Healthy Cholesterol: What Your Gut Has to Do With It

Author's Bio: Katie Bailey, MS, RD, LD, FNC

Did you know that your gut bacteria could be the secret to healthy cholesterol?

About 75% of the cholesterol in our body actually is produced by our liver, and only about 25% comes from the food that we eat. That is why simply avoiding high cholesterol foods doesn't necessarily lower our cholesterol levels. There's a powerful connection between our gut and our heart health, and today we're diving into how our gut microbiome may be the missing link in your cholesterol story.

Let's start with the basics.

So cholesterol is a waxy fatty substance that's found in every cell in the body and is absolutely necessary for proper function. It's essential for building cell membranes, producing our hormones, as well as helping the liver create bile so that we can digest the fats that we eat. Your body produces all the cholesterol that it needs, but you can also get cholesterol from animal products like meats, poultry, and dairy.

Cholesterol is carried in the blood by our lipoproteins. So low density lipoprotein or LDL is what we would be known as our bad cholesterol because it can lead to plaque buildup in the arteries and increase your risk for heart disease.

We also have our high density lipoproteins or the good cholesterol, and that is considered good because it helps remove excess cholesterol from our blood, brings it to our liver so that our liver can eliminate it.

So what does cholesterol do and how is our gut involved in the process? I'll be diving into that next.

But first, I'm Katie Bailey. I'm a Gut Health Dietitian at Oswald Digestive Clinic, where we help individuals improve and resolve their bothersome gut issues. If you're interested in learning more about gut health, I'll link our free guide Five Ways to Improve Your Gut Health here.

[Video Transcript Below Video - it is the same information]

Now, cholesterol often gets a bad rap, but is actually essential for our health.

What exactly does cholesterol do?

So cholesterol helps to build our cell membranes. So cholesterol is the key structural component of every cell in our body. It helps to keep our cell membranes flexible and stable. Next, it helps to produce our hormones. So it is the raw material that produces our hormones like estrogen, testosterone, progesterone, cortisol, as well as vitamin D. Vitamin D is a vitamin, but it also technically is a hormone. It also helps to produce bile for digestion. So our liver uses cholesterol to produce our bile acids, which then help us digest the fats that we eat as well as absorb our fat-soluble vitamins, vitamin A, D, E, and K.

Another thing that cholesterol does is it supports our brain function. About 25% of the cholesterol in our body is actually in our brain. It helps to form the connections between our neurons and it supports our mood, our memory, and our cognitive function. And then lastly, cholesterol protects against inflammation. So cholesterol helps to repair damaged tissues and plays a role in the body's response to injury and inflammation.

Why is cholesterol so important?

Well, without cholesterol, we are not going to be able to efficiently produce our hormones, digest our fats properly, or maintain really strong cell walls. It is vital for growth, healing and energy regulation, but the important thing is balance is key.

What does it mean to have healthy cholesterol?

So first, let's clear up a huge misconception.

Cholesterol is not the enemy, and when we're talking about healthy cholesterol, what we're really talking about is balance. So too little cholesterol is going to disrupt hormone production as well as brain health, but too much cholesterol, especially our oxidized LDL, is going to contribute to plaque buildup and increase your risk for heart disease.

The goal is not to eliminate cholesterol, it's to keep it in a healthy balance and support the systems that manage it like our liver, our gut, and our immune system. So healthy cholesterol means having enough HDL to protect our heart, not having too much LDL that can cause damage, and then to make sure that our body is efficiently managing and regulating our cholesterol the way it is meant to.

Now, here's where it gets really fascinating, our gut microbiome. So the trillions of bacteria that are in our digestive tract plays a direct role in regulating cholesterol, and here's how certain bacteria can help to break down, as well as recycle bile acids, which we know are produced by cholesterol. This process is going to help reduce cholesterol in the blood by influencing how cholesterol is absorbed and eliminated. A balanced gut microbiome is going to help to reduce inflammation, which means your liver is not going to have to pump out as much cholesterol in response to damage.

And then lastly, some bacteria produce short chain fatty acids like butyrate, which help improve how your liver and your cells process fat and sugars. Now, if your gut is out of balance, we call this dysbiosis, you might absorb more cholesterol, produce more inflammatory compounds, and throw off the enzymes that regulate lipid metabolism, but it's also a two-way street. So cholesterol can actually influence our gut health as well. So a high cholesterol diet paired with a low fiber diet can actually alter our gut microbiome and increase harmful bacteria in the gut. Now, elevated LDL levels can contribute to leaky gut as well as systemic inflammation, which fuels a vicious cycle that is going to affect cholesterol even more.

With all that being said,

What can you do to support both your gut and cholesterol naturally?

The first thing is to increase fiber in your diet. So fiber binds to bile in your gut and carries it out of the body through stool. This is going to force the liver to have to use more cholesterol to produce more bile, which in turn will lower your cholesterol levels.

Next is to include probiotic rich foods like our fermented veggies, keefer yogurt, as well as our prebiotic foods, onions, garlic, artichoke, asparagus. These are going to support a good healthy microbiome, which we know is vital for cholesterol regulation.

Next is to increase your healthy fat consumption. So eating things like avocado, olive oil, fatty fish, and nuts and seeds. This is going to help raise those HDL levels or that good cholesterol while decreasing inflammation.

Next, you want to limit ultra processed foods and excess sugars because these are going to be damaging to the gut and they're going to increase inflammation as well. Support your liver. So your liver is the main organ that is going to process cholesterol and bile. So eating foods like your cruciferous vegetables like broccoli, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, beets, dandelion greens, and milk thistle, all of those are very supportive for the liver.

And then lastly, you want to be moving daily. So even just moderate walking can really help to modulate our gut health as well as raise those HDL levels. So when you support your gut, you are supporting a much bigger system, especially your heart. So if you've only been thinking about cholesterol in terms of numbers on a lab report, it's time to think bigger. So your gut, your liver, and your everyday food choices do play a powerful role in shaping your cholesterol story.

So if you want healthy cholesterol, don't just focus on diet and exercise. Also focus on your gut health. So eating more fiber fermented foods, and having a diverse whole Foods diet to really feed the right microbes for a healthier heart.

That's it for today's video.

If you liked this video, please hit the like button and subscribe for more nutrition videos. Let us know in the comments if any of these things surprise you about the gut cholesterol connection. If you're interested in working with our clinic, you could click the link here to schedule an appointment. We do take insurance. You can find more information about that on our website.

Thank you for watching. I'll see you next time. Bye.

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