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Red Oak Farm
3040 Big Buck Road
Trezevant, TN 38258
owners@redoakfarm.com

Copyright © 1998 -2008
All Rights Reserved
Red Oak Farm
Revised: almost weekly

Balancing your Cholesterol – the juggling just got easier

by Myra Charleston  
reprinted with permission from Emu's Zine

When you consider the importance cholesterol is to your overall health, you can understand value in maintaining it’s balance.  Produced by the liver, this lipid is necessary for the production of cell membranes, Vitamin D3, various steroid hormones in the adrenal glands (including cortisol, cortisone and aldosterone), and of sex hormones (progesterone, estrogen and testosterone).  When your cholesterol levels are unbalanced you may suffer from gallstones, an increased risk of heart disease or stroke, skin breakdown or impotence.

The movement of cholesterol throughout the body is achieved by lipoproteins.  The cholesterol hitches  a ride with these protein complexes and in the case of HDL’s (High-density lipoproteins) is carried out of the bloodstream for excretion.  LDL’s (Low density lipoproteins) carry the cholesterol back into the system for use by various body cells.  The problem occurs when this balance between the HDL’s and LDL’s is out of whack and there is more cholesterol coming in than is needed by the body.  The excess is deposited in the blood stream and forms a plaque.

According to the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, everyone over the age of 20 should have a lipoprotein profile done every 5 years.  This test will provide you with your total cholesterol level with a breakdown of the HDL’s, LDL’s and triglycerides.  Click here to see a chart on Blood Cholesterol Levels.

For those persons suffering from high cholesterol levels, a recent study funded by the American Emu Association and done by the University of Massachusetts, Lowell and the Forsyth Institute indicates that a simple, all-natural food supplement may help lower those levels.  In these cholesterol-lowering studies, hamsters were fed chow-based diets containing either coconut oil or emu oil for 4 weeks.  The preliminary results showed hamsters fed emu oil had 25% lower levels of LDL and a 27% increase in HDL’s.  WOW!  Let me say that again – WOW!  Further studies will undoubtedly be done on the potential of emu oil as a dietary supplement.

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