What Is Normal Cholesterol ” The Good, Bad And The Ugly

By Adrian Fletcher in Nutrition on June 4th, 2008

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by Adrian Fletcher

This short article will cover what is cholesterol. Everybody seems to know that you must get your cholesterol low but is that all you need to know. This article will discuss what is good cholesterol, bad cholesterol and the ugly results should you not keep your cholesterol reading within a safe limit.

Cholesterol is necessary for our bodies to function normally. We need a certain amount in the body for a variety of reasons. The most common use of cholesterol is to keep the cell walls strong. It is also used to convert sunlight to vitamin D when skin comes into contact with the sun.

In terms of structure, it is a white color with a waxy consistency. Many people think of it as similar to ear wax. Most of the cholesterol that the body needs is created in the liver. The rest, around 20% is taken from the foods that we eat.

Thus we need cholesterol but it becomes a problem when there is too much in the system. Guidelines regarding the ideal amount of cholesterol in the body is less than 200 mg per deciliter of blood.

What is Bad Cholesterol

Cholesterol is transported throughout the body via the bloodstream. However it is not soluble in water (or blood) so it needs something in the bloodstream that can carry it.

This transport is known as a lipoprotein. When cholesterol is transported out from the liver to the rest of the body, it travels on low density lipoproteins (aka LDL cholesterol or bad cholesterol). The aim of lowering cholesterol is to eat less cholesterol creating foodstuffs or foods that reduce the amount of LDL cholesterol in the body.

What is Good Cholesterol.

Good cholesterol is known as good because it does exactly the opposite of bad cholesterol. It is known as a high density lipoprotein or HDL Cholesterol. It acts as a transport taking cholesterol from the rest of the body back to the liver. This is ultimately removed from the body thus reducing the total amount of cholesterol. Having more good cholesterol is good fro the body.

The Ugly Results of Long Term High Cholesterol

Too much bad cholesterol in the bloodstream means that excess cholesterol is deposited where it cannot be used. In this case it is usually in the arteries of the body where this occurs. This is known as plaque.

Plaque coats the inner walls of the arteries making the inner diameter smaller. This means the heart has to work harder to push blood round the system and can lead to high blood pressure. This is often known as thickening or hardening of the arteries or atherosclerosis.

As plaque continues to build up the person is increasingly open to more life threatening problems. Apart from heart disease, plaque could break of the walls and cause blood clots. Blood clots generally cause strokes.

About the Author:

Find out how to reduce cholesterol with foods to lower cholesterol at lowcholesteroldieting.com.