Have you seen those ads on television where they are telling you that you need to take some pill to get rid of your cholesterol? I saw one the other day that I just had to laugh out loud about. It claimed there are two causes of cholesterol and that taking their little pill could save you from both of them.

They said cholesterol comes from diet and from your family (genes). These two ideas have been perpetuated by many people (doctors and otherwise) who simply have not done their home work. And of course they are perpetuated by the people trying to sell you pills. The problem is that there is very little truth to these claims.

What is Cholesterol?

Cholesterol is a very important substance required for health in the human body. Cell membranes are made up of cholesterol. Cholesterol is also used by the body to patch little rips in the blood vessels and arteries that are caused by free radicals. It is a type of fat, but not the type that causes your excess weight.

Where does it come from?

Your body makes however much of it that your body thinks it needs. You do not need to eat any cholesterol for your body to make cholesterol. How much cholesterol you eat has very little to do with your blood cholesterol level, or how much cholesterol gets deposited in your arteries. Even your genetics is not really connected to your specific cholesterol levels.

The human genome project has helped us to understand many things. One of those things is that genetics are only weak indicators of what may or may not eventually manifest itself in the human body. The environment that the cells of the body live in is by far the deciding factor. That's why it is important to keep a clean healthy environment for the cells of your body.

The real problem?

Cholesterol builds up in a body that has a lot of free radicals zipping around. Free radicals cause damage which the body then attempts to patch up using cholesterol. The more unhealthy you are the more likely you are to have high cholesterol.

The solution?

If you want to lower cholesterol levels all you have to do is to decrease free radicals. You need to get more more anti-oxidants and fewer toxins. In other words eat better. Exercise has also been shown to be important in reducing cholesterol.

Of course your cholesterol levels will not instantly drop when you start eating better. If you have high levels of cholesterol then your body has a lot of damage that needs to be healed. Cleansing and healing will take time. As the body recognizes that it has less damage it will decrease the amount of cholesterol in the blood stream.

There are some foods that have been shown to help in speeding the healing process and thereby helping to lower cholesterol levels. A couple of those are oatmeal and walnuts.

What about those pills?

The big problem with the pills is that you probably don't want what they will do. In fact studies have shown that many of those drugs actually cause an increase in arterial or heart problems. They cause a decrease of cholesterol without causing a decreased need for cholesterol. In other words they don't address the real problem. Study after study has shown that cholesterol is not the problem, it is a symptom of the problem. Of course cholesterol does become the problem (though not the root cause) when it eventually builds up so much that it clogs up an artery. Remember it is just trying to patch you up.

Confused about Good and Bad cholesterol?

It is actually nonsense to refer to the two types of cholesterol that they like to talk about as Good and Bad. Your body needs and uses both. It is simply that they have determined in some of their studies that the ratio of how much of one kind of cholesterol that there is to the other can be an observable factor in some health problems. So they decided to call the one that you need the most of Good and the other Bad. Pretty silly isn't it.

Don't be confused. Just eat a high quality natural foods diet, exercise, drink plenty of good clean water, make sure you get fiber (whole raw foods), get plenty of sleep, breath deeply and have a gratitude attitude.

Your body will take care of you, if you take care of it.