Good and Bad Cholesterol Explained

Most have heard the term cholesterol but how many of us really understand the true importance good and bad cholesterol? It is not often that one of your friends calls, texts, or tweets us to brag about his/her good cholesterol being 60 mg/dl and his/her bad cholesterol coming in at around 100 mg/dl. Anyone who did might just be classified as a cholesterol nerd, or something of the sort. Nevertheless, these are important numbers and gaining a better understanding of what they represent in relation to your health could just save your life. Now if you have a few minutes to spare why don't we jump right into our topic of good and bad cholesterol explained.

Did you know cholesterol doesn't float freely in your blood? That's right, it has to be ferried around. The body's answer to this is good cholesterol (HDL) and bad cholesterol (LDL) which are know in medical terms as lipoprotein carriers. In other words fat and cholesterol carriers. Think of our two stars as competing cab drivers in the same city both vying for that prized customer known as cholesterol who has a schizophrenic personality. When he gets into the HDL cab he is the perfect citizen just wanting to get to the airport to catch his flight home. On the other hand if he gets into the LDL cab he has the potential to become a danger to society if allowed to hang around too long.

Well, pretty corny analogy, right! Not the best way to go about defining good and bad cholesterol explained. So let's try again, and this time let's let the American Medical Association do the heavy fat lifting for us. According to the AMA the two most important blood fat/cholesterol carriers are low density lipoproteins (LDL) and high density lipoproteins (HDL). The levels of LDL and HDL have opposite effects on the heart. High levels of LDL, referred to as "the bad cholesterol" are associated with the buildup of plaque (fat deposits) in the arteries, leading to atherosclerosis and heart disease. High levels of HDL, "the good cholesterol" reduce the risk of the disease. End

So there you have it good and bad cholesterol explained. I hope you have enjoyed the ride.

What else? Lowering and maintaining good and bad cholesterol levels in a healthy range, in most cases, is about changing old habits, adopting new healthier habits, and enlisting the help of convention medications such as statins or natural cholesterol reducing remedies if needed. Put simply, this basically means finding ways to increase HDL (good cholesterol) and decrease LDL (bad cholesterol levels). Certainly the aforementioned statin drugs will be one of your options but they do carry a number of serious label warnings. The side effect risks have made lowered-cholesterol.com natural cholesterol reduction supplements combined with diet modification a safe and effective combination worth considering.

Rob D. Hawkins is an enthusiastic advocate for the use of safe and effective high quality alternative 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