Olwen Anderson's Blog

You're doing all the 'right' things to lower your cholesterol naturally. You're eating the right amount of fibre, you're exercising daily, you're even monitoring your fat intake. And yet your cholesterol level just won't come down. What are you doing wrong? Learn about stress and how it can tear to shreds all your best efforts to bring your cholesterol levels down to a healthy range.

STRESS BOOSTS BAD CHOLESTEROL

There are two kinds of cholesterol you need to know about: LDL and HDL. LDL is 'bad' cholesterol. Its produced by your liver in response not just to what you ate, but by what cholesterol levels your liver thinks you should have. (No prizes for guessing, when you're stressed your liver thinks you need a much higher cholesterol level). 

LDL cholesterol is packaged by your liver and sent out in search of cells to enter. But its sticky stuff, and so if your artery walls have been damaged by colliding with other blood cell components, the LDL molecules can be attracted to the area, literally pasting themselves onto your artery walls. Now you've got a fatty streak partly blocking your artery, sticky enough to attract other LDL molecules and immune components. Before long you've built an atherosclerotic plaque that's getting bigger by the day, steadily reducing the flow of blood through that important artery. Not pretty, is it?

HDL cholesterol, however, are the good guys. Their job is to actively seek out LDL cholesterol where its not supposed to be (like on the walls of your arteries) and literally vacuuming it up, taking it back to your liver for disposal. Naturally, you want more HDL cholesterol than LDL cholesterol so that the good guys win.

HIGHER STRESS MEANS HIGHER BLOOD PRESSURE

When you're stressed your body produces more adrenaline (epinephrine), constantly. This causes the blood platelets that are already in circulation more likely to clump together. They're now more likely to stick to that atherosclerotic plaque that's formed in your artery because you didn't have enough circulating HDL cholesterol to remove it sooner.

When you're stressed your blood pressure is higher too. Now blood components are bumping into that atherosclerotic plaque with more force than ever before. The plaque is in danger of breaking away from your artery wall, releasing a torrent of pro-inflammatory, pro-blood clotting agents, and potentially completely blocking a smaller artery. Now you've got yourself a heart attack. Not what you wanted at all.

LOWER STRESS IS THE 'MISSING CLUE' TO YOUR CHOLESTEROL PUZZLE

Now you know that no matter how rigorous you are with your diet and exercise, high stress will bring all your best efforts undone. The solution? Find stress-busting activities that are fun. Maybe taking time out just for you; taking up meditation or yoga, or even making the effort to book talking time with a professional counsellor to get it all off your chest. There are a multitude of stress-busting activities that will help lower your cholesterol, just through less stress.

Why should you be worried if your doctor sternly tells you that you have high cholesterol and that it must be reduced, or you must take cholesterol lowering medication? After all, you feel fine. Alas, a test result of 'high cholesterol' means that there is a silent time bomb ticking in your arteries, counting down towards a heart attack unless you take action.

HOW DID THIS HAPPEN?

Your body needs cholesterol. Your liver is constantly creating lipoproteins, molecules containing protein and cholesterol. They transport hormones; make protective insulation for nerve endings, and help form cell membranes.

 

LDL cholesterol ('bad' cholesterol) is produced by your liver and despatched in search of storage sites. If there are none available, the cholesterol will be deposited on your artery walls. 

HDL cholesterol ('good' cholesterol) acts like a vacuum cleaner, removing excess cholesterol from your artery walls and returning it to your liver for disposal through bile and faeces. 

Making sure you have more HDL cholesterol than LDL cholesterol is the key to maintaining healthy cholesterol levels.

WHY IS FAT PASTED ON THE ARTERIES NEAR MY HEART?

It seems unfair that when arteries narrow due to fat deposits on the walls, it’s the large arteries near your heart that are affected most. There's a reason for this.

In your blood vessels, the blood flowing through small capillaries is quite slow. Blood cells and molecules gently bump against capillary walls as they move along. When leaving the heart however, blood is under enormous pressure.

