About this episode
If you're concerned about your cholesterol, or confused about what to do, this episode is for you. In this episode, I list the four key factors that control blood cholesterol levels and outline the simplest dietary or lifestyle changes we can make to have the biggest impact. This episode is brought to you by US Wellness Meats . Head to grasslandbeef.com and enter "Chris" at checkout to get 15% off your order as long as the final price is over $75 and you order fewer than 40 pounds of meat. You can use "Chris" to get the same discount twice. In this episode, you will find all of the following and more: 00:33 Cliff notes; 09:22 Targeting the low-hanging fruit; 11:50 The total-to-HDL-C ratio as a fingerprint of low LDL receptor activity; 13:20 Other markers such as particle size, particle count, and ApoB as fingerprints of low LDL receptor activity; 16:30 The four factors that control the LDL receptor; 18:50 Intracellular free cholesterol (effects of dietary fiber, cholestyramine, statins, and polyunsaturated fatty acids or PUFAs); 20:37 Thyroid hormone (effects of micornutrients, body fat, and carbohydrate intake); 23:50 Insulin (via PCSK9, effects of the fasting-feeding cycle and carbohydrate intake); 27:00 Inflammation (via PCSK9, effects of acute infection and chronic inflammation); 29:15 Practical approaches to maximizing LDL receptor activity; 29:22 Nutrient-dense whole food diets; 34:00 Thyroid disorder; 37:15 Adrenal stress, circadian stress, inflammatory stress; 39:05 Insulin resistance, body composition, and fatty liver disease; 42:00 Weight loss will improve insulin sensitivity, and for many a low-carb diet is a tool to achieve that, but in an insulin-sensitive person, carbohydrate stimulation of insulin has a powerful beneficial effect on LDL receptor activity; 46:20 Inflammation and PCSK9; 47:00 C-Reactive Protein levels, body composition, diet quality, and exercise; 49:25 Replacing fat with carbohydrate. Access the show notes, transcript, and comments here: https://chrismasterjohnphd.substack.com/p/038-what-to-do-about-high-cholesterol Chris Masterjohn, PhD, is the Founder and Scientific Director of the mitochondria test Mitome .