What is cholesterol?
Cholesterol is a white, waxy substance that is present in some of the foods we eat. Cholesterol is also manufactured by the cells of our body, but most notably by the liver cells. Some cholesterol is extremelyimportant to good health.
It’s not just an important component of cell walls, it is also essential for the production of some. For most of use between 70 and 75 percent of the cholesterol in their blood is manufactured by their liver; the rest, about 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 in order to maintain good health. During infancy and childhood, fat is essential for normal brain development. Throughout your life, it is essential to provide energy and support growth. Cholesterol is used to build the walls of cells throughout your body and for the manufacture of key essential substances such as hormones and vitamin D. That makes it important to have at least some fat and cholesterol in your body at all times.
If cholesterol is needed for healthy bodily function, in what way is cholesterol bad for you? It’s simple.The answer to these questions is simple. A certain amount of cholesterol is important for the body. But when blood cholesterol levels exceed 200mg/dL (milligrams per deciliter), you become at risk for developing heart disease. It’s the reason so many of us are looking for a solution to high cholesterol.
Raised total blood cholesterol is clearly a modifiable heart disease risk factor. In so many cases heart attacks, bypass surgeries, angioplasties, and sudden cardiac deaths occur in people with total cholesterol levels above 200mg/dL. Cholesterol medication is used to help control those levels.
But a better way to estimate your risk of heart disease is to 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 or suggest any treatment.
