Is Low Cholesterol Bad For Your Sex Life?

Is your sex drive down the drain? Have a problem getting it up? Just not in the mood?

This article is a deep dive into libido, for men and women, and takes a look at just one of the factors that may be hampering the sex life, low cholesterol. Perhaps low cholesterol is the culprit and in the following paragraphs we will see that, having a poor diet, being a vegan, being a vegetarian or by taking statins you just may be throwing a wrench in your sex life.

What Is Cholesterol? How Does It Relate To Sex?

Basically cholesterol is this fatty, waxy like substance that is found throughout the body and transported through the blood stream in particles called lipoproteins. Your liver is the factory in which cholesterol is produced and later on you will see how statins work and shut down your livers ability to produce cholesterol.

But what does it do? Cholesterol is essentially the building block for hormones as it is required to make sex hormones in both men and women, you know hormones like testosterone and estrogen. Naturally testosterone is the major player for increased sex drive, erections, libido, and even necessary to have an orgasm.

Do Animal Product Free Diets Equal Poor Sex Drive?

Holy crap, did you ever wonder why vegans and some vegetarians seem so lackluster with the sex life? Here is an interesting factor. Because sex hormones are manufactured by our bodies from molecules of cholesterol it’s pretty safe to assume that for normal sex functioning life we would need to eat foods with cholesterol. Here’s the kicker, you can’t get cholesterol from plant food, it’s only found in animal food.

The human body can produce cholesterol in the liver but a person that is deficient from animal products will soon find that their body is unable to make a sufficient amount of steroid hormones, such as testosterone, estrogen and progesterone.

Even in woman that have low cholesterol they will begin to see their menstration cycle wonder and eventually completely shut down as the body is reserving its lack of cholesterol for other essential body functions and energy. Reproduction takes a back seat and just survival kicks in.

While reading “Vegetarianism Explained” by Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride I even learned that churches strongly advised or forced their nuns and monks on a plant based diet so as to reduce their urge for sex. (Remember nuns, priests and monks are not allowed to have any sexual activity.) The church learned early on that by a plant based diet lowered sexual desire and fertility was reduced. Also men and women on low fat plant based diets reported a challenge of reaching climax. Take the orgasm away and you pretty much reduce that urge for sex in the first place.

Is There Correlation Between Low Cholesterol and Western Culture’s Fertility Problem?

Take a look at Western Cultures current problem with fertility. When looking at current trends and stats you will see fertility is at the lowest levels ever. Men’s sperm counts are even dwindling. Even young couples are unable to have babies. But why? Dr. Campbell-McBride brings up some great points and looks at the current push for main stream to push the plant based, low fat, low cholesterol is better agenda.

With her clinical experience she found that when working with couples that were unable to make babies she would prescribe a diet heavy in animal foods. Over time a large percentage of the couples were able to conceive a child.

Take a look at what this Harvard professor and Doctor says about fertility. Dr. Jorge Chavarro, of Harvard School of Public Health, who led the study “Human Reproduction” said that women wanting to conceive children should take a look at their diet. He said, “They should consider changing low fat dairy foods for high fat dairy foods, for instance by swapping skim milk for whole milk and eating cream, not low fat yoghurt. these high fat foods provide good amounts of cholesterol to be converted into sex hormones, so necessary for having children.”

His research was able to figure out that women who drink whole milk and eat high fat dairy products are more fertile than those who stick to low fat food products.

The Stress Plus Low Fat Equals Poor Sex Drive Theory

Another theory or I should say bad combination is a low fat, low cholesterol diet combined with stress. It’s been stated in other studies and articles that higher fat animal based diets help mitigate high anxiety and stress. If you lack high fat animal products in your diet your body is susceptible to high anxiety and mental performance issues.

One of the theories is that when this happens and you have low cholesterol your body transfers its focus to survival and neglects the inferior systems associated to sex and reproduction.

Statins: Lower Cholesterol and Lower Libido and Bad Boners

Statin drugs one of the most heavily marketed prescription drugs in the entire world and not to mention the most profitable. Statins account for 1/3 of all pharmaceutical profits. 1 in 4 Americans over the age of 45 take statins. For those of that are lucky enough to be on statins and not know what they are let’s take a quick look at why and how they work.

Statins are a group of drugs that act to reduce the levels of fats including triglycerides and cholesterol in the blood.

How do they do this? Statin drugs lower cholesterol by blocking the enzyme HMG-CoA Reductase in the liver. By doing so the liver is less able to produce cholesterol.

The side effects of statins are insane. Just to name a few according to the Mayo Clinic:

• Muscle Pain and Muscle Damage
• Liver Damage
• Increased Blood Sugar or Type 2 Diabetes
• Neurological Side Effects

But our topic today is libido. So how do statins mess up our sex? Remember how cholesterol is a building material for steroid hormones like testosterone, estrogen progesterone? As soon as you start taking statins it shuts down your livers ability to produce cholesterol which in turn shuts down or happens the bodies ability to produce your sex hormones.

It’s even widely known that in the 80s when statins first hit the market men started reporting issues of erectile dysfunction and overall their levels of testosterone dropped which then in turn opened up or made the market for ED prescription drugs bigger. Can you begin to see how Big Pharma works?

Another common side effect of statin drugs is flat out depression. Remember how cholesterol plays an important part of healthy brain function? When your body does not produce cholesterol your brain also suffers as it’s not able to reproduce brain cells which in term make it less efficient and unable to fire on all cylinders thus depression sets in.

How many depressed people do you know that rave about their sex life? Not many I imagine and this is just another reason for it. So basically low cholesterol is a contributor to depression which will then turn off the sex switch. The desire for sex drops when you’re not happy or excited about life.

Remember how it’s been reported that couples that are prescribed a statin have relationship problems soon after due to irritability and mood swings? They also report that sex drops dramatically as well.

Statins can really do a number on your sex life.

What to do about your low libido?

It’s not an answer I’m willing to give as Im not a doctor but common sense would say it may be a good idea to add a little animal product to your diet. Maybe try increasing your meat intake and source the high cholesterol products. Get a little crazy and eat some high in vital nutrient organ meats and douse it in grass fed butter or go nuts with some grass fed burgers as a high fat ratio ground beef throws down with tons of cholesterol.

Or listen to Dr. Campbell-McBride and add some high fat milk. You may be able to get your sex hormones back on track. What I do see though is that by sticking to the low fat, low cholesterol diet you are setting yourself up for sexual failure whether male or female. So go out there and start experimenting and see what works for you. Do a little change to your diet and keep on exercising.