What is cholesterol?
Cholesterol is a white, waxy substance that is present 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. A certain amount of cholesterol is critical to good health.
Not only is cholesterol an important component of cell walls, it is also essential for the body’s production of certain hormones. For most of use, between 70 and 75 percent of the cholesterol in their blood is made by their liver; the rest, about 30 percent comes from the food we eat. Your foods cholesterol, therefore, is something that you can directly affect yourself.
Your body needs fat and cholesterol 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 to manufacture 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, how 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 your blood cholesterol levels exceed 200mg/dL (milligrams per deciliter), you can be at risk for developing heart disease. That’s why so many people 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 a total cholesterol level 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 actually 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 do need to know what the 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.