Mind Over Cholesterol

Here’s a wild new bit of information.  It turns out your brain has a lot more control over your cholesterol than you might think.

Actually, you probably didn’t think your brain had anything to do with your cholesterol levels.  Nobody else did. Everybody’s pretty much just assumed that cholesterol levels were affected by diet, or maybe how much cholesterol your liver lets loose (your body actually manufactures cholesterol to make important stuff like hormones).

WRONG!  Turns out a hormone named ghrelin, which sounds like some sort of mideval forest monster but who am I to judge, inhibits some circuitry in the hypothalamus (this a piece of the brain).  When this particular circuitry (called MC4R) is inhibited, the body elevates levels of HDL, which is the good cholesterol.

If this all sounds like gobbledigook, let me explain it without the technical terms.  There’s a part of your brain that responds to a hunger-signaling hormone by increasing levels of the “good” cholesterol.  Turns out, you can mimic that effect by directly inhibiting those circuits with other chemicals.

Now, all of this is based on experiments with mice, but still, it’s a real eye-opener into just how cholesterol levels are actually regulated in the body.  It’s also a spotlight on just how complex neuroendocrine relationships really are… in other words, our endocrine (hormone) system and nervous system is far more intertwined then we know.

Stay healthy!

Source: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/191037.php