What is Cholesterol?
Author: tiger Published Under: Health
When most people think about diets and dieting, fat is often considered to be one of the things that needs be avoided and there is certainly some truth to this. There are two types of fat, saturated fat and unsaturated fat, with the latter actually being essential to a healthy diet and the former being incredibly unhealthy. Another common bad-guy to dieters is cholesterol, with again the distinction between being bad and good not being crystal clear.
What is Cholesterol?
Cholesterol is a type of fat that is required by the body to maintain healthy cells and can actually be found in all of our cells. However, when cholesterol builds up, it spills into the bloodstream and can no longer be absorbed, as it would be naturally. Instead, it floats around the bloodstream, eventually causing buildups in our arteries, contributing to heart disease.
When maintaining a healthy diet, cholesterol is actually produced naturally, so it is important to avoid foods that are high in cholesterol. Many meats and Dairy foods are actually high in cholesterol and saturated fat, so should only be used in moderation.
Eggs contain a great deal of cholesterol.
Cholesterol and Heart Disease
When checking for heart disease, one of the first things that a doctor will check for is the persons cholesterol level. The cholesterol level refers to the amount of cholesterol in the bloodstream. The doctor will either preform a HDL blood test or an LDL blood test. Both of these tests are checking how effective the body is processing cholesterol.
In the body, a protein called lipoprotein is created, which surrounds some types of fat and transports it throughout the body. Low-density lipoprotein(LDL) is used to carry cholesterol in the bloodstream. High-Density lipoprotein(HDL) is also used to transport cholesterol, but it is intended to move it to specific organs for processing.
Often you will hear HDL referred to as good cholesterol and LDL referred to as bad cholesterol. Having a high level of HDL has been shown to reduce the risk of heart disease, while those with a high level of LDL are more likely to experience cardiovascular problems and deposit cholesterol plaque in the arteries.
Both HDL and LDL are measured in milligrams per deciliter(mg/dl,) with a very healthy LDL level being less than 100 mg/dl. 100 to 129 mg/dl is considered to be healthy and 130 to 159 mg/dl is considered borderline. An LDL level above 160 mg/dl is considered to be high and above 190 mg/dl is extremely high.
A healthy level of HDL is above 40 mg/dl and most males have a HDL that is between 40 to 50 mg/dl, with women having a slightly higher level of 50 to 60 mg/dl.
In addition to checking for a person's HDL and LDL level, doctors also consider the total cholesterol level, which should be less than 200 mg/dl. With anything over 240 mg/dl considered high.
Cholesterol Risk Factors
The two biggest factors that affect cholesterol levels is diet and exercise. Not eating healthily and not getting enough exercise quickly results in high levels of cholesterol, which increases the risk of heart disease. Smoking and drinking are also factors that can increase cholesterol.