Welcome to the Dr. Berg, Healthy Keto and Intermittent Fasting Podcast.

Now, your host, the man taking your health to a whole new level.

Dr. Eric Berg.

I want to talk about the relationship between bile acids and cholesterol.

It's really important information, especially if you're concerned about your cholesterol.

But bile acids are made by your liver. They're also made by your friendly bacteria.

But the thing that I want you to know about is that 75% of all the cholesterol in your body is made by your own body.

And only 25% comes from food.

So when you have a high cholesterol, people tend to freak out and they start to get on medication.

And what they don't realize is that your body actually makes the majority of cholesterol.

They might not also realize this very, very important fact.

Your bile acids are the primary pathway for cholesterol catabolism. Now, what is catabolism?

It's a process where your body is breaking down complex molecules to simple molecules.

So in this case, your body is breaking down cholesterol into smaller particles.

So then you can use the small particles to make things like vitamin D cellular membranes, hormones, and even bile.

In other words, bile is made from cholesterol.

And this is one of the problems that people have when they start taking a statin drug, which blocks the production of cholesterol.

And now we have a problem with the production of bile, a problem with the production of vitamin D,

and a problem with making cell membranes and hormones.

Now number two, 50% of all your daily cholesterol turnover, which means the rate of being depleted and replaced, like recycled, is controlled by bile salts.

And number three, bile salts help to regulate the ratios between LDL and HDL.

They actually will lower you LDL and raise your HDL.

...