Stress And Cholesterol Link Explained! - Does Stress Affect Your Cholesterol?

How are stress and cholesterol linked?

For your information, stress is a natural activator of your body, so it can improve. However, continuous and severe stress leads to a rapid increase in the cholesterol levels.

Stressful situations leads to the activation of the hypothalamus, which is a structure located in the brain. It controls the activity of the sympathetic nervous and parasympathetic nervous system.

The sympathetic system is activated when the body enters a stressful situation. The sympathetic nervous system is activated by the hypothalamus.

The activation of the sympathetic nervous system leads to several events in your organism, including acceleration of your heart rate. People under stress will start to breath heavily and slowly. They want to inhale as much oxygen as possible.

On the other hand, the activation of the sympathetic nervous system leads to a release of many “stress” hormones, which are in a tight relationship with the high cholesterol levels.

Stress and cholesterol - What is the effect of hormones?

The activation of the sympathetic system is associated with the release of adrenaline, noradrenalin, cortisol and glucagon. Adrenaline, noradrenaline and cortisol increase the fat metabolism.

In fact, they accelerate the hydrolysis of the fats. The main reason for the release of these hormones is to increase the overall energy in the body.

Fats deliver enormous quantity of energy. They have more than 37kJ of energy, compared to the carbohydrates, which can deliver only 17kJ. This is why the body needs to use the fats in the fat cells. However, the hydrolysis of these fats increases the levels of the cholesterol.

The adrenaline and noradrenaline aim to deliver sufficient quantities of energy for the organism. Here you see how stress and cholesterol are obviously linked.

If you live in a very stressful environment, then your cholesterol levels will be really high, which is evidenced by numerous studies.

If the organism produces more stress hormones, this will accelerate the metabolism of lipids. These hormones will increase the disintegration of fats, which are found in the fat cells.

One of the products of this disintegration is cholesterol. The intense metabolism of lipids leads to increased levels of blood cholesterol, which is found in the blood stream.

Stress and cholesterol - What about "high cholesterol stress"?

A syndrome known as “high cholesterol-stress” is gaining popularity in the recent years. The pathogenesis of this syndrome is as following.

The people, who have high cholesterol levels because of their lifestyle and because of the lack of sports, put their body in “stress” as it needs to handle with the elevated levels of cholesterol and that’s why the body starts secreting stress hormones.

This is a vicious circle because this mechanism will lead to even higher levels of cholesterol because of the mechanism explained above.

Stress and cholesterol: How to reduce cholesterol levels by natural de-stress methods?

The cholesterol levels could be reduced with the help of natural de-stress methods. One of the ways to de-stress your body is trough a head massage. The head massage will relief the stress and that’s why your cholesterol levels will drop.

Other possible way to de-stress your body is trough sports. Sports will consume the released adrenaline and noradrenaline. That’s how the fat metabolism will not be stimulated at all. The natural stimulators, which increase cholesterol, will be removed.

You could find a less stressful job. This is a perfect way to reduce your cholesterol dramatically. You will reduce your cholesterol levels permanently and you will not experience any cholesterol issues in the following years.