Dr Amir Khan

It senses how much cholesterol is in your blood and it will adjust its production accordingly.

Now, what's really interesting about this is genetics plays a big part in how much cholesterol your liver makes.

So actually, your liver will make, without any influence of diet...

about 70 to 80% of your cholesterol.

So think about that.

That means 20, maximum 30% of your cholesterol in your blood is diet related.

The rest you have no control over whatsoever.

It is your liver, your genetics, the way your body works.

And that really surprises people.

absolutely yes so it all depends on how well your liver is making that cholesterol and how quickly your body is breaking it down or reabsorbing it but family history plays a big part there there's something called familial hypercholesterolemia which is just essentially a genetic condition that means you make too much cholesterol so you could have the most perfect diet in the world you could be sleeping beautifully you could be exercising regularly uh

but there is only so much control over your cholesterol.

That will do if you've got that genetic condition.

It doesn't mean, oh my God, I've got really high cholesterol.

I'm going to have a heart attack or stroke.

It doesn't mean that because cholesterol is just one risk factor for heart attacks and strokes.

We've got to look at a whole bigger picture about everything else.

And if you're doing all those amazing things, you're really significantly reducing your risk.

And along those lines...

The danger when we focus on one nutrient like cholesterol often means we ignore everything else.

We don't eat food as single nutrients.