Cholesterol is a key structural component of every cell wall in animals and humans. Its wax-like property waterproofs the cells, thus protecting the important structures inside. The waxy protection that cholesterol provides to the cell membrane helps to isolate functions that must take place inside the cell from functions that take place outside of it. This separation is vital to all cellular functioning.

Cholesterol provides powerful antioxidant properties to cell membranes by protecting them from the harmful effects of free radicals—chemicals that can damage the cell within. Free radicals scavenge the body to find electrons to pair with, thereby causing damage to protein and DNA in our cells. While free radicals are a by-product of natural biochemical processes in the body, they are also created by exposure to toxic chemicals, such as pesticides and air pollution, smoking, alcohol, and eating foods fried in manufactured oils. In particular, cholesterol is a brain antioxidant, protecting the brain cells against the ravages of free radicals. 

Cholesterol is carried around in the blood by special substances called lipo-proteins. In her book Nourishing Fats, author Sally Fallon visualizes lipo-proteins as little water-soluble submarines that carry the nutrients around to various organs in the body. These submarines dock at receptors on our cells and drop off their cargo of fats, fat-soluble vitamins, and cholesterol. In Video 7, my little yellow submarine functions as a lipo-protein, carrying its precious cargo of cholesterol and fats to and from the cells. 

As well as being a valuable component of the cell wall, cholesterol acts as a foundation for several important hormones, which build upon it to create active hormones. Vitamin D is one such prehormone, and you remember the many different roles it plays in the body, especially in supporting your mental health. Bile salts needed for digestion are also created using cholesterol as a building block.

Other hormones that use cholesterol as a foundation help regulate blood sugar, blood pressure, and mineral uptake in your blood. Your sex hormones—estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone—are built using cholesterol as well. Probably not a good idea to lower those hormones unless you own stock in Viagra®️!

The highest concentrations of cholesterol in the body are found in the brain, nervous system, and muscles. Cholesterol is critical for the operation of brain receptors and effective transmission of chemicals responsible for our moods. Listen up mothers! Breast milk contains high amounts of cholesterol because it is important for the developing brain of an infant, including areas of the brain related to vision. It is important to note that low blood cholesterol levels in people are associated with depression, violent behavior, and suicide. Low levels of blood cholesterol are also associated with a higher incidence of hemorrhagic stroke—that's the kind of stroke that involves bleeding in the brain.

So it looks like cholesterol is not the villain that we have been told it is by medical experts. Instead, it’s a vital nutrient for our physical and mental health. BUT . . . BUT . . . What about those plaques made of saturated fat and cholesterol said to be clogging our arteries and causing heart attacks? According to biochemist Dr. Mary Enig, the fatty composition of an atheroma, or fatty plaque, is 74% unsaturated fatty acid and only 26% saturated fats. No kidding—three times as much unsaturated fat in that plaque as saturated fat. Someone should tell those people who are making accusations against fatty plaques! And maybe you should tell your doctor about this! Cholesterol found in plaque is actually trying to save the day by repairing damage to blood vessel walls caused by inflammation from pollution, cigarette smoke, and trans fats. 

Confusion about cholesterol causing heart disease may be explained by the following analogy: Imagine that you have just arrived from another planet with the assignment to analyze what causes car accidents on Earth. You go to the scenes of a hundred car crashes, and every one of them is surrounded by vehicles with flashing blue or red lights. During your investigation you notice that some cars in the accident are badly damaged, while others only slightly. Some people are standing, others are lying down. Some people are bleeding, some are not. Some are crying while others are too traumatized to speak. Each accident scene looks quite different, but at every one there is at least one vehicle with a blue or red flashing light. Since they are the one consistent element at every accident scene, you determine that vehicles with flashing lights must be responsible for car accidents.

Of course we earthlings know that the cars with blue and red lights show up after the accident to help the victims. But to someone from another planet, the blinking vehicles might look like the cause of the accident. After a heart attack, cholesterol acts much like the emergency vehicles misunderstood by our alien visitor—it is helping to repair the damage to the lining of the blood vessel walls. It is not responsible for the plaque in the arteries, the obstruction, or the heart attack itself.

Hey, here’s a bit of good news about cholesterol. The US Department of Agriculture dietary guidelines, which for decades banned eggs from our diets because they contain high levels of cholesterol, have now reversed that suggestion entirely. Turns out that eating foods containing cholesterol does NOTHING, absolutely nothing  to change your blood levels of cholesterol. So enjoy that omelet and add some  yummy cheese too. And maybe some spinach or onions. How about some mushrooms? 

Now that it has turned out that cholesterol is a valuable nutrient, saturated fats are good for you, and trans fats are bad, how did this vast false narrative come about? In our next few episodes, we will be looking at why man-made foods were created to replace real foods that people had been eating for centuries and their effects on our national health—or lack thereof.

Until next time, this is Dr. DeLaney reminding you to eat real food!