What is Cholesterol?

Image by Juhan Sonin via Flickr (CC BY 2.0)

Most people tend to have a negative view of cholesterol. We fear it and avoid it. We try to eat, as much as possible, foods that do not have a lot of it. So, we won’t have a high level of it in our blood when examined for it. Is this substance really responsible for harming our hearts?

What is Cholesterol?

Cholesterol is a waxy and fatty material. It’s present in the blood and in each of the cells of the human body. Actually, cholesterol is not really a bad thing – you are meant to have some in you.

The human body needs it for making cell membranes and the building blocks of human hormones. If that is the case, why are we so worried about having it when we need it?

When is cholesterol bad?

An excessive amount of cholesterol within the body brings about hypercholesterolemia. This is the techie term for high cholesterol. Once your body possesses more cholesterol than it could utilize for its daily functions, the rest of it eventually ends up floating freely in the bloodstream. When this occurs, it gets deposited on the blood vessel walls.

High cholesterol causes hardening of the arteries known as atherosclerosis. It is a serious root cause of cardiovascular disease.

Where do all the cholesterol come from?

Surprisingly enough, your body manufactures around ¾ of the cholesterol within your blood. The remaining ¼ of the blood cholesterol is derived from the food you consume.

Men and women frequently have high cholesterol simply because genetically they are created to produce more, no matter what they eat. At times, folks have high cholesterol primarily because of consuming an excessive amount of it.

The Good and the Bad Cholesterol

The bad and good cholesterol. Image by Le Van Thao via Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0)

All cholesterol isn’t the same. The bad type of cholesterol is called LDL or low n-density lipoprotein and triglyceride, which originates from fatty food items. The good type of cholesterol is called HDL or high-density lipoprotein.

LDL is the type of cholesterol that may get deposited on the walls of your blood vessels and HDL basically goes and takes the bad cholesterol to keep it away from your blood vessel walls. Obviously, you would like your LDL levels to be very low and your HDL levels to be very high.

How to Take Care of Your Cholesterol Levels?

Lots of people can take care of high cholesterol levels by fixing their diet. That includes eating a decreased quantity of saturated fat and a great quantity of fiber.

Physical exercise is additionally a good way to boost your HDL levels. Nevertheless, at times genetics overrides your way of life and medicine is needed to reduce your blood cholesterol levels.

It is essential that you get yourself an annual checkup and get your blood cholesterol levels assessed. This will enable you to see whether you have to make changes in your lifestyle or medicine regimen.