Cholesterol Talk!

For a long time I was laboring under the misconception that cholesterol was something that came from what we ate. No, don’t laugh at my ignorance, the sum total of my knowledge on cholesterol came from the way my mom nagged my dad – no eggs for breakfast, your cholesterol levels are going to shoot up; put down that slice of cake immediately, do you have a death wish; no butter on your bread for you, the doc said you needed to lower your cholesterol. Well, you get my drift.

When I was old enough to know better, I realized that cholesterol was something that was produced by our bodies, that it’s a kind of fat, that it exists in every cell, and wonder of wonders, that it’s good for health. Well, now I was in a quandary – if it’s good for us, why on earth was my mom so worried about dad’s indiscriminate eating habits? And so I decided to bridge the gaps in my knowledge.

I found that there are two kinds of cholesterols, the good one and the bad one. The former, also known as High Density Lipoprotein or HDL cholesterol, is mostly protein and contains less of fat, which is why it’s good for you. The latter is Low Density Lipoprotein or LDL, contains more fat than protein, and thus is bad for you. The most shocking fact that I discovered in my exploration of cholesterol is that diet contributes very little to the rise or fall of this fat, contrary to what many people assume. Cholesterol is produced by your liver, and if you eat a diet that’s full of saturated fat, your liver is likely to go into overdrive and step up its cholesterol manufacturing speed.

Besides this, cholesterol levels in our body are raised by:

• Insufficient exercise – a sedentary lifestyle is a killer when it comes to raising your LDL levels.

• Obesity – overweight people are more prone to higher cholesterol levels

• Age – the older we grow, the less control we have over cholesterol

• Sex – men are more prone to high cholesterol than women

• Heredity – genes play a major role in cholesterol formation. If your parents or grandparents were plagued by high cholesterol, then you’re likely to be troubled by it too.

• Alcohol – Here’s one more evil related to alcohol; it boosts LDL when indulged in excess.

LDL cholesterol is bad for you, specifically your heart, because of the high