What Is Cholesterol?

Let's start with a simple question: What, exactly, is cholesterol? Well, it's a sort of fatty, waxy stuff and your own liver produces it.

It's actually necessary for good health and it's a part of every cell in your body.

There are several things that cholesterol helps our bodies to do:

• Keep the cell wall healthy
• Help the body produce enough vitamin D
• Aid in digesting, by producing stomach acids to digest fat

So far so good. We need cholesterol and we produce it ourselves. You also get some from certain foods, basically from animals, like meat or dairy. Fruit and veg contain no cholesterol at all. When the body produces too much cholesterol it sits in the blood stream and eventually it can block up your blood vessels. That increases your risk of heart diseases and the 'silent killer', stroke.

If you eat a lot of animal fats - also called saturated fats -your body can produce too much cholesterol. And a high cholesterol level should not be ignored. Now there are various types of cholesterol and they each have a different role to play in your health.

The 'bad' cholesterol is called LDL, which stands for Low Density Lipoprotein. This is the one that can increase your chances of getting heart disease by clogging up your arteries. When that happens blood flow through the artery is diminished.

The 'good' cholesterol is called HDL. This is the opposite, so it's High Density Lipoprotein. This actually 'sweeps up' the 'bad' cholesterol from your blood stream. Which means it's important to know your cholesterol ratio to know whether you have a normal cholesterol level.

If you cholesterol monitor regularly you will know when you have high cholesterol. And if you do have high cholesterol it makes sense to reduce your LDL cholesterol if you can. And if your levels are high you should do it as soon as possible.

Considering that it's been estimated that about 50% of Americans have high cholesterol levels, it's wise for everyone to get their level tested and do something about it.

Lowering cholesterol naturally is an attractive option for many. Remaining on cholesterol medication for any length of time is something a lot of people want to avoid. So start by making wise choices in the foods you eat. There are low cholesterol foods, for example an average egg has about four times the cholesterol of a piece of fish, for example, so choosing the fish would help you have a lower cholesterol level.

It's been estimated that if you reduce your cholesterol by one percent you can decrease your chances of heart disease by twice that - 2%. That's an amazing difference for small changes in your levels of cholesterol.

If you haven't had your cholesterol tested in the last five years, then you should seriously think about having it done now. Even if your levels are high, you can reduce them by paying attention to your diet. If you don't know what your normal cholesterol level is, you should speak to your doctor to find out.

For a more detailed discussion of what cholesterol is, check the next page:

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