Cholesterol is not an “always bad thing” that must be “fought” at all costs or kept as low as possible! It is essential to learn, understand and optimize your levels for optimum health.
VIDEO 1 - Cholesterol - MY MEDICAL OPINION - Ideal values, Statins and Health - Dr. Icaro Alves Alcântara
VIDEO 2 - Cholesterol
It's a common situation: you have blood tests and most of them include a complete lipidogram, or cholesterol test. Nowadays, if your total cholesterol is over 200, many doctors tend to prescribe statins, drugs used to reduce cholesterol, such as simvastatin, atorvastatin, rosuvastatin, among others. But where is the problem with this approach? There are several worrying aspects that often occur:
- You may be taking medication unnecessarily. The body naturally increases cholesterol production when it needs to repair injuries, produce steroid hormones (such as testosterone, estradiol, cortisol), repair nerves and multiply cells. Therefore, cholesterol is not the villain or the “bad guy”, and many people may be harming these vital processes by using statins.
- You may experience more symptoms than relief: Statins often cause side effects, which can appear right at the start of treatment and worsen with prolonged use. More information on these side effects can be found at https://icaro.med.br/?s=Estatinas, These include tiredness, muscle pain and weakness, headaches, poor memory, among others.
- You may be overlooking what is most important: in most cases, cholesterol rises due to the patient's bad lifestyle habits, especially a poor diet rich in carbohydrates, lack of exercise, inadequate sleep, etc. No medication can correct this for you. Those who have high cholesterol and maintain an inadequate lifestyle tend to have their health increasingly compromised. Find out more at https://icaro.med.br/15habitos/.
Two important final thoughts on the subject:
🟢 If you have high cholesterol, instead of just taking medication for life, access the material at the link below and make the recommended changes. You'll find more detailed information and scientific background on this topic at the link.
🟢 Long-term use of statins is only necessary in a minority of cases. This usually applies where the patient actually improves their lifestyle habits, but continues to have high cholesterol levels (associated with symptoms and changes in tests) and in rare family tendencies to do so.
Don't take medication unnecessarily and try to solve the causes of your health problems. That way, you'll live longer and better, with less dependence on medication.
The diagram above illustrates in summary form the importance of cholesterol in the synthesis of various hormones that are fundamental to the body. Allow me to make a few additional comments:
- Cholesterol is essential for the composition of the membrane of all the body's cells, as well as being vital for the production of vitamin D and bile.
- All the important hormones mentioned depend on cholesterol for their synthesis. For example:
- Pregnenolone, known as the “mother hormone”, has a neuroprotective function and is important for good memory.
- The problem is not cholesterol itself, but its true excess and “inflammation”. Find out more at https://icaro.med.br/mito-colesterol/.
- The conversion of cholesterol into pregnenolone and the production of DHEA are physiological processes that decrease with age, starting from the age of 30-35.
- Aldosterone, which regulates blood pressure by promoting the balance between sodium and potassium.
- Cortisol, the “stress hormone”, essential for life.
- Progesterone, crucial for maintaining the early stages of pregnancy, activation of the anti-cancer gene p53 and inhibition of 5-alpha-reductase.
- DHEA, a hormone with hundreds of functions, key to healthy longevity.
- Testosterone and estradiol, the main sex hormones, essential for life and reproduction.
Conclusion:
Lowering cholesterol decreases the production of all these hormones, which is not beneficial for anyone and is even more harmful in older organisms. So is it worth following a generalized cholesterol-lowering approach for the population, as is common today? Definitely not.
Reflect and exercise your critical judgment!
Here are a few pages of in-depth and well-founded technical material, containing dozens of pieces of scientific evidence:
- GreenMedInfo on cholesterol
- THINCS - The International Network of Cholesterol Skeptics
- Mercola - Article on statins and their impact on the brain
- Life Extension - How to lower cholesterol safely
These sites offer a detailed and well-founded overview of cholesterol, statins and health.
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