Before I get into how our blood sugar can impact cholesterol, I want to first quickly cover what cholesterol is and what it does in our bodies. Cholesterol is a fat-like substance that is transported throughout our bodies via the blood. This transportation is carried out by lipoproteins. Lipoproteins are round particles made of fat (lipids) and proteins that travel in the bloodstream to cells throughout your body. Something interesting about the discovery of cholesterol that I learned from Broda Barnes is that it was actually discovered by a French chemist when they were studying gallstones.

Cholesterol does a lot of important things in the body. Let’s do a quick rundown!

• Cell Membranes: Cholesterol is what primarily makes up all cell membranes and controls how fluid they are. It also reduces the permeability of the cell membrane meaning it restricts the passage of molecules.
• Myelin: Cholesterol is a large part of what makes up myelin and protects our nerve fibers.
• Hormones: Cholesterol is a precursor to our steroid hormones, which includes sex and stress hormones. Without adequate levels of cholesterol, our bodies have a hard time making adequate levels of hormones.
• Vitamin D: Cholesterol is also the backbone of vitamin D and is required to make from D from sunlight. Low cholesterol has been linked to low vitamin D. We can still have low vitamin D if we have normal or high cholesterol. Other vitamins and minerals also play a big role in vitamin D status.
• Bile Acids: Our liver make bile acids out of cholesterol. These act like a deterrent with fat and help us break it down and absorb it properly in the digestive tract. Without adequate bile, we can develop nutrient deficiencies for fat soluble vitamins A, D, E, and K. We also get rid of estrogen and toxins in our bile along with excess copper.
• Arterial Wall Repair: Cholesterol was once thought to always build up on the arterial walls and cause heart disease, but research shows that this is not true. We now know that inflammation is the root cause leading to cholesterol build up. Cholesterol is just there to repair the walls.

Cholesterol is often highlighted in a negative spotlight, but hopefully this helps show just how important it is. Our bodies certainly think so since cholesterol is found in every cell in the body. Inside those cells we also have enzymes that can produce cholesterol if we need it. This is just another example of how important cholesterol is!

How Insulin Impacts Our Cholesterol Levels

When it comes to understanding the why behind high cholesterol, a lot of it comes back to how something impacts the LDL receptor activity. This LDL receptor is what helps take up cholesterol into the liver. If something slows this down, it will lead to higher blood levels of cholesterol because it’s not being processed correctly. Insulin is a key regulator of the LDL receptor and can also impact how much cholesterol the body produces. Insulin resistance leads to more cholesterol being made and less being taken up by the liver. This causes a significant increase in our blood cholesterol levels.

Research shows that even slight dysregulation of our insulin and blood sugar can contribute to higher cholesterol levels. One particular study saw an impairment in cholesterol metabolism even in subjects that only had slightly high fasting glucose (your blood sugar level when you first wake up in the morning).

We also have a good amount of research on insulin resistance in women with PCOS and dyslipidemia (abnormally elevated cholesterol or triglyceride levels). One study showed that women with PCOS had higher LDL cholesterol and triglycerides and lower HDL cholesterol than controls that did not have PCOS.

If you’re new to the concept of how insulin works and how insulin resistance occurs, here’s a quick breakdown:

• When we eat foods that contain carbohydrates, we break them down to glucose (their simplest form) during the digestive process.
• This glucose gets released into the blood and raises our blood glucose AKA blood sugar levels.
• When blood sugar levels are elevated, our pancreas releases insulin to get that glucose out of the blood and into our cells.
• Insulin acts like a key that opens the door to our cells and lets the glucose in. If our cells are not sensitive to that insulin, allowing it to open the door for glucose, our pancreas will release more and more until the door open unlocks.
• Overtime, this leads to both elevated blood sugar and insulin levels.

What Contributes To Insulin Resistance?

There are a number of different factors that can contribute to insulin resistance and even a lot of things that we don’t know yet. Many will claim that too much sugar/carbs causes insulin resistance, but when you look at the research, there’s always more to the story. I often see yo yo dieting or bingeing and restricting to be a huge source of insulin resistance in my clients, but this is often overlooked in mainstream conversation on the topic. Here are some other big areas that will contribute to insulin resistance:

• Chronic stress
• Lack of sleep
• Yo yo dieting
• Mineral deficiencies like magnesium and calcium
• Chronic inflammation
• Excessive amounts of seed oils

How To Reduce Insulin Resistance

When it comes to supporting healthy blood sugar levels and also ensuring your body is using insulin properly, there are a few key areas that I find are easy to implement and give you the most bang for your buck:

1. Eat your protein rich foods first. This helps lower the spike in blood sugar that we get post meal. Eating protein rich foods before carbohydrate rich foods slows down digestion, which means a smaller blood sugar spike. A smaller spike means less work that insulin has to do. It’s less stressful on your body. This is also why I always recommend eating a protein with your carbohydrate rich foods, even for snacks.
2. Prioritize potassium rich foods daily. Potassium helps shuttle glucose inside the cell. I have seen firsthand in both myself and clients when utilizing a continuous glucose monitor that this is incredibly helpful for maintaining consistent blood sugar levels. Some ideas for potassium rich foods: potatoes, winter squash, tomatoes, collard greens, Swiss chard, avocado, pomegranate, honey dew melon, papaya, grapefruit, kiwi, and apricots to name a few! I also love incorporating coconut water mixed with a little sea salt and lemon or lime as my adrenal cocktail and an extra boost of potassium. 1 cup of coconut water has over 550mg of potassium!
3. Get moving. Getting movement throughout the day is another simple and helpful way to support how sensitive your cells are to insulin, which helps reduce insulin resistance. Strength training is especially helpful for this, but walking has also been shown to quickly lower blood sugar levels. I always recommend doing the movement that you enjoy and can easily do on a regular basis.

Having healthy insulin and blood sugar levels is extremely helpful for someone that is struggling with high cholesterol and/or triglyceride levels. I hope this helps anyone that is concerned with this area.

Want to learn more about cholesterol? I dig even deeper in this podcast episode.

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