There seems to be a lot of misunderstanding regarding cholesterol among the general public. Very often people think that they have no way of controlling cholesterol, or that it's "all bad". That only sick people have cholesterol.
This is of course not the case. Everyone has cholesterol. Our livers make two types of cholesterol, each one with a very specific purpose in the body. This purpose has to do with the way our bodies deal with the distribution of fatty material from the liver to other body parts and back to the liver.
The main types of cholesterol are: LDL, or Low Density Lipoproteins, and HDL, or High Density Lipoproteins. HDL is often called the "good guy". Its job is to carry fatty material from the rest of the body back to the liver, where it has to be dealt with, either by breaking it down, or discarding it. The "bad guy" is LDL. This type of cholesterol has the function of distributing fats from the liver to areas in the body where it is needed (under normal circumstances).
Unfortunately in real life there are a couple of factor, both caused by ourselves or by circumstances outside our control, which disturb the normal balance between LDL and HDL, causing the system to malfunction, and fat to start building up in our arteries.
One of the major causes of dangerous cholesterol levels is simply eating too much, specifically eating too much fatty food. In our time we don't normally get the same amount of exercise as our forefathers, therefore the body has now other way to copy with all this fat than to store it somewhere. This causes a buildup of LDL cholesterol in the bloodstream, which eventually causes something called plaque. This is similar to the plaque on teeth, but not the same. It can become brittle, break off and clog your arteries.
Another important contributing factor to cholesterol imbalance is smoking. Not many people know that cigarettes contain a highly toxic substance known as acrolein. This stuff is also present in pesticides and chemical weapons! It suppresses the normal functioning of LDL and HDL. One the one hand HDL no longer effectively carries excess fat from other areas of the body back to the liver to be destroyed or recycled, and LDL is oxidized in the whole process, changing it cellular structure and causing it to malfunction.
Something that not a lot of us know either, is the role of genetic factors in all of this. For a reason we don't quite understand yet, about 70% of people suffer from a genetic disorder causing the production of good and bad cholesterol to become out of balance. Too much bad cholesterol - too little good cholesterol. And the system basically collapses.
Acting alone, a single one of the factors mentioned above might not be deadly. When they work in conjunction however, they form a lethal mix that results in the death of more people in America than anything else. Cholesterol is also one of the major causes of death world wide. - 31875
This is of course not the case. Everyone has cholesterol. Our livers make two types of cholesterol, each one with a very specific purpose in the body. This purpose has to do with the way our bodies deal with the distribution of fatty material from the liver to other body parts and back to the liver.
The main types of cholesterol are: LDL, or Low Density Lipoproteins, and HDL, or High Density Lipoproteins. HDL is often called the "good guy". Its job is to carry fatty material from the rest of the body back to the liver, where it has to be dealt with, either by breaking it down, or discarding it. The "bad guy" is LDL. This type of cholesterol has the function of distributing fats from the liver to areas in the body where it is needed (under normal circumstances).
Unfortunately in real life there are a couple of factor, both caused by ourselves or by circumstances outside our control, which disturb the normal balance between LDL and HDL, causing the system to malfunction, and fat to start building up in our arteries.
One of the major causes of dangerous cholesterol levels is simply eating too much, specifically eating too much fatty food. In our time we don't normally get the same amount of exercise as our forefathers, therefore the body has now other way to copy with all this fat than to store it somewhere. This causes a buildup of LDL cholesterol in the bloodstream, which eventually causes something called plaque. This is similar to the plaque on teeth, but not the same. It can become brittle, break off and clog your arteries.
Another important contributing factor to cholesterol imbalance is smoking. Not many people know that cigarettes contain a highly toxic substance known as acrolein. This stuff is also present in pesticides and chemical weapons! It suppresses the normal functioning of LDL and HDL. One the one hand HDL no longer effectively carries excess fat from other areas of the body back to the liver to be destroyed or recycled, and LDL is oxidized in the whole process, changing it cellular structure and causing it to malfunction.
Something that not a lot of us know either, is the role of genetic factors in all of this. For a reason we don't quite understand yet, about 70% of people suffer from a genetic disorder causing the production of good and bad cholesterol to become out of balance. Too much bad cholesterol - too little good cholesterol. And the system basically collapses.
Acting alone, a single one of the factors mentioned above might not be deadly. When they work in conjunction however, they form a lethal mix that results in the death of more people in America than anything else. Cholesterol is also one of the major causes of death world wide. - 31875
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