It is a well known fact that in much of the developed world heart disease is a huge killer. Everyone knows that high cholesterol levels lead to heart disease, so therefore high cholesterol levels are bad. Well that’s not necessarily the whole truth.
There have been several recent worldwide studies that clearly demonstrate that higher bodily cholesterol levels actually lead to a longer life.
As the years have passed and medical science has progressed, it has become evident that inflammation within the body (NOT high cholesterol levels) is what causes the arteries to become blocked, leading to heart disease. This inflammation within the body can be as a result of many contributing factors, such as stress, smoking, viruses, consuming high levels of hydrogenated fats, consuming high levels of refined sugars, etc etc.
Cholesterol has many important functions, one of which is as a healing substance. Cholesterol reacts to arterial inflammation be becoming deposited along with other substances, as a healing agent on the artery lining. The more inflammation in the arteries, the more of this ‘plaque’ that will be deposited.
Basically if you have significant inflammation in your arteries, then this ‘plaque’ will be deposited regardless of your cholesterol levels. Conversely, if you have low levels of inflammation, cholesterol just keeps circulating without getting deposited, even if cholesterol levels are high.
Therefore it is much more important to lower your inflammation levels than it is to lower your cholesterol levels. The levels of inflammation within your body can be monitored using a CRP test. (C-reactive protein)
The good news is that lowering your inflammation levels is easy and shouldn’t require medication. Reducing your stress levels, maintaining a healthy weight, eating a high-antioxidant highly nutritious unprocessed diet, avoiding smoking, avoiding excessive alcohol consumption and having a highly varied exercise routine will all help in reducing your bodies levels of inflammation.
