Tuesday 13 May 2008

A different view on cholesterol

A different view on cholesterol has been re-produced at my new blog Cell Your Sole.

I love reading about other peoples opinions. Especially when it goes against the grain. I just came across the blog of Scott Kustes at http://modernforager.blogspot.com/2006/09/cholesterol-hype.html. He's got some interesting ideas on cholesterol. I haven't had a chance to read through all he says but it's interesting to hear a different side to the debate. I certainly agree it's not a good idea to focus only on cholesterol. I believe strongly that humans have simply adapted to the diet that was available to them over the years. That means our bodies are designed to need certain things and be treated in certain way. All we've got to do is learn about what these things are and we'll find health just comes along naturally. s

I've learnt a lot about cholesterol. I've learnt that there are many kinds Chylomicrons, VLDLs, LDLS and HDLs , not just the famous two HDLs and LDLs. They transport fats around the body, that's a big part of their role. My understanding is that they're actually mainly the same except they have different amounts of fat on them. Wikipedia gives a pretty damn in depth overview of them but my basic understanding is as your diet begins to have more fat in it you will have more ldls and less hdls than you used to have because ldls have more fat on them compared to hdls. It's just hdls becoming ldls and generally ldls. So naturally as your diet increases in fat intake or if you eat too many calories and your body converts these calories into fat, then you'll have more ldls. That's all I really take from these correlations.

The problem I feel is more down to your whole lifestyle rather than just eating too much, having too high cholesterol or any one factor. It's lots of factors together. For example many people who eat too much often don't exercise enough to compensate. Saying that lack of exercise itself can lead to significant health problems.

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