Low Cholesterol

[blackkzeus]

my cholesterol was extremely low when I got it tested. It was 100. How could this affect my health? What does this say about my thyroid ? I actually got my thyroid levels tested and they came back normal.

 

[DaveFoster]

Sugar will raise your cholesterol.

 

[blackkzeus]

Thanks but does the low cholesterol affect my thyroid.

 

[Orion]

Thanks but does the low cholesterol affect my thyroid.

Cholesterol is needed with thyroid and vitamin A to manufacture your protective steroids; pregnenolone -> progesterone and DHEA...

Also cholesterol is very protective itself, above 200 is recommended.

 

[blackkzeus]

Is my Low cholesterol a reason why I'm not responsive to NDT. I think I've heard it's best to have cholesterol at least 160-180 to be responsive to thyroid meds/ supplements .

 

[Orion]

Is my Low cholesterol a reason why I'm not responsive to NDT. I think I've heard it's best to have cholesterol at least 160-180 to be responsive to thyroid meds/ supplements .

RP has advised it to be over or around 200 to start thyroid.

OJ, juices, cooked/ripe fruit, white sugar will raise it.

 

[frant26]

I have low cholesterol, and I'm unable to raise it.

This is what Ray Peat told @Jennifer :

"Low cholesterol can be caused by intestinal inflammation, and starches are a common cause. Sweet potatoes are effective promoters of bacterial growth, rice and potatoes can cause gas especially if they aren't well cooked.

When your cholesterol is so low, your body can't respond fully to a thyroid supplement. Thyroid should cause the conversion of cholesterol to pregnenolone, progesterone, DHEA, and the other neurosteroids, but when cholesterol is too low it just increases stress hormones instead."

Some numbers:

January 2014: TSH 4.01 / total cholesterol 141 / no thyroid supp
September 2015: TSH 4.43 / total cholesterol 182 / no thyroid supp
December 2016: TSH 6.12 / total cholesterol 159 / no thyroid supp
March 2018: TSH 2.78 / total cholesterol 154 / a few drops of tyromix daily
July 2018: TSH 0 (yes, ZERO) / total cholesterol 132 / 100mcg T4 + 40mcg T3 daily
December 2018: TSH 2.01 / total cholesterol 152 / 75mcg T4 + 20mcg T3 daily

I was actually feeling quite good with TSH zero and cholesterol 132 –– but Ray is saying that with such low cholesterol one shouldn't be taking thyroid? He pointed to intestinal inflammation. My digestion is not perfect, but isn't a disaster either.

I have no serious infections and don't eat much starch at all. Lately I was eating quite some nixtamalized corn tortillas, but that only for the past months. Before I ate more potatoes, but always very well cooked. I've been drinking around 1 liter of OJ , for a very long time.

Why can't I increase it? And I'm doubting whether I should keep taking thyroid, or decrease intake. But just I don't want to go back to high TSH levels

 

[vocedilegno]

Pulling from other threads it seems like people have had success in raising LDL cholesterol by supplementing LDL cholesterol metabolites, especially pregnenolone. I can't find the post right now but will reply back here in the next few days if I manage to find it. The member who shared her story wrote she had low cholesterol and started supplementing pregnenolone until her LDL got into the "oh my God what's wrong" range and then she scaled back her supplementation until total cholesterol was at the level she and her doctor wanted it to be.

But in the past days it occurred to me that vitamin D must also be cholesterol-sparing given that it too is synthesized from cholesterol. In fact there are twitter threads I've seen in the last few days which advise against supplementing Vitamin D3 based on the premise that supplementary vitamin D raises LDL.


View: https://twitter.com/DrJackKruse/status/1656714608793485326


"For the idiots who think Vitamin D pills are always wise. WRONG. Sunlight has to sulfate cholesterol FIRST to get the Vitamin D train rolling in the skin. When it is sulfated it becomes water soluble in blood. When it isn't you upregulate LDL production. So taking D3 pills and living inside is raising your LDL so Big Pharma taught all doctors to put people on statins when this happens. Dude they are playing you all and none of you get it."

Then there's also this:

https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/ATVBAHA.112.254110

"...Repletion of 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels raised serum calcium levels and decreased serum parathyroid hormone levels. These expected physiological responses to vitamin D therapy were correlated with a significant increase in LDL cholesterol."

And there is also evidence that Vitamin A raises cholesterol levels:

https://www.atherosclerosis-journal.com/article/S0021-9150(99)00266-X/pdf#:~:text=However%2C%20retinoids%20such%20as%20isotretinoin,coronary%20heart%20disease%20%5B14%5D.

