The Cholesterol Recycling Process in the Human Body: From Excretion to Reabsorption and Beyond

The human body has a mechanism to recycle cholesterol, starting with its excretion from the liver and eventual reabsorption into the bloodstream in the small intestine.

Cholesterol is a type of sterol, specifically a zoosterol found in animals, with the formula C17H28O. In fungi, a similar compound called ergosterol plays a role similar to cholesterol.

Joseph Goldstein, an American biochemist, helped discover the role cholesterol plays in causing heart disease and shared the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1985 for this work.

Drugs known as statins are used to lower cholesterol levels in the blood to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease. These drugs act on a pathway that constitutes the first 18 steps of the 37-step process the human body uses to make cholesterol.

Under the influence of ultraviolet light, the body converts cholesterol into calcitriol, an active form of vitamin D made in the kidneys. Cholesterol can’t cross