Cholesterol- a fatty substance which is essential for life.
What is your cholesterol level? Are you concern enough about your body?
CHOLESTEROL is a fatty substance which is essential for life. It is needed for a healthy nervous system, good digestion and to produce important hormones in the body. So, we know that cholesterol is not totally a bad thing. However, too much cholesterol in the body will give us trouble.
Research has been done to show the importance and the ugly side of the cholesterol. It shows that a raised of blood cholesterol level is one of the main risk for heart disease. Cholesterol can build up on the blood vessel walls and contributes to a narrowing or hardening of the arteries.
So, where does cholesterol come from?
Most cholesterol is made in the body by the liver. It is known as ‘blood cholesterol’. This mean that the body can provide all the cholesterol it needs.
But that’s not all, cholesterol also can be found in certain food. It is known as ‘dietary cholesterol’. Foods rich in cholesterol include egg yolks, offal (liver, kidney), shellfish (prawns, shrimp, lobster, mussels) and fish roe. Fats that contained in the food are a mixture of saturated and unsaturated fat. Unsaturated fat can be either monounsaturated and/or polyunsaturated.
The fact that you have to know is most saturated fats are converted to cholesterol in the body. Well, most of the time the body can maintain a healthy level of blood cholesterol however, the balance can goes wrong. This is mainly due to too much consumption of food contained fats (especially saturated fat). This will lead to increase in blood cholesterol.
WHAT IS THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN HIGH CHOLESTEROL AND RISK OF HEART DISEASE OR STROKE?
The relationship is very complex. It helps if you understand how cholesterol travels through the body. Cholesterol is insoluble in water travels in the bloodstream. To transport cholesterol to various cells, it is combined with a ‘carrier protein’ to form fat/protein mixtures called lipoproteins.
TYPES OF CHOLESTEROL
There are 5 principal types of lipoprotein particles are found in the blood. However, to make it less complicated, I will only discuss about 2 main forms of lipoproteins. For those who are interested, I will discuss about the other lipoproteins in another section. The 2 main ones are:
- LDL cholesterol (low density lipoprotein) – often called “Bad” cholesterol
- HDL cholesterol (high density lipoprotein) – often called “Good” cholesterol
- LDL transport cholesterol from the liver through the arteries to other part of the body where it can be used.
- It may attach inside the walls of the arteries and cause hardening and narrowing. That is how it gets its name, ‘bad cholesterol’.
- What will happen next if no action taken? Yes, you are right, the arteries will block!
- This can cut off or slow down the blood supply to the heart and other important organs in the body like the brain. This may lead to heart attack and stroke later on.
- The main principal for this type of lipoprotein is to collect excess cholesterol and transport it back to the liver where it will be eliminated. Hence it’s get it’s name, the “good cholesterol’.
- A high HDL level will protect against heart disease.
OPTIMAL VALUES FOR CHOLESTEROL
| Type | Optimal value |
|
LDL |
<2.6 mmol/L |
|
Total cholesterol |
<5.2 mmol/L |
|
Tryglycerides |
<1.7 mmol/L |
|
HDL |
>1.6 mmol/L |
EFFECTS OF CHOLESTEROL
- Reduces blood supply to the organs
- Cholesterol gets deposited in the blood vessels in the form of plaques
- This will narrows the blood vessels
- Narrowing of the blood vessels lead to blockage in right coronary artery
- Consequently lead to stroke and heart disease
RISK FACTORS FOR HIGH CHOLESTEROL
- Smoking
- High blood pressure
- Diabetes
- Hereditary
- Being overweight
- Eating habit of foods rich in saturated fat
MANAGEMENT
- Fiber-rich diet
- Exercise
- Quit smoking
- Regular medications ( if you have hypertension, diabetes mellitus or other chronic medical illness)
- If you cannot control your cholesterol level by any above, some medications will be prescribed to you by your family doctor to help you reduce the blood cholesterol.
FACTS
- 1% reduction in body cholesterol reduces the chances of stroke or heart attack by 2%.
- To reduce that risk of stroke or heart attack, it is important to keep LDL cholesterol as low as possible and HDL cholesterol as high as possible.
- Clinical Medicine by Kumar and Clark. 4th edition.
- Irish Heart Association Fact sheet.
- Learn and live. American Heart Association. 2004.
- http://www.cholesterol-count.co.uk
- http://www.mayoclinic.com
- The Healthy Heart Kit. Health
- Third Report of the National Cholesterol education Program (NCEP). NIH. 2002.
- Pfizer health fact sheet.
Tags: cholesterol, effects, factors, facts, fat, health, management, risk
