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High Cholesterol

February 14th, 2010

Cholesterol is a waxlike and white substance that is found 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 essential to good health.

It’s not just an important component of cell walls, it is essential for the body’s production of certain hormones. For most people, between 70 and 75 percent of the cholesterol in our 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 change by your own efforts.

Your body requires fat and cholesterol to maintain good health. During infancy and childhood fat is essential for normal brain development; throughout life, it is essential to provide energy and support growth. Cholesterol is used to build the walls of cells throughout the body and to manufacture essential substances like hormones and vitamin D. So it is important to have some fat and cholesterol available in your body at all times.

If cholesterol is needed for healthy bodily function, why 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 blood cholesterol levels exceed 200mg/dL (milligrams per deciliter), you become at risk for developing heart disease. It’s the reason so many of us are looking for a solution to high cholesterol.

Raised total blood cholesterol is clearly 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 risk of heart disease is to know your ratio of total cholesterol to good cholesterol. It’s not just the total cholestrol level that tells you what your risk is: you need to know what your 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.

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