No fewer than 13 Nobel Prizes have been awarded to scientists researching cholesterol,

culminating in a constellation of new cholesterol-lowering modalities.

Let me simplify.

Here's your liver, a blood vessel and a bit of your intestine.

Our liver can make cholesterol from scratch through a long series of reactions,

I've shown just two here, which can then be packaged and end up as LDL in our bloodstream

to deliver cholesterol throughout the body.

Now, we don't want to have too much as it can lodge in our artery walls,

become oxidized, and trigger inflammation that can lead to atheroscleric plaque and kill us.

So our liver also has LDL receptors that pull LDL out of the blood and dispose of the cholesterol through

our bile by dumping it into our digestive tract, presuming our intestines will be packed

with dietary fiber that will trap it and ultimately flush it away.

But if the cholesterol doesn't get trapped, it can be reabsorbed and get repackished as

LDL and re-enter our bloodstream.

The same if we eat a bunch of cholesterol, but the most important dietary determinant

of cholesterol is saturated fat that reduces the number of LDR receptors so more LDL stays

in our blood.

Okay, stick with me.

There's also a protein called PCSK9 made in our liver that helps break down LDL receptors.

I did a video about longevity syndromes, where people who have a faulty PSK9 gene,

luckily leading to more LDL receptors

and a 90% drop in heart disease risk.

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