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Cholesterol Myths and Truths you should know

Cholesterol has been in the news for the past few years as the big bad guy who was killing everyone with heart attacks. However, much of the cholesterol hype has been myth. In this post we’ll look at some facts and myths about cholesterol.

What is Cholesterol?

Cholesterol is a fatty lipid type of substance that circulates around the body in the blood. It comes in varying forms, some of which are worse than others. Some, however, are very good. The body makes its own cholesterol and we get it from certain foods.

If too much of the bad cholesterol builds up in the arteries that carry the blood to the heart then we can suffer a fatal heart attack. This is where all the recent hype about cholesterol has been centered - heart attacks. But, is the hype necessary?

What does cholesterol do?

Without a doubt we should know that cholesterol is essential for our body’s normal function. We cannot survive without it. Some of the things cholesterol does in the body:

• making of sex hormones
• vitamin D
• bile
• cell membranes

These are all essential in the human body and without the right amount of cholesterol they would not be possible. The body’s liver makes cholesterol each day and the amount produced is all you really need to function.

The annoying thing about cholesterol

One of the most irratating things about cholesterol is that it can do different things to different people. Science cannot fully explain why it kills some people and does nothing to others but they think it is mostly to do with genetics.

For example, some people can eat high bad cholesterol diets every single day of their life and not show any bad signs or symptoms that are normally associated with too much cholesterol. Some other people, however, can eat small amounts and register with extremely dangerous levels when they see the doctor! Annoying.

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Good and bad cholesterol

The reasons as to why some cholesterols are bad and others good is very complex and takes about a week in biology class to fully understand. However, here are the main things you need to know:

1. Low Density Lipoproteins carry cholesterol around the blood and generally like to dump it on the walls of the body’s arteries which can lead to heart attacks, strokes, etc.
2. High Density Lipoproteins, on the other hand, collect this dumped cholesterol and take it to the liver to be eliminated from the body thus making them the ‘good’ cholesterol.
3. When having a cholesterol test at the doctor find out the individual scores of these two types and not the combined total. LDL should be below 3.5 with anything above that increasing your risk of heart attack. HDL should be at least 1.3 but if you score higher that is much better.

Diet and cholesterol

It is vital to know that your diet can be the difference between a long life and short life - especially when it comes to cholesterol. Your diet will always affect your cholesterol levels.

So should you worry about cholesterol?

To be blunt - you should be worried about cholesterol! Why? Because you have an ample opportunity to reduce your risk of dying from a heart attack. I personally believe that cholesterol becomes almost irrelevant once you take hold of your diet and exercise habits. If you have a history of family cholesterol related problems then you should be very worried about high bad cholesterol levels

Conclusion
These are the basics that you should know about cholesterol. In the next post I will be going over the ways you can use your diet to dramatically reduce your bad cholesterol and to look at ways we can increase our good cholesterol. If you have a family history of heart problems or stroke then you should make sure you don’t miss this next post!

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