Cholesterol - What Is It Anyway?

We've all heard about cholesterol. We know we don't want high cholesterol because it comes with a host of other possible health issues. But do you know exactly what cholesterol is?

Cholesterol is a wax-like substance found in the lipids, or fats, of your blood. Your body needs a certain amount of this substance. Too much cholesterol increases your risk of developing heart disease, high blood pressure and diabetes.

Your body actually manufactures all the cholesterol you really need; and you do need cholesterol. Cholesterol is produced in the liver and is needed to make vitamin D, some hormones, build cell walls and create bile salts that help to digest fat. The liver produces about 1,000 milligrams of cholesterol a day, enough to sustain us so that we need never ingest more cholesterol from our food.

Cholesterol can't travel through the bloodstream without combining with proteins. These proteins transport cholesterol to different parts of the body. When this happens the cholesterol and protein form a lipoprotein together.

For the purposes of this article, we are going to look at two important categories of lipoproteins: High-density lipoproteins (HDL) and low-density lipoproteins (LDL). These two are more commonly referred to as good and bad cholesterol.

Many individuals are confused when it comes to the good and the bad of cholesterol classification. Over the years, I've developed a handy way of telling, the good from the bad. The LDL or low-density cholesterol is what we typically refer to as bad. I remember this because LDL starts with the letter "L" for lousy.

HDL is often referred to as the good cholesterol. Your doctor encourages you to create more of this type of cholesterol. It's easy to remember that it's healthy for us because both HDL and healthy start with the letter "H".

So why is the LDL so bad for your body? Simply put, it's the type of fatty substance that is most likely to be the cause of your clogged blood vessels. This keeps your blood from flowing freely throughout your body to provide it with the necessary nourishment. LDL cholesterol can attach to the walls of the arteries blocking blood flow and making the arteries hard and inflexible causing hardening of the arteries also known as atherosclerosis.

HDL cholesterol is good because it acts as a broom and sweeps the LDL cholesterol from the walls of the arteries and the blood stream, carrying them back to your liver, where they can be processed and eliminated from the body.

Your physician will give you guidance on what steps you need to take to lower your LDL levels and raise you HDL levels. Here are a few basic guidelines.

Nutrition and weight control are vitally important. A clean low cholesterol and low saturated fat diet will help decrease the amount of cholesterol you are taking in and help you to lower your calorie intake. Exercise can help to raise your HDL levels and assist in weight control, plus getting physical will also begin to elevate your mood after a while. You simply can't go wrong with good nutrition and exercise.

The application of knowledge is power, now get with your doctor and apply what you now know to get those cholesterol levels down.

Good health to you.

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