The Biochemistry Of Human Health

The Biochemistry Of Human Health

Understanding How Cholesterol Accumulates In Our Body

The dynamic equilibrium behind the consumption and the excretion mechanisms of cholesterol is poorly explained these days.

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Dr Joel Yong
Sep 22, 2025
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The whole problem with health and healthcare these days is that things can get so complicated such that we have no idea how to make any head or tail out of it.

The thing is that a lot of common health issues can be simplified for the common person - but simplification takes time, and it doesn’t benefit the healthcare professional to explain all of that, because we are all aware of the fact that time is money.

For example, what does “high cholesterol” even mean?

It’s more convenient for the doctor to prescribe a statin to “reduce cholesterol”, isn’t it?

At least, that’s what people with high cholesterol are told. Though there also is the fear that statins can cause dementia:

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There are ways to better understand what’s going on.

In fact, we can look at some useful analogies to understand what’s going on.

For example, we have the idea of growing our wealth - and we know that our account balances can grow if and only if our income is greater than our output.

Because if I were to be getting $10 added to my bank account every day and deducting $5 from it for my expenses each day, I’d have a positive accumulation of $5 in my account every day.

Meaning that the net amount going into my account must be positive.

If my expenses rise to $7, my accumulation would be reduced to $3; and if my expenses rise to $10, my bank account would be at equilibrium, where what goes in equals what comes out.

Can we apply that logic to the cholesterol in our blood?

Definitely, yes! Our liver synthesises fresh cholesterol from our food - that’s what goes into our body.

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