"...However, retinoids such as isotretinoin (13-cis retinoic acid) and etretinate, as well as high doses of vitamin A are known to increase triglycerides and cholesterol levels and lower HDL levels [6–11], changes associated with an increased risk of coronary heart disease [14]."

Presumably supplementing progesterone and androgens would also raise LDL? I hope so anyway.

 

[vocedilegno]

Some more obvious ones I left out -- unfiltered coffee raises LDL

Cholesterol-raising factor from boiled coffee does not pass a paper filter - PubMed

Previous studies have indicated that consumption of boiled coffee raises total and low density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, whereas drip-filtered coffee does not. We have tested the effect on serum lipids of consumed coffee that was first boiled and then filtered through commercial paper...

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Saturated fat raises LDL, especially myristic acid which is most concentrated in coconut oil, palm oil, and dairy fat

Impact of myristic acid versus palmitic acid on serum lipid and lipoprotein levels in healthy women and men - PubMed

The cholesterol-raising effect of dietary saturated fatty acids is largely accounted for by lauric, myristic, and palmitic acids. Dairy fat is a major source of myristic acid, and palm oil is especially rich in palmitic acid. Myristic acid is suspected of being much more cholesterolemic than...

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Fructose raises LDL hence Ray's recommendation of orange juice to people with low cholesterol

 

[vocedilegno]

And even more basic — vitamin B5 aka pantothenic acid is a cofactor in the synthesis of acetyl CoA, which is the precursor to cholesterol

 

[vocedilegno]

Another basic one -- choline

https://www.jlr.org/article/S0022-2275(20)42363-6/pdf

p. 1190: By far, the major fate of choline is conversion to PC [phosphatidylcholine], and this occurs in all mammalian cells that have a nucleus. PC functions as a primary lipid in cellular membranes and is aprecursor of signaling molecules. PC can be converted tophosphatidylserine or sphingomyelin or be degraded byphospholipases. In the liver, the major fates of PC aresecretion into bile, secretion into VLDL, and use for theformation of high density lipoproteins in the plasma.

p.1192: "...the de novo synthesis of PC is required for normal lipoprotein secretion from the liver..."

Now it may be wondered whether or not VLDL is a cholesterol source for steroid synthesis, but there are suggestions that it is:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1388198120300743

 

[Rinse & rePeat]

my cholesterol was extremely low when I got it tested. It was 100. How could this affect my health? What does this say about my thyroid ? I actually got my thyroid levels tested and they came back normal.

“A R T I C L E

Cholesterol, longevity, intelligence, and health.

The biological meaning of cholesterol is just starting to be explored.
Everything that doctors know about cholesterol is wrong.
New information about cholesterol is clarifying important issues in physiology and pathology.

Medical magazines and television stations like to propagate the idea that cholesterol is bad stuff, and as a result, that cliche is known to almost every American. Recent journal articles.”


“Around 1985, a big study in Hungary showed that lowering cholesterol with drugs caused a huge increase in the cancer death rate. Hundreds of publications appeared in the U.S. saying that wasn't possible, because low cholesterol is good, the lower the better. The extreme increase in cancer mortality in the Hungarian study was probably the result of the drug that was commonly used at that time to lower cholesterol, but the pattern of mortality in that study was approximately the same pattern seen in any group with very low cholesterol. In the last 20 years, there have been many studies showing that lowering cholesterol increases mortality, especially from cancer and suicide, and that people with naturally low cholesterol are more likely to die from cancer, suicide, trauma, and infections than people with normal or higher than average cholesterol.”

Cholesterol, longevity, intelligence, and health.

Ray Peat

raypeat.com

 

[vocedilegno]

“A R T I C L E

Cholesterol, longevity, intelligence, and health.

The biological meaning of cholesterol is just starting to be explored.
Everything that doctors know about cholesterol is wrong.
New information about cholesterol is clarifying important issues in physiology and pathology.

Medical magazines and television stations like to propagate the idea that cholesterol is bad stuff, and as a result, that cliche is known to almost every American. Recent journal articles.”


