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Manage your blood Cholesterol
By Michael Sanford
Cholesterol can be both good and bad, so it's important to
learn what cholesterol is, how it affects your health and
how to manage your blood cholesterol levels.
Understanding the facts about cholesterol will help you
take better care of your heart and live a healthier life,
reducing your risk for heart attack and stroke.
To control your cholesterol, get a cholesterol screening, eat
foods low in saturated fat and cholesterol, maintain a
healthy weight, exercise regularly and follow all your
healthcare professional's recommendations.
Cholesterol is a fatty substance (lipid) found in animal
tissue and fat. It is a Substance manufactured by the liver
and other organs and consumed via animal fat. High-fat
diets increase the amount made. It is believed that high
levels lead to collection of cholesterol in the arteries,
possibly leading to serious health risks. It is a soft, waxy
substance. The body makes enough cholesterol to meet its
needs. Cholesterol is used in the manufacture of
hormones, bile acid, and vitamin D. It is present in all parts
of the body, including the nervous system, muscle, skin,
liver, intestines, and heart.
Cholesterol is a peculiar molecule. However, the chemical
term for a molecule such as cholesterol is alcohol,
although it doesn't behave like alcohol. Its numerous
carbon and hydrogen atoms are put together in an intricate
three dimensional network, impossible to dissolve in
water. All living creatures use this indissolvability cleverly,
incorporating cholesterol into their cell walls to make cells
waterproof. This means that cells of living creatures can
regulate their internal environment undisturbed by
changes in their surroundings, a mechanism vital for
proper function. The fact that cells are waterproof is
especially critical for the normal functioning of nerves and
nerve cells. Thus, the highest concentration of cholesterol
in the body is found in the brain and other parts of the
nervous system.
Because cholesterol is insoluble in water and thus also in
blood, it is transported in our blood inside spheric particles
composed of fats (lipids) and proteins, the so-called
lipoproteins. Lipoproteins are easily dissolved in water
because their outside is composed mainly of water-soluble
proteins. The inside of the lipoproteins is composed of
lipids, and here are room for water-insoluble molecules
such as cholesterol. Like submarines, lipoproteins carry
cholesterol from one place in the body to another.
A high blood cholesterol is said to promote atherosclerosis
and thus also coronary heart disease. But many studies
have shown that people whose blood cholesterol is low
become just as atherosclerotic as people whose
cholesterol is high.
Your body produces three to four times more cholesterol
than you eat. The production of cholesterol increases when
you eat little cholesterol and decreases when you eat
much. This explains why the ¡±prudent¡± diet cannot lower
cholesterol more than on average a few per cent.
There is no evidence that too much animal fat and
cholesterol in the diet promotes atherosclerosis or heart
attacks. For instance, more than twenty studies have
shown that people who have had a heart attack haven't
eaten more fat of any kind than other people, and degree
of atherosclerosis at autopsy is unrelated with the diet.
People with high cholesterol live the longest. This
statement seems so incredible that it takes a long time to
clear one?s brainwashed mind to fully understand
its importance. Yet the fact that people with high
cholesterol live the longest emerges clearly from
many scientific papers. Consider the finding of Dr.
Harlan Krumholz of the Department of
Cardiovascular Medicine at Yale University, who
reported in 1994 that old people with low
cholesterol died twice as often from a heart attack
as did old people with a high cholesterol.1
Supporters of the cholesterol campaign
consistently ignore his observation, or consider it
as a rare exception, produced by chance among a
huge number of studies finding the opposite.
High Cholesterol Protects Against Infection
Many studies have found that low cholesterol is in
certain respects worse than high cholesterol. For
instance, in 19 large studies of more than 68,000
deaths, reviewed by Professor David R. Jacobs
and his co-workers from the Division of
Epidemiology at the University of Minnesota, low
cholesterol predicted an increased risk of dying
from gastrointestinal and respiratory diseases.3
Most gastrointestinal and respiratory diseases
have an infectious origin. Therefore, a relevant
question is whether it is the infection that lowers
cholesterol or the low cholesterol that
predisposes to infection? To answer this question
Professor Jacobs and his group, together with Dr.
Carlos Iribarren, followed more than 100,000
healthy individuals in the San Francisco area for
fifteen years. At the end of the study those who
had low cholesterol at the start of the study had
more often been admitted to the hospital because
of an infectious disease.4,5 This finding cannot be
explained away with the argument that the
infection had caused cholesterol to go down,
because how could low cholesterol, recorded
when these people were without any evidence of
infection, be caused by a disease they had not yet
encountered? Isn?t it more likely that low
cholesterol in some way made them more
vulnerable to infection, or that high cholesterol
protected those who did not become infected?
Much evidence exists to support that interpretatio
About the Author
For more information on Cholesterol please visit the Cholesterol resource center at http://www.cholesterol-resource-guide.info
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