the initial stages of active weight loss on a low-carbohydrate, high-fat diet like a ketogenic diet.

Cholesterol also functions as a "sponge" for bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS), one of the most inflammatory molecules in the body. So an elevation of LPS or other endotoxins in the blood (referred to as "endotoxemia") can induce an elevation of cholesterol as a protective mechanism.

What Does "High" Cholesterol Indicate?

When blood cholesterol is chronically higher than "normal" (whatever that is), it is probably most commonly a sign of chronically elevated oxidative stress (R, R, R), inflammation (R, R, R), and/or LPS (R). 

The Error of "Fire Truck Medicine"

Cholesterol is protecting you 24/7, so it is your friend. It is not the enemy any more than fire trucks are an enemy. Cholesterol is no more the cause of inflammation or heart attacks than fire trucks that show up at the scene of a fire are the cause of the fire or the collapse of a building after it has been charred by the fire and water-logged by fire hoses. Yet that is how Western medicine views elevated blood cholesterol.

"Fire truck medicine" chases and attacks fire trucks and firefighters because it views cholesterol as the cause of cardiovascular disease, but it is not. Cholesterol is involved, but it is the not ultimate cause. 

And attemps to lower blood cholesterol via statin drugs have failed to reduce cardiovascular disease to any significant degree, if at all. Statins appear to have a slight benefit only in men over a certain age that have already had a heart attack. And a close look at the data suggests that this effect is actually due to the small anti-inflammatory effect of statin drugs, not their cholesterol-lowering effect.

Furthermore, "high" cholesterol seems to confer health benefits to women above a certain age, possibly due to its ability to bind to LPS and bacteria, thereby reducing inflammation and infection in older age when immune system function is declining.

In fact, lowering your cholesterol too much could be hazardous to your health because of cholesterol's roles in processes like building and stabilizing cell membranes and binding to LPS. In an interview Thomas Lewis, PhD gave an example of what can happen when statins are used to aggressively lower cholesterol.

Can Statins Cause Heart Attacks?

As described by Dr. Lewis, a certain executive at Kaiser Permanente (the HMO that provides medical care to many Americans) had suppressed his cholesterol into the 130s using a statin drug. And this could have been a contributor in his development of periodontal disease if not enough cholesterol was available to properly maintain cell membraines, including those in his gum tissue. 

As a result of the periodontal disease, he needed to have many teeth extracted. And a dental professional extracted all of his upper teeth at one time, unleashing a flood of bacterial LPS into his bloodstream. Shortly thereafter, he had a massive heart attack,

The cause of his heart attack could have been damage to his arteries due to infection of the arteries with oral bacteria and/or LPS-induced inflammation and oxidative stress because there was too little cholesterol available to mop up the LPS before it could cause such grave harm. Fortunately, he did not die from the heart attack.

Of course, this is speculation and certainly cannot be used to indict the use or overuse of statins. But there is plenty of rigorous scientific evidence of mechanisms by which statins can contribute to the risk of heart attack. Perhaps the most well-known of these is the fact that many statins lower coenzyme Q10, which is essential for heart health and function.

In light of the volumes of evidence on the potential benefits and hazards of statins, which includes far more than what I have mentioned here, Dr. Lewis believes that statins generally do not protect people from heart attacks and may in fact cause them.

One study in particular kind of says it all. This study showed that heart disease is on the rise in the United States, "despite" widespread use of statins. 48% of the study participants were on statins.

This is not to say that statins are the main cause of heart attacks. They almost certainly are not. But they do not seem to be helping, and they very well may be worsening the situation.

But Doesn't High Cholesterol Cause Arterial Plaques and Heart Attacks?

You might be wondering, "But aren't arterial plaques made of cholesterol, and don't arterial plaques cause heart attacks?" Cholesterol is certainly a component of arterial plaques, but the cholesterol didn't get into arterial plaques because it was "high".

In addition to that, most heart attacks occur with "normal" or "low" cholesterol. "High" cholesterol is a very unreliable predictor of heart attack risk. So "high" cholesterol is rarely something to be treated directly.

So what is the main cause of heart attacks?

A Surprising Cause Heart Attacks 

A strong body of clinical evidenc in the world of bioregulatory medicine and biological dentistry suggests that the cause of most heart attacks is probably ... brace for it ... bacteria migrating from your mouth to the lining of your arteries, which is called the endothelium. That's right, infection of the arterial endothelium by bacteria originating in the mouth may be the cause of most heart attacks.