“Around 1985, a big study in Hungary showed that lowering cholesterol with drugs caused a huge increase in the cancer death rate. Hundreds of publications appeared in the U.S. saying that wasn't possible, because low cholesterol is good, the lower the better. The extreme increase in cancer mortality in the Hungarian study was probably the result of the drug that was commonly used at that time to lower cholesterol, but the pattern of mortality in that study was approximately the same pattern seen in any group with very low cholesterol. In the last 20 years, there have been many studies showing that lowering cholesterol increases mortality, especially from cancer and suicide, and that people with naturally low cholesterol are more likely to die from cancer, suicide, trauma, and infections than people with normal or higher than average cholesterol.”

Cholesterol, longevity, intelligence, and health.

Ray Peat

raypeat.com

Seems like everything we think about, he had already thought of

Great to review this, thank you so much for sharing it again!! The first time I read this I didn’t know enough to be able orient myself within what he wrote. Now it seems that much more brilliant. Some great takeaways:

“Cholesterol, vitamin E, progesterone, and vitamin D are considered to be "structural antioxidants," that prevent oxidation partly by stabilizing molecular structures. One of the basic functions of cholesterol seems to be the stabilization of mitochondria, preventing their destruction by stress. Serious stress lowers ATP, magnesium, and carbon dioxide. When ATP and intracellular magnesium are decreased, cholesterol synthesis increases.”

“Although cholesterol is protective against oxidative and cytolytic damage, the chronic free radical exposure will oxidize it. During the low cholesterol turnover of hypothyroidism, the oxidized variants of cholesterol will accumulate, so cholesterol loses its protective functions.

When the metabolic pathways of the steroid hormones were being worked out, an experimenter perfused an isolated ovary with blood. When the amount of cholesterol in the blood pumped into the ovary was increased, the amount of progesterone in the blood leaving the ovary increased proportionately. In the healthy organism, cholesterol is constantly being synthesized, and constantly converted into steroid hormones, and, in the liver, into the bile salts that are secreted to emulsify fats in the intestine. Thyroid hormone and vitamin A are used in the process of converting cholesterol into pregnenolone, the immediate precursor of progesterone and DHEA. Anything that interfered with these processes would be disastrous for the organism. The supply of cholesterol, thyroid and vitamin A must always be adequate for the production of steroid hormones and bile salts. When stress suppresses thyroid activity, increased cholesterol probably compensates to some extent by permitting more progesterone to be synthesized.

In very young people, the metabolic rate is very high, and the rapid conversion of cholesterol into pregnenolone, DHEA, and progesterone usually keeps the level of cholesterol in the blood low. In the 1930s, a rise in the concentration of cholesterol was considered to be one of the most reliable ways to diagnose hypothyroidism (1936 Yearbook of Neurology, Psychiatry, and Endocrinology, E.L. Sevringhaus, editor, Chicago, p. 533). With aging, the metabolic rate declines, and the increase of cholesterol with aging is probably a spontaneous regulatory process, supporting the synthesis of the protective steroids, especially the neurosteroids in the brain and retina.”

“The recent discovery that the size of the LDL particle is a predominant factor in the development of atherosclerosis is one of those things that the editors and medical professors should find embarrassing…
There have been several studies in India showing that consumption of butter and ghee is associated with a low incidence of heart disease; for example, according to one study, people in the north eat 19 times more fat (mostly butter and ghee) than in the south, yet the incidence of heart disease is seven times higher in the south. A study in Sweden found that the fatty acids in milk products are associated with larger LDL particles (Sjogren, et al., 2004).

In a 35 day study, when butter (20% of the calories) was compared to various kinds of margarine (with more trans fatty acids) in a similar quantity, the LDL particles were bigger on the butter diet (Mauger, et al., 2003). But in a study of the habitual diet of 414 people, large LDL particles were found to be correlated with increased intake of protein, animal fat, and trans fatty acids (Kim and Campos, 2003)…The LDL particle size is increased by androgens…

Chylomicrons and VLDL also absorb, bind, and help to eliminate endotoxins. All sorts of stress and malnutrition increase the tendency of endotoxin to leak into the bloodstream. Thyroid hormone, by increasing the turnover of cholesterol and its conversion into the protective steroids, is a major factor in keeping the inflammatory processes under control.”

One section I have trouble with is this though— how does a smaller particle have greater oxidizable surface area than a larger particle?

“Smaller lipoprotein particles have a greater surface area exposed to the oxidative factors in the serum, and so are more rapidly degraded into toxic substances. People with larger LDL particles are remarkably resistant to heart disease, and the drug companies are looking for a way to turn their lipoproteins into products. But the conditions that govern the size of the LDL particles are physically and chemically reasonable, and are causing confusion among the doctinaire.”