What is Bad Cholesterol and Why You Should Care About Lowering It
Cholesterol is a substance found in all cells of the body. Your body needs some cholesterol in order to work right, but it makes all the cholesterol it needs.
Blood and cholesterol do not mix, so cholesterol has to be carried around the bloodstream in lipoproteins. These are small packages made of fat (lipid) on the inside and proteins on the outside.
The two types of lipoproteins moving cholesterol around are:
Bad Cholesterol ~Low-density lipoprotein (LDL)
High LDL cholesterol leads to a buildup of cholesterol in arteries. The higher the LDL level in your blood, the greater chance you have of getting heart disease.
Good Cholesterol ~ High-density lipoprotein (HDL)
HDL carries cholesterol from other parts of your body back to your liver so it can remove the cholesterol from your body. The higher your HDL cholesterol level, the lower your chance of getting heart disease.
Cholesterol can build up on the walls of your arteries that carry blood from the heart to other parts of the body. This buildup of cholesterol is called plaque and this plaque can cause narrowing of the coronary arteries traveling to and from the heart. A decrease in blood flow in either direction causes coronary artery disease or angina.
Some plaques have a thin covering and burst (rupture), releasing fat and cholesterol into the bloodstream. The release of fat and cholesterol may cause your blood to clot. A clot can block the flow of blood. This blockage can cause angina or a heart attack.
Lowering your cholesterol level decreases your chance for having a plaque burst, and may also slow down, reduce, or even stop plaque from building up. As you can see, too much cholesterol in your blood, or high blood cholesterol, can lead to some very serious heart related consequences. This is “why” you should care about lowering it
High blood cholesterol does not cause symptoms, so you may not even be aware that your cholesterol level is too high. Have it checked.
Plaque and resulting health problems can also occur in arteries elsewhere in the body.
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