This is what could have happened to the Kaiser Permanente executive who suffered a massive heart attack after having all of his upper teeth extracted at one time due to periodontal disease.

One of the explanations scientists have for what happens when the arterial endothielum get infected by bateria is that immune cells called macrophages show up to eat the bad bugs infecting the endothelium. Cholesterol is transported to the scene to repair endothelial damage,.

And if cholesterol has bound to LPS, either in the blood or at the site of cholesterol's repair work, macrophages detect the LPS attached to the cholesterol and gobble up the cholesterol, thinking that it is bacteria.. Macrophages also gobble up oxidized cholesterol, cholesterol that has been damaged by oxidants, which are in excess under conditions of oxidative stress. 

Macrophages stuffed with cholesterol become "foam cells", and foam cells become a significant component of arterial plaques. All of this can occur because of wreckless dental work, poor dental hygiene, LPS in the blood, oxidative stress, or other factors.

Heart attacks do not seem to be caused by "high" cholesterol, even though cholesterol may become elevated in the cardiovascular disease process. But back to the story of my statin-free drop in blood cholesterol ...

A Detailed Look At My Cholesterol Numbers

The table below shows my cholesterol numbers in March of 2019, October of 2021, and March of 2023.

Does this mean I now have lower cardiovascular risk? Perhaps. These numbers probably reveal that there is less inflammation, oxidative stress, and LPS in my body. And there were certain things that I did during this period that would have reduced inflammation, oxidative stress, and LPS in my body.  

Here Is What I Did

Starting in mid 2020, I started blending cruciferous vegetables, which promotes the antioxidant response element (ARE) that promotes the production of endogenous antioxidants like glutathione. Stimulating the ARE also promotes detoxification of toxins, a source of oxidative stress. So this could have reduced oxidative stress in my body.

In 2020, I used several protocols to treat dysbiosis, an imbalance in my gut bacteria. This could have reduced the amount of LPS that my body could have been absorbing from my gut, thereby reducing a major source of inflammation.

In mid 2021, I started to improve the production and fluidity of my bile by consuming more phosphatidylcholine from sunflower lecithin and eggs. Increasing bile production and fluidity could have improved my body's ability to excrete toxins and excess cholesterol since toxins and excess and damaged cholesterol are carried out of the liver in the bile.

Finally, in December of 2022 I had a cavitation surgery on my upper and lower jaws at the sites where my wisdom teeth had been extracted in 1989. Cavitations are pockets of low-density bone and bone marrow that often develop at sites of tooth extractions and are typically populated with pathogenic organisms. So my jaw bones had been rotting with bacterial decay for almost 35 years, and this was probably a significant source of LPS.

The cavitation surgery to excavate and sanitize my jaw bone cavitations could have reduced the amount of LPS circulating in my bloodstream. And it could have reduced the potential migratiion of bad bacteria from the cavitations to my artieries.

Did I Change My Diet?

Aside from increasing my intake of blended cruciferous vegetables and eating a less ketogenic diet, I did not make any huge changes to my diet.

This entire time, I've continued to eat as much pastured beef, lamb, eggs, and other sources of wholesome saturated fat and cholesterol as I want. I eat a lot of these foods because my body often craves on thrives on them, and I recognize that they are not the deadly poisons that some dietary dictocrats would have you believe. I also eat plenty of fish high in omega-3 fatty acids (e.g. herring), which by the way also contain a lot of cholesterol.

Realize that very little of the cholesterol in your blood comes from your diet, and if were to absorb cholesterol from your diet, your body would just reduce its own production of cholesterol.

However, I should mention that people with certain variants in the PPAR-gamma (PPARG) and APOE genes should probably control their intake of saturated fat because in these people saturated fat can induce pro-inflammatory responses. Although I have an unfavorable variants of PPARG, I have favorable variants of APOE.

The bottom line is that my "high" cholesterol came way down without any drugs, big changes in my diet, or avoiding dietary cholesterol or saturated fat.

What About A "Heart Healthy" Diet?

I definiltely did not shift to a "heart healthy" diet of whole grains and legumes. In fact, to the extent that the lectins in whole grains and legumes can cause intestinal inflammation in many people, such a "heart healthy" diet could actually cause blood cholesterol to rise, as cruelly ironic as that might seem to anybody who has disciplined themselves to adopt this kind of diet. But this is not to say that this diet is not right for some people. It could be.

But the idea that the grain-based "heart healthy" diet is what everybody should eat to reduce the risk of heart disease and heart attacks is just one of many misconceptions of mainstream "nutrition". Concepts like this can take hold of the minds of earnest health seekers and be hard to let go of and cause orthorexia, which is an unhealthy, anxiety-addled obsession with eating "correctly".

And when a person is in the grip of such ideas, even if their health gets worse after beginning such a diet, they can't imagine that their symptoms could have anything to do with the "correct" diet they are eating. I have a name for ideas that are this "infectious" and hard to shake, I call them "idea viruses".

The idea that "high cholesterol" is the cause of heart disease and heart attacks is an idea virus that misleads people into focusing on cholesterol in the wrong way. Instead of trying to lower high cholesterol with drugs and diet, we should realize that "high" cholesterol is a signal of something going on in the body, such as an inflammatory response to pathogens. 

So what blood level of cholesterol should be considered "high" anyway?

"High" Cholesterol: How High is High?

Over the years, the level of blood cholesterol considered "high" by mainstream "Pharmedicine" has been declining. First it was 220+. Then it was 200+. Now it is 180+. These declining thresholds probably have more to do with selling statin drugs than anything else, but that does not mean that they are totally without merit. 

However, recent science shows that other cholesterol-related markers, such as apolipoproteins A1 and B and LDL particle number and size, are better indicators of problems in the body than total blood cholesterol.

In other words, do not focus so much on your total blood cholesterol number. And if total cholesterol is "high", consider what it might be telling you, instead of simply trying to lower it. We need to think about cholesterol in an entirely different way.

So How Should We Think About Cholesterol?

In my view, the bottom line that "high" blood cholesterol should be viewed primarily as a marker of elevated LPS, inflammation, infection, and/or oxidative stress, and secondarily as a possible sign of liver/gallbladder congestion. or chronically elevated blood sugar, or low thyroid function, etc..

And it should always be interpreted in the context of the your current metabolic state. Are you losing weight? Are you on a ketogenic diet? Are you pregnant or nursing? In these circumstances, "high" cholesterol could be totally normal.

And again, your total blood cholesterol is not the most important cholesterol metric to pay attention to. Other markers like oxidized LDL, ratios like the LDL / HDL, apolipoproteins A1 and B, particle number and size, etc. matter more than total cholesterol.

Remember that "high" cholesterol is the "fire truck". Alternatively, you could think of it as a "check engine" indicator light on the dashboard of your vehicle. Don't try to turn off the indicator. Heed it as a signal to investigage what what is happening with your gut, liver, mouth, thyroid, toxic load, oxidative stress, inflammation, hidden infections, etc.

Focus On This Instead

Instead, focus on looking for and addressing the underlying cause(s), things like:

• Intestinal dysbiosis, hyperpermeability, inflammation
• Jaw bone cavitations and other types of hidden oral infections
• Oxidative stress, possibly caused by heavy metals, mycotoxins (mold toxins), and/or genetic variants that result in low production of endogenous antioxidants or high output of inflammatory cytokines
• Slow detoxification processes, which could be the result of liver and gallbladder congestion, LPS, oxidative stress, inflammation, or single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in genes that code for inefficient versions of enzymes and other proteins involved in detoxification processes. 

And there is so much more to consider, but you get the idea. Look at the whole picture, and decipher what "high" cholesterol is is telling you. Then do something about that. Do not target cholesterol itself.

A More Systematic Approach

If you are working on things like "leaky gut syndrome", or detoxifying your body, or a chronic infection, make sure that you are going about it systematically.

First, look far enough "upsteam" to find the actual root cause(s). A problem in the gut, liver, immune system, thyroid gland, etc is usually a sign of something else that is causing it. 

If you believe that you have high cholesterol, or have abnormalities in other cholesterol-related markers, then it would be a good idea to figure out what could be causing it. A comprehensive assessment process like the one that is the first step of the Bio-Individual Blueprint system could be just what you need to figure out what is going on.

And other steps like "Neuroendocrine & Metabolic Tune-Up", "Perfect Pre-Tox", "Dynamic Detox & Disinfection", and "Top-To-Bottom Gut Restoration" could be what you need to finally eliminate the root causes, in the right sequence, with the least struggle.

To learn more, download the Bio-Individual Blueprint Roadmap.