Why Having a High Choleaterol Level Can Kill You!
Not long ago, our family doctor discovered that I had extremely high cholesterol levels. At the time, I didn’t know a lot about cholesterol, but, since he said my numbers were high enough to be dangerous, I though it was time to learn all I could. After a lot of reading and asking questions, I’m now quite familiar with the reasons that your cholesterol level is so important. If you’ll bear with me, I’ll try to show you why controlling your cholesterol levels is so important to your overall well being. Hopefully, you’ll also see why limiting foods high in cholesterol from your diet can be of tremendous benefit to you.
Cholesterol is so vital to your body that, without it, you could not exist. It acts like a kind of mortar for your cells, holding them to together to make tissue. It’s also transformed into bile acid and used in your intestines for digestion.
You make most of the cholesterol your body requires in your liver. Low density lipoproteins, or LDL, carries the cholesterol from your liver to your cells. Cells that have enough cholesterol will simply signal the LDL to move on.
The problem is, LDL won’t carry left over cholesterol back to your liver. The LDL will leave the extra cholesterol on the inner wall of an artery. Over time, these deposits can restrict blood flow in the artery and “starve” the tissue that is downstream. Most heart attacks and strokes are the result of a loss of blood to the heart and brain.
This is a very basic discussion, of course. It is only the beginning of a discussion that you may want to further explore.
IMPORTANT NOTE: This information is based entirely on information readily available in the medical press and medical journals that deal with high cholesterol levels. Nothing herein is intended to be or looked on as any kind of medical advice. For medical advice people should talk with his or her physician or other medical specialist.