Cholesterol: What To Know About Going Low

​             The term “Cholesterol” is somewhat of a loaded word.  It’s one that most everyone has heard of, but few really understand.  And if it’s not you, it’s likely that someone you know has been on the panic-inducing end of a phone call from the doctor’s office, saying their bloodwork came back, and their numbers are too high.  It makes sense, when you consider high cholesterol is a primary associate of heart disease and stroke, among other things.  Once the news is broken, many immediately start taking a statin and are told to modify their diet in an effort to get their numbers to plummet. 
            However, knowledge is power, and once you understand what you’re dealing with, you’ll see that this word has gotten a bad rap for no good reason.  What you should understand is that this substance is actually a helpful and vital component to your health.  Its function is present in every cell of your body and helps you digest fat and produce cell membranes, vitamin D, and hormones.
            Therefore, when your cholesterol spikes, it does so in response to issues in your body.  They increase in an effort to repair damaged cells and create healthier ones to replace them.  So, your numbers are a direct reflection of the amount of damage that has been done, and your cholesterol is trying desperately to protect, not harm, you.  Unfortunately, lowering those numbers artificially through drugs still doesn’t address the root cause of the damage, and puts you at risk of dropping too low. 
Yes, contrary to popular belief, there IS such a thing as going too low.  And the associated risks are alarming.  In fact, your total number should never fall below 150, because if it does, you exponentially multiply your odds of:
 

• Impaired memory (which leads to dementia)
• Becoming depressed
• Violent behavior and increased aggression
• Cancer and Parkinson’s disease
• Likelihood of committing suicide

 
By staying away from the ends of the spectrum, and keeping your numbers nestled somewhere in the middle, you increase not only your odds of survival, but in living a vibrant, complication-free life, at least where it concerns your friend, cholesterol.  Follow us at Classic Functional Health to learn more about how to keep your numbers in check.