Is There A Thing As Having Too Low Cholesterol?
If your doctor tells you that your blood cholesterol levels are alarmingly low, you may be wondering what that means for your body.
Cholesterol is a natural substance that is essential to life and the body can synthesize it. Without cholesterol, we would not be able to survive every day of our lives. The liver is responsible for maintaining normal levels of cholesterol by increasing or decreasing the amount of cholesterol produced in response to dietary intake.
Cholesterol is part of the membrane of every cell in our body. There is only one type of cholesterol, and just like in the movies, there is no good or bad, but what happens is that cholesterol combines with phospholipids and proteins to form lipoproteins, the “carriers” of bones.
Did you know that cholesterol levels have changed over the last few decades?
Initially, the acceptable level in the blood was about 260 mg/dL, then it dropped to 240 mg/dL. This tolerance did not last long and suddenly dropped to 220.
This new marker has been on the market for some time until our analysis emerged that the ideal value of cholesterol should be below 200 mg/dl.
Low Cholesterol Is Bad For You
While everyone is concerned about high cholesterol, some people have lower than normal cholesterol levels. Researchers such as Professor Frank Sachs of Harvard University have been studying such patients for years and have come to very different conclusions.
So he believes that if a patient’s cholesterol is between 160 and 190, it really doesn’t matter, but if it’s low (say 120), it should be raised.
What is more important than cholesterol levels, he believes, is the ratio of good to bad cholesterol. People with very low cholesterol levels tend to have very low levels of good cholesterol and very high cardiovascular risk.
We Should Avoid Low-Fat or Very Low-Fat Diets
Olive oil, being a monounsaturated fat, helps lower bad cholesterol or LDL, but does not lower good cholesterol or HDL.
To make matters worse, people with low cholesterol levels are twice as likely to develop brain hemorrhage. One possible explanation is that a minimum amount of cholesterol is needed to keep the delicate membranes that cover the brain from weakening and deteriorating.
Low cholesterol levels also increase the risk of depression because it promotes low levels of serotonin, a brain substance that is essential for mood and relaxation.
The general consensus is to always consult your doctor before your cholesterol level falls below 160, review your eating habits and try to find out other reasons why you have low cholesterol, as it is believed that low cholesterol is also a bad thing and can lead to health problems for us.
Cholesterol Lance
Let’s break the lance in favor of cholesterol because cholesterol is acceptable to highlight the benefits of this particular fat, which is essential in a variety of complex metabolic and structural processes and is the basis of our health. Thus, the issue is not cholesterol per se, but the maintenance of the balance between these three dynamics.
- The synthesis of cholesterol takes place in the liver.
- The intestine absorbs cholesterol from food.
- The intestinal reabsorption of cholesterol is part of the bile needed to digest fat in the small intestine. Bile is stimulated to prevent it from entering the circulatory system and to facilitate its elimination.
Good Cholesterol versus Bad Cholesterol
Cholesterol is transported with lipoproteins from the liver and intestine to various organs. When combined with low-density lipoprotein (LDL), it is considered bad cholesterol because it is found installed in the arteries and forms atherosclerotic plaques. High-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, on the other hand, is considered good cholesterol because it is responsible for collecting unused cholesterol and returning it to the liver to be excreted by the bile.
As recent studies have shown, what matters most is the relationship between the two types of cholesterol: good cholesterol and bad cholesterol. High cholesterol is bad, but low cholesterol can also be bad for your health.
The reason cholesterol doesn’t get good press is because of a misunderstanding of a study from a few years ago. In fact, cardiovascular risk is more related to Apolipoproteins and high blood sugar levels. It is well known that the problems associated with high cholesterol levels are seriously detrimental to health, but what if the opposite occurs?
Cholesterol, at the right level, is an essential substance for our body. This lipid, which the body produces itself, is present in the blood and its level depends mainly on our genetic make-up and lifestyle. Therefore, doctors recommend that the level of this cholesterol in the blood should not exceed 200 mg/dL. When these levels are high, i.e. when cholesterol is high, there is a risk of physical and internal changes and of suffering from diseases and problems directly related to the heart. But the other side of the coin is generally less well known: what happens when levels are low?
Two Entities Are Collaborating On Research on This Topic
If your doctor has diagnosed you with surprisingly low levels of cholesterol in your blood, you may be wondering what that means for your body. Studies carried out by the Virgil Health Institute (Catalonia) have shown that this fact is not harmful to health. Given the increase in cases of patients with high figures of this substance, various drugs have been prescribed to try to reduce the presence of this cell, thus causing the opposite effect and avoiding the dangers associated with its increase.
However, faced with the tendency to prescribe cholesterol-lowering drugs, many experts fear that they will cause further harm to the body and prefer other alternatives. In these cases, experts explain that cholesterol is an important element in the formation and maintenance of all organs and tissues of the body.