Say the word “cholesterol” and most people get downright frightened, wondering if theirs is OK or if their number will come up in the heart disease lottery.

That’s because we’ve been very carefully conditioned by the pharmaceutical industry to believe that cholesterol is the cause of heart disease, and your only hope of salvation is through statins.

But what if I were to tell you that most of what you have been told about cholesterol is not entirely accurate, and much of it is downright WRONG?

When you truly understand what cholesterol really is, you see that it’s something your body needs—without it you would DIE! 

Here’s what you really need to know…

The real truth about cholesterol

Cholesterol plays several vital roles in keeping you healthy and alive:

1- Healing ointment

Cholesterol is your body's internal healing ointment. 

When your blood vessels become damaged by things such as aging, inflammation, high blood pressure, injuries, wear and tear or free radical damage, cholesterol comes to the rescue to repair the damage.

Now, if the damage is allowed to worsen in your blood vessels and inflammation becomes chronic, cholesterol is continuously summoned to do its job over and over and over...and that's when you can run the risk of cholesterol accumulation.  

But it's the inflammation in your blood vessels that's the culprit here.  The cholesterol is only trying to help and ends up guilty by association. 

2- Nervous system health

Breast milk is inherently very rich in cholesterol--that should clue you in that it's pretty important. 

Babies and children MUST have cholesterol to ensure proper development of their brain and nervous system. 

And we adults need it too. 

Cholesterol is crucial for proper functioning of the serotonin receptors in your brain.  (Serotonin is your body's "natural antidepressant.")  Low levels of cholesterol have been linked to aggressive and violent behavior, depression and suicidal ideation.

3- Digestive health

Your liver’s bile salts are made from cholesterol. 

Since bile is needed for fat digestion, low cholesterol levels can lead to low bile salt production and poor digestion of fats.

Plus cholesterol helps maintain the strength and health of your gut wall.  That's why low-cholesterol diets have been associated with leaky gut syndrome and other intestinal disorders.

4- Vitamin D & hormones

Your body uses cholesterol to manufacture Vitamin D when you're exposed to the sun. 

Vitamin D is essential for healthy bones and nervous system, proper growth, muscle tone, insulin production, cancer and heart disease prevention and immune system function.

Plus, your body needs cholesterol to make your stress hormones (adrenaline and cortisol) as well as the sex hormones androgen, testosterone, estrogen and progesterone.

5- Strong cell walls & sneaky deception

Cholesterol gives your cell membranes strength and stability.

It's also an avenue for deception that makes food companies richer and here’s how.

Food companies market their highly processed vegetable oils as “heart healthy” and proudly claim that they help lower LDL cholesterol. 

What a crock.

First, when vegetable oils are heated, they form dangerous compounds similar to trans-fats!  So the "heart healthy oil" you're cooking with stirs up inflammation in your arteries.

Second, an excess of vegetable oils in your diet makes your cell walls weak and flabby.  When your body senses this, it pulls cholesterol from your blood and drives it into your cells to strengthen their walls.

When this happens, your blood cholesterol level understandably goes down—and the vegetable oil looks like a hero.

6- An antioxidant!

More and more studies are showing that cholesterol acts as an antioxidant, actually protecting your body against the free radical damage that leads to heart disease and cancer!

It also helps to explain why cholesterol levels typically go up with age.  The older we get, the more free radical protection our aging tissues need.  

There’s only ONE kind!

Another common cholesterol misconception comes from what's commonly called the "2 types of cholesterol"--HDL and LDL.

Actually, HDL and LDL are not types of cholesterol at all, but instead are lipoproteins that are cholesterol "carriers."

Low-density lipoproteins (LDLs) carry cholesterol to the cells and tissues of your body where it’s needed.

Following this, high-density lipoproteins (HDLs) come through like a “clean-up crew,” pick up any excess cholesterol remaining and bring it to your liver to be recycled.

Then your liver packages any leftover usable cholesterol with its own “carrier” (called VLDLs or Very low-density lipoproteins) and sends it back off into circulation.

When this process works properly as Nature intended, your arteries stay wide-open, pink, healthy and CLEAN.

So...what IS the real problem with cholesterol?

The real problem with cholesterol stems from a malfunction with the lipoprotein/cholesterol delivery and clean-up process I described above.

And that is typically the result of two things—poor elimination of old cholesterol, and sugar.

Here's the scoop:

Poor cholesterol elimination

Cholesterol is a very hard, waxy substance which has a melting point of 300 degrees Fahrenheit.  This makes it difficult for your body to eliminate excesses of it from the digestive tract or anywhere in the bloodstream. 

Your body depends on strong intestinal activity and the assistance of Omega-3 essential fatty acids and fiber to get rid of excess cholesterol through your GI tract.

If excess cholesterol is not eliminated, it can be reabsorbed back into circulation...and make its way to glom up your artery walls.  

So, if you're like MANY Americans who can't remember the last time you had a decent BM, eat a typical modern processed and fast food diet (which is deficient in Omega-3 EFAs) and wouldn't know fiber if it jumped up and bit you in the derriere, you may be in cholesterol-elimination trouble.

Sugar—it’s anything BUT sweet

Sugar (especially in the forms of refined carbs and high fructose corn syrup) "mixes up" the lipid cycle, causing LDLs to miss their cholesterol "deliveries" and be in circulation too long, and the HDL "clean-up crew" to get jammed up. 

What that means is your cholesterol doesn't get to the cells that so desperately need it and excesses don't get cleared away...so instead the cholesterol can accumulate on your blood vessel walls.

How to REALLY keep your cholesterol healthy

In order to keep your cholesterol levels healthy you need to support the cholesterol drop off and elimination cycle in your body.

And that can be accomplished in these 3 ways:

1- Eat your way to healthy cholesterol

To maintain healthy cholesterol levels, you MUST minimize the refined inflammatory foods in your diet—that includes grains, sugars, white flour, processed vegetable oils and the #1 health wrecker in the world--soda.

Plus since fiber acts like a broom in your body to help sweep away excess cholesterol, it’s crucial to make sure you get enough.

Now I’m not talking Metamucil here—get your fiber from delicious fresh fruits and vegetables.  Your body will be eternally grateful.

2- Get a healthy essential fatty acid balance

When you have too many Omega-6 EFAs and too few Omega-3s (like most people with a typical diet), you're encouraging inflammation in your arteries (where cholesterol can build up) as well as not being able to eliminate cholesterol as well as you should.

But when you bring the balance closer to the ideal 3:1 range, the Omega EFAs act together in harmony to keep inflammation low in your body and help you get rid of excess cholesterol.

VitalMega-3 can help you achieve this optimal balance.

Studies have shown decreases in cholesterol of up to 20 percent in just 10 DAYS by boosting Omega-3 EFA's through diet and supplementation!

VitalMega-3 is a pharmaceutical-grade molecularly distilled fish oil that provides an artery-healthy 1,200 mg of medical-grade Omega-3s in each daily two-capsule serving.

And now is the perfect time to put Vitalmega-3 to the test because it’s $10 off per bottle!

3- Support sound digestion

If your digestion hasn’t been too rosy lately, and especially if you take acid reducers, chances are good that you are suffering in the digestive enzyme department and need a little help breaking down your foods.

If that sound like you, then Digestizol Max can come to your rescue!

Digestizol Max’s complete blend of 15 plant-based enzymes can help your body break down ALL of your foods and pave the way for smoother digestion and more regular BMs!

Bye-bye excess cholesterol!

Now you know the REAL truth about cholesterol and how you can naturally help your body carry out its crucial lipid process like it’s supposed to!

To your health,

Sherry Brescia