Let's talk about cholesterol, menopause, and aging.

As we get older, our cholesterol does go up.

Many men have higher cholesterol than women, but during menopause, there usually is a spike

in cholesterol in women.

Now, before I get too much into that, I just want to let you know that the body does

make cholesterol.

It makes a lot.

In fact, 75% to 80% of all the cholesterol in your body is made by your own body.

Why?

Because all of your cell membranes need it.

So cholesterol is required to make bile, vitamin D, and sex hormones, estrogen, progesterone,

testosterone, cortisol, and there's several other hormones.

But the question is, why would a female go through menopause have an increased amount

of cholesterol?

Well, it has to do with this hormone right here, estrogen.

As the estrogen decreases during menopause, which happens dramatically and significantly,

you're going to get an increase in cholesterol because estrogen acts as an antioxidant, and

as we have less antioxidants, we're more susceptible to getting damage in the arteries

in different parts of the body.

And so you really want to look at cholesterol as the firemen put up the fire.

So cholesterol is really a band-aid to come in there with the help of calcium and some

protein to seal the lesion or the inflamed damaged artery.

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