Some Facts About Cholesterol

Cholesterol has a bad press to be sure, but this is because the press does not usually give the full story. It is easier and scarier to leave a few bits out. The fact is that we have to have cholesterol and triglycerides for that matter in order to function properly. The point where these fats become a problem is if we have too high a percentage of them in our blood.

This is a similar situation to having a lot of sugar in the blood on a regular basis, which is otherwise known as diabetes. A different word for this is hyperglycaemia and hyperglycaemia can be a cause of having too many triglycerides in the blood too, which by the way is known as hypertriglyceridemia. 'Hyper' meaning 'too much'.

Cholesterol and triglycerides are the two foremost fats in our blood system. Cholesterol and triglycerides come from the foodstuffs that we consume, but our own bodies make them as well. Cholesterol is crucial for many fundamental bodily functions like controlling hormones and creating bile.

Having said that, there are two sorts of cholesterol: low and high density cholesterol. The low end can go very low and the lower it goes the worse it is for you. This is a very complicated issue which is better explained in a longer piece, but all you have to bear in mind is that low density or LDL is bad and high density cholesterol is 'good'.

This is a very simplistic description, but it is the one that we are told of in the tabloid press. HDL cholesterol is believed to help mop up LDL cholesterol, which is why it is called good.

If this natural process does not take place or goes out of balance, the LDL cholesterol waxy fat will stick to the walls of arteries making them thinner, narrower. This is called atherosclerosis (furring of the arteries) and means that the heart has to pump blood harder in order to get oxygen to each part of the body.

This is known as hypertension or high blood pressure and puts the heart at risk of stress and failure - coronary heart disease and stroke are the possible consequences of furred arteries.

There is a lot that you can do to amend any problems with your cholesterol levels. Most of our cholesterol comes from eating red meat and full-fat dairy products, so only by replacing every other steak with a salad could hugely reduce your difficulty. There are other ways of doing this too, like exercise.

Exercise is a good way of burning off the excess fats in your blood stream, but it has to be done on a regular basis. Not that it takes a lot. If you think of what you eat and reduce the foodstuffs heavy in cholesterol, you may only need 30 minutes moderate exercise a day in order to become healthy.

The fact is that if you do not do something about your situation, you will be placed on tablets for the rest of your life. You may think that this is a good alternative to diet and exercise, but it is not actually. It is merely the easy option.

Owen Jones, the author of this piece, writes on a number of subjects, but is now involved with the question: what is a triglyceride?. If you would like to know more, please visit our web site at What Foods Lower Cholesterol?