What Is Cholesterol?

If you are eating at McDonalds every day or have a large fat intake through your normal, you are in danger of having high cholesterol. 

What is cholesterol? 

Cholesterol is a waxy substance that is found in certain foods and is produced from your liver. 

The cholesterol helps build up your cell walls so that they have enough durability to pass molecules between the cells and outside tissue. 

Cholesterol actually creates bile salts that are able to help digest and eat up fats. 

Even if you never had a Big Mac or a Burger King whooper, you body would create enough cholesterol to make your body work like it supposed to do. 

So cholesterol is a good thing, but too much of a good thing can turn bad. 

Too much cholesterol can lead to heart diseases which could result in a heart attack, high blood pressure, or a stroke. 

The level of cholesterol in your body can rise to point that the cholesterol in your body will be more of an enemy than a friend. 

To understand where these levels are derived from you have to know a little more about what cholesterol is. 

Cholesterol is a type of lipid. 

A lipid is the name for fats found throughout the entire body.  That means that most of the most of the foods you eat also has cholesterol in it. 

The only foods that are devoid of cholesterol are fruits, vegetables, and grains.  All others have at least a trace amount of cholesterol or a very high amount. 

Fast food and other fatty foods have enough to severely raise your cholesterol level.

Cholesterol cannot travel through the blood stream by itself.  So it has to hitch a ride on proteins. 

The proteins let the cholesterol travel piggy back and will deliver them to the places that they are needed most.

When the protein and the cholesterol is teamed together, they are called lipoproteins. 

There are two types of lipoproteins; the low density lipoproteins (LDL) and the high density lipoproteins (HDL). The high density lipoproteins are considered the beneficial cholesterol while the low density lipoproteins are the bad cholesterol.  The LDL will clog the veins and stop blood flow to different parts of the body.  This can be dangerous, especially when the clog is near the heart or brain. 

Close to one third of cholesterol that you intake is HDL. 

This means that two thirds are the bad kind of cholesterol, LDL. 

The good cholesterol is processed in the liver and goes out to fight and burn the fats that are in your system. 

The bad cholesterol will piggy back on the proteins and become nothing but clogging substances in your blood stream and they will hinder body functions.  The LDL will stick to the inside of veins and arteries and form a substance called plague.  The plague will build up on the inside of the arteries and cause the blood vessel to become smaller.  Over time the blood vessels could be so restricted that a blood clot could form and you could have a stroke or a heart attack.

You can change your cholesterol levels and even reduce the amount of plague that you have in your veins.  This can be accomplished by changing your diet, you lifestyle, and through medications.  The cholesterol count in your body is about eighty percent your fault because of the food and life choices that you have made in your life.