High Cholesterol
Cholesterol is a waxlike and white 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 critical to maintaining good health.
Not only is cholesterol an important component of cell walls, it is essential for the production of some. For most people, between 70 and 75 percent of the cholesterol in our blood is produced by their liver; the other 25 to 30 percent comes from the food we 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 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 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, why 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. However when blood cholesterol level exceeds 200mg/dL (milligrams per deciliter), you become at risk of developing heart disease. It’s the reason so many of us are looking for a solution to high cholesterol.
Raised total blood cholesterol is very much 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 amount of high cholesterol that tells you what your risk is: you 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.
