Why Worry About Cholesterol Anyway?

Lots of people have heard about the dangers of cholesterol but far fewer understand what those dangers are

. Cholesterol serves an important purpose in keeping you healthy and is needed for the health of the cells in all parts of the body.

Cholesterol gets into the body in two ways. It can be produced by the liver or it can come from foods that we eat, mainly food from animals like eggs, meat and dairy. Since the liver makes all the cholesterol we need, a diet that's heavy in these types of food can lead to an excess of cholesterol.

Cholesterol gets around the body through the bloodstream. The problem is cholesterol doesn't dissolve so it needs something else to give it a ride. That something is a protein called LDL. The cholesterol gets carried through the body by LDL and the part that the body doesn't need gets carried back to the liver by another protein called HDL.

Ordinarily, your HDL is balanced by your LDL. The problem comes when there isn't enough HDL to handle all the extra cholesterol that got delivered by the LDL but wasn't needed. Too much LDL can sometimes be traced back to those fatty animal based foods in our diet.

Meanwhile, your white blood cells are roaming around in your bloodstream looking for hostile intruders. The cholesterol that didn't make it back to the liver has nowhere to go so it just attaches itself to the arterial walls and the white blood cells attack it as if it were any other invader.

The arteries meanwhile are taking a beating. The attack by the white blood cells causes inflammation and the cholesterol starts to form a hard outer shell called plaque. This causes the diameter of the artery to get smaller, restricting blood flow. As the arteries get narrower, the white blood cells attack even harder causing more inflammation and more plaque.

The compromised situation in the arteries can lead to a couple of very serious problems. The plaque buildup weakens and narrows the arterial walls and this can cause them to burst and cause the formation of blood clots. If a blood clot stops the flow of blood to the brain that will cause a stroke. The second major problem is that since less blood is getting to the heart, the heart has to work a lot harder and the risk of a heart attack is greatly increased.

Fortunately, there are a couple of things that we can do to maintain healthy levels of cholesterol in our bodies. We know that eliminating smoking and avoiding drinking excessive amounts of alcohol can help to increase the levels of HDL. We also know that a program of regular exercise will boost HDL production in the body.

If you're concerned about diet, heart health and cholesterol talk to your doctor to schedule a simple blood test. With diet and healthy habits, high cholesterol can be brought under control.

by: John Fleming.

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