What is cholesterol?
July 3rd, 2009 at 07:42pm Under Uncategorized
Cholesterol is a white, waxy substance that is found in some of the foods we eat; it is also manufactured by all the cells of our body, but most notably by the liver cells. Some cholesterol is essential to good health.
Not only is cholesterol an important component of cell walls, it is also essential for the production of certain hormones. For most people, between 70 and 75 percent of the cholesterol in their blood is manufactured by their liver; the other 25 to 30 percent comes from the food they eat. Your foods cholesterol, therefore, is something that you can directly affect yourself.
Your body requires fat and cholesterol to maintain good health. During infancy and childhood, fat is essential for normal brain development; throughout life, it is essential to provide energy and support growth. Cholesterol is used to build the walls of cells throughout the body and to manufacture essential substances like hormones and vitamin D. So it is important to have some fat and cholesterol available in your body at all times.
If cholesterol is needed for healthy bodily function, how is cholesterol bad for you? The answer to these questions is simple. A certain amount of cholesterol is important for the body. However when blood cholesterol levels exceed 200mg/dL (milligrams per deciliter), you become at risk for developing heart disease. That’s why so many people are looking for a high cholesterol cure.
Elevated total blood cholesterol is clearly a modifiable heart disease risk factor. Many times heart attacks, bypass surgeries, angioplasties, and sudden cardiac deaths occur in people with a total cholesterol level below 200mg/dL. Cholesterol medication is used to help control those levels.
But a better way to estimate risk of heart disease is to actually know your ratio of total cholesterol to good cholesterol. It’s not just the total cholesterol level that tells you what your risk is: you actually need to know what your ratio is.
Always seek your doctor’s advice for all health related issues. The information in this post is for information purposes only and is not intended to diagnose any ailment.
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