Is LDL Good Or Bad Cholesterol?

LDL stands for high density lipoproteins with some simply referring to it as bad cholesterol. It is the type of cholesterol that clogs our arteries and increases a person's chances of having a heart attack, stroke, and developing artery disease. One the other hand these tiny molecules are somewhat responsible for keeping us alive, leading us to the question as to is LDL good or bad.

You may find it hard to believe but 90 percent of the cholesterol in the body is not lining your artery walls but located in your cell membranes. You can think of cholesterol as the wax like glue that holds every cell in your body together, keeping them flexible and strong. There is even ongoing research delving deeper into this quandary that seems to suggest inflammation in our bodies that hardens the cholesterol in our cells may lead to accelerated aging.

We know that too much LDL cholesterol floating around in our bodies is bad but what if we were became obsessed with the idea of eliminating it all together. Wouldn't we be happier and healthier? Not only would we not be happier and healthier but we would look old, tired, and gaunt as well.

The truth of the matter is if you were to modify your diet dramatically to get rid of cholesterol, use too many cholesterol lowering drugs, or fail to follow the recommended dosage requirements for such medications as statins, causing your cholesterol to plummeted to unimaginably low levels, your cell membranes would become very dry and brittle. It would be a very painful way to go, causing you to die cell by cell.

Our cells need to be flexible, the more flexible they are the healthier we will be on a cellular level. We will look younger and feel better. Cholesterol is also important for brain function and makes up about 10 percent of our brains.

But how much difference could a measly 10 percent difference possibly make on our brains? Well according to a well documented German study quite a bit.

About 90 percent of our brain cells are non nerve cells referred to as glial cells. These are non nerve cells which contain cholesterol. The cholesterol enables them to secrete the molecule that encourages the formation of synapses, the tiny junctions in the brain where messages are exchanged among nerve cells. Without cholesterol our brains simply wouldn't work. But before you rush out to the grocery store and buy a stick of butter, a bag of cheese, a bad of high fat chips, some high cholesterol salad dressing, and a little sour cream to top it off you should know that the brain produces enough cholesterol for its daily needs.

Is LDL good or bad is a complicated one that comes back to one simple point; the body is self sufficient and produces enough cholesterol for its daily needs. It is only when we add unnecessary amounts of cholesterol to our diets, or have an illness of some sort (familiar hypercholesterolemia, diabetes) does LDL cholesterol actually become bad.

In conclusion, the key to making LDL good rather than bad is keeping blood LDL cholesterol levels in a healthy range (100-110 mg/dl) through diet, exercise, not smoking, and implementing a lowered-cholesterol.com natural cholesterol reduction supplement or a prescription medication if needed. The old saying about everything in moderation certainly holds true when asking is LDL good or bad.

Rob D. Hawkins is an enthusiastic advocate for the use of safe and effective high quality alternitive health products and natural living, with over 10 years experience in the field. Learn more about natural remedies and natural health at purchaseremedies.com Purchase Remedies.com