One thing I have learnt from nature is that everything has a purpose or reason behind it. Nothing is ever a coincidence or luck of the draw. So if you inherit something, there is a reason for it.
For many years I have been wondering how my own genetically high cholesterol came about. Every female on my mothers side has excessively high LDL and HDL cholesterol to the point where a healthy diet and lifestyle does absolutely nothing to the blood report. Red rice yeast extract supplementation was helping to an extent but still not enough to bring my cholesterol to a healthy level.
Diet and lifestyle did absolutely nothing and I had a cardiologist red in the face at me because ...try telling a naturopath that she has to take a statin for the rest of her life..It was October 2020 and he told me I had highest cholesterol levels he had seen in his clinic all year.
I have a family history of bipolar and other mental health disorders and always pondered upon the correlation.
I discovered that one of the main genes that cause this genetic issue is a polymorphism on the PON1 gene.
If you have a healthy, normal functioning PON1 gene you can clear oxidative stress well and you will have healthy cholesterol levels which represent this. Having a normal functioning PON1 gene also means exposure to pesticides such as organophosphates and glyphosate can be cleared from the body effectively. However, when this gene has a polymorphism you will see;
Excessively high cholesterol (High LDL and High LDL)
Total cholesterol is high (7>+ mmol/L)
History of Bipolar in the family
History of parkinsons disease in the family or other mental health issues
History of heart attacks and strokes within the family
Usually very good immune systems / a resilient nature
Often very good skin which ages well
This gene polymorphism appears to be genetically expressed more in females than males.
In every day life, cholesterol becomes elevated when there is inflammation within the body. This can be from emotional stress, diet or environmental. Having an elevated cholesterol level is one of our body's ways of reducing inflammation since raised cholesterol increases macrophages and other immune cells to fight illnesses and remove toxins. High amounts of cholesterol also produces an increased amount monocytes and neutrophils within the spleen and bone marrow allowing our immune systems to fight any potential infection. You could say that high cholesterol therefore does have it's perks on a short term basis. Raised cholesterol levels on a long term basis will become pro inflammatory which causes the arterial wall to harden and in some cases become blocked which ultimately leads to heart attacks and strokes.
Think of cholesterol similar to cortisol; Cortisol is great on a short term basis to help us in a fight/flight situation however long term it is stressful on our adrenals and weakens our immune system.
Having a PON1 polymorphism shows that somewhere in your family, someone, or maybe even a generation has suffered an over exposure to a pesticide/toxin such as organophosphate. The over exposure to a toxin has caused the gene to mutate (to adapt). The gene mutates to become hyper vigalent of any toxin exposure which is inflammatory because it has had such an arduous job of doing this previously for so long. The gene permanently changes so that offspring are ready to deal with this over exposure. This is epigenetics.
The problem is with having a mutated gene (a polymorphism), is that the gene has changed yet now there is no over exposure to a toxic chemical. The offspring now naturally has high cholesterol readings for what looks like no apparent reason.
There are many ways we can support this gene;
• Moderate exercise
• Berberine
• Red rice yeast extract (Statins are derived from this)
• Statins
• Avoiding seed oils like the plague
• Consuming a Mediterranean diet
• Ensuring your homocysteine blood reading is at an optimal range (between 7-8) Australian range
• Eating organic
• Reducing toxin exposure
