Cholesterol Part 3. It is all about yin and yang.

As I wrote earlier, high serum cholesterol levels are not simply a matter of high dietary cholesterol. Cholesterol levels are also a function of one's stress levels. Eating sugar, drinking coffee and alcohol are all stresssful to the adrenal glands. Chinese medicine would say that coffee and alcohol release a lot of yang qi. Since the body's inclination is to keep things in balance its response is to secrete more yin substance. Cholesterol is one such yin substance. When excessive, it becomes a pathogenic yin substance composed of dampness and phlegm. Therefore, the key to keeping it under control is to keep yang from being overly stressed and yin from being overly generated by avoiding the over consumption of simple sugars and animal products.

Lifestyle and dietary modification along with the appropriately prescribed Chinese herbal formulas is a great way to not only lower cholesterol levels but to improve one's overall health and well being.

TCM and cholesterol....part 2. Stress !!

Cholesterol is a nutrient in foods. It is a hormone precursor and so it is found specifically in animal foods. In addition to being ingested when we eat, cholesterol is also manufactured in our bodies. Its production is directly related to our levels of stress. When we are under stress our metabolism is heightened. (Acupuncture of course is great for stress reduction.) The orders for such gearing up are dependent upon hormonal regulation and many important hormones are synthesized from cholesterol. This is evidenced by the fact that many hormones have steroid or sterol in their name, such as cortiocosteriods. This is the same sterol as in cholesterol.

The corticosteroids are manufactured in the adrenal cortex sitting on top of the kidneys. These corticosteroids are often referred to as flight or fight hormones. Their manufacture are the body's coping mechanisms for dealing with stresses of all kinds. Thus anything that stresses the body can cause an elevation of cholesterol.

Lowering Cholesterol with TCM...part 1

TCM using a combination of dietary modification and Chinese herbs can significantly lower blood lipid levels matching the performance of statin drugs while improving overall health and without side effects.

High cholesterol is a laboratory test result. As such, it is not a disease in and of itself but rather a risk factor for cardiovascular disease. Many people have no signs or symptoms of that condition per se. Therefore, there is no one-to-one relationship between between high cholesterol and a single, particular Chinese medical pattern. Nevertheless, Chinese doctors have identified the five or six most commonly presenting Chinese medical patterns in patients with high cholesterol. The fruits of this research now allows the Chinese medical practitioner to prescribe Chinese herbal formulas that work to lower cholesterol levels but do it in a way that is custom tailored to each individual and without side effects. In fact, Chinese medical treatment of high cholesterol not only results in a lowering of LDL and triglycerides but also an improvement in HDL numbers, something that statin drugs do not do.