Blood cells and molecules in this area crash into your artery walls with great force, sometimes enough to cause damage to artery walls. This is known as 'shear stress'. Damage can result to the endothelium, the inner lining of your artery, and a lesion (wound) forms. This lesion attracts immune cells as well as LDL molecules. As the artery wall repairs itself, it may try to build a new endothelium over the lesion. This repair process creates toxic chemicals, trapping lipid (fat) molecules, cholesterol deposits, immune components and toxins within an atherosclerotic 'plaque'.

Major problems can result if all or part of that atherosclerotic plaque detaches from your artery wall, releasing a torrent of lipids (fats), pro-thrombotic immune components, and toxic chemicals. Most fatal coronary events have been traced back to one or more of these plaques breaking apart.

IT DOESN'T HAVE TO BE THIS WAY

If the balance of your cholesterol is good (more HDL than LDL), and your body's oxidative stress load is under control, HDL lipoproteins will remove fat molecules from your artery walls. Your body's normal healing mechanisms will repair damage done in the original lesion, and the artery will remain wide and clear.

SYMPTOMS OF HIGH CHOLESTEROL

Alas, high cholesterol is completely silent until your arteries clog up enough to start interfering with blood flow to your heart. This is why a check of your cholesterol level every year or so is a good idea; particularly if there is a history of heart disease, stroke or atherosclerosis in your family.

Some people with disorders of lipid metabolism develop xanthelasma, slightly raised, yellow tinted cholesterol deposits on their eyelids. These are not necessarily a definitive diagnosis of high cholesterol – they can also be a symptom of hypothyroidism and kidney problems; but certainly warrant professional investigation.

Don't ignore a test result of 'high cholesterol'. It may be silent, but it’s a ticking time bomb that you need to defuse.

Cholesterol is an essential part of our metabolism – it helps make hormones, for example. But too much in your bloodstream can be a problem, especially if it’s being left behind on the walls of your arteries. There are several simple techniques you can use to keep your cholesterol levels in a safe range, or to help reduce them if they’re too high.

Cholesterol in food is only available in animal products, especially prawns, eggs, and offal  like liver and kidneys. How your body manages that cholesterol once you’ve eaten it depends on how much fibre you ate with it, the amount of physical activity you do, your genes, and your stress level.

Here’s what you need to know about different sorts of blood cholesterol: Lipoproteins are just carriers for lipids (fat). The important ones to know about are LDLs (low density lipoproteins) and HDLs (high density lipoproteins)

LDLs carry cholesterol away from the liver, through the bloodstream, in search of cells to store it in. If there is too much LDL in the blood, these lipoproteins will deposit the fats on the walls of your arteries. This is why they’re called ‘bad’ cholesterol. 

The job of HDLs, on the other hand, is to carry cholesterol from storage back to the liver so it can be removed from the body via bile. This is why HDLs are known as ‘good’ cholesterol.

Physical exercise increases the amount of HDLs in your bloodstream. So while you’re enjoying that game of tennis or walking through the bush, the HDLs in your bloodstream are increasing in number, busy collecting fats from cells and returning them to the liver for disposal.

A high level of soluble fibre in your food slows down the absorption of fat, because soluble fibre ‘soaks up’ the fat and carries it out of your body. There are high levels of soluble fibre in oats and fruit, especially apples and pears. Psyllium husks are also a source of fibre, but its always better to obtain your fibre from food rather than supplements if you can.

Stress upsets all functions of the body, so a high stress level will mean you’re more likely to develop high levels of blood cholesterol. Another good reason to look for stress reducing activities!

If you want to reduce the amount of cholesterol in your bloodstream

- reduce the amount of cholesterol you eat, 

- keep your saturated fat intake within reasonable limits, 

- increase your intake of essential fatty acids (omega 3 oils), 

- increase your soluble fibre intake, 

- stay active, 

- and manage your stress well.

Have you recently been diagnosed with high cholesterol? I've written an easy to read book that shows you how to lower your cholesterol level without drugs, how to assess your risk level from your test results, and a sample daily diet. Its available at newsagents and health food stores through Murwillumbah, or you can buy it via my web site, www.olwenanderson.com.au