What is cholesterol? And why does just the word itself carry such a negative connotation? Surely you have a close friend or family member that upon returning from a routine health checkup glumly states in a hushed voice, "The doctor told me I had to lower my cholesterol." It was as if someone had just cast a dark spell of gloom on their life.
In fact, the doctor just presented this person with a bit of knowledge that could very well lengthen their life. This was a piece of good news, certainly nothing to be glum about. If a person does have a cholesterol level that is out of balance, then it is best that they become aware of that condition and take the appropriate steps to bring the level back into a healthy balance.
To answer the first question posed, cholesterol is a natural compound found in everyone's body metabolism to a lesser or greater degree. Cholesterol is contained in many very common types of popular food. In addition, the body itself produces cholesterol when triggered by various changes in your metabolism. By the way, there are two quite opposite types of cholesterol, one being a good kind called high density lipoprotein (HDL), at the other end of the spectrum is bad cholesterol called low density lipoprotein (LDL).
Cholesterol is a useful product produced by the liver to deal with excessive sugar, alcohol and calories that build up in the blood. Remember the wise saying from your teacher or preacher that "Too much of a good thing can be bad." So the body also produces HDL to offset harmful excess LDL. Which brings us to address the second question, what is so bad about cholesterol?
The bad LDL contains other components called triglycerides and very low density lipoproteins (VLDL), both of which are stocked up with bits of substance that eventually will be stored in fatty cells all over the body, making up the lumps and bumps and saggy portions of our body, usually in all the wrong places. That is bad. Not only for the body beautiful, but even more harmful for what is happening inside our body.
A war is raged between the good and the bad to keep the ugly from showing. But much worse than ugly is the impact of bad cholesterol to your blood vessels. As the bits of LDL flow along your blood stream, some of them have a tendency to stick to the blood vessel walls. There they grow harder and start building up as a coating which is called plaque. As the plaque builds over time, it actually juts out into the blood stream causing the flow of blood to decrease.
Herein lies the scare and danger to a person's health. The buildup of plaque from a high level of bad (LDL) cholesterol interferes with the natural blood flow, causing the heart to get less life sustaining oxygen. Over a period of time, this will cause life threatening heart disease, which could result in a heart attack. Or should a blood clot come floating along in the blood stream and get hung on the plaque buildup, a disabling stroke could result from the sudden shut down of blood flow to the brain.
Yes, this is certainly a condition that could put glum all over an otherwise smiling face.
But, look alive... there is hope, people! There are numerous ways to naturally lower this nasty bad cholesterol. The two actions at the top of the list are a good diet and regular exercise. These two, when followed based on many good diets and exercise plans available, will reverse the trend of this battle for the bulge. Although it might take a change in your lifestyle, the rewards will be well worth the effort. You will have a healthier and happier life, turning that glum back into a smile.
Rhea Hamilton is an advocate and educator on methods to maintain a healthy cholesterol balance in your blood stream. For more great information on lowercholesterolblog.com how to naturally lower cholesterol, visit lowercholesterolblog.com lowercholesterolblog.com.
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