Contrary to popular belief, cholesterol is not just some evil mass. The things you usually hear about cholesterol goes a little something like this: You wake up in the morning and you eat a large breakfast of bacon, eggs and sausages. All that fat, which is converted to cholesterol in the body, then proceeds to clog your coronary arteries. As a result, you get a massive heart attack because blood and oxygen cannot get through to your heart. Therefore, the general idea is that if you lower your cholesterol everything will be all good.
However, if cholesterol is such a bad thing, why does the human body synthesize up to 1500 milligrams, which is the equivalent of you eating ten eggs a day. The body needs cholesterol to perform crucial functions that includes the production of certain hormones.
In fact, if you take a look at the Eskimos, they eat a diet high in animal fat, but they have relatively low rates of heart disease. This is because cholesterol is not the evil villain that everyone makes it out to be, the true villain is oxidized cholesterol.
Many alternative physicians believe this to be the case. In fact, many of them have been saying for the last 30 years that cholesterol does not cause heart disease. For example, cholesterol is like a soldier that’s recruited to go to war, but it did not cause the war.
The best way to prevent hardening of the arteries is to lower your LDL (low-density-lipoprotein) cholesterol and increase the HDL (high-density-lipoprotein) cholesterol. The liver manufactures and secretes LDL, which is then carried to the arteries in the heart. Once the cholesterol is there, it then becomes oxidized by the same process that’s known to rust iron as well as turn apples brown once it has been cut open.
This oxidation process is a very destructive process and it is inflammatory. It is like a fire that’s going on in your body. To put the fire out, your body sends in the immune system, which then brings in the foam cells. Unfortunately, this process can do serious damage to the walls of the arteries, a rough area then forms where the wall is damaged, which is a prime condition for the build-up of plaque. This build-up that’s a result of the plaque is the true evil villain that causes heart attacks, heart disease and stroke.
Therefore, oxidized LDL is the purveyor of the inflammatory reaction that the body attempts to remedy, but the remedy causes more trouble than it solves. The best way to solve the situation and prevent the oxidation of LDL cholesterol is to consume ample amounts of antioxidants such as vitamin E, vitamin C and glutathione.
Antioxidants help with the calming of the unstable oxygen molecules that are called free radicals. These free radicals are responsible for the oxidization of the cells. Antioxidants go after free radicals knowing that when they neutralize them the antioxidants themselves become oxidized. Therefore, it is safe to say that the antioxidants are on a suicide mission when they go after free radicals.
Thankfully, the body has an ingenious way to help make sure that there are always plenty of antioxidants around. For example, whenever vitamin C is oxidized, here comes vitamin E to its rescue and donates some of its molecules in order to restore the vitamin C back to its antioxidant position. However, the vitamin E is then reduced, but here comes glutathione to the rescue and restores the vitamin E. This is why it is good to take all three nutrients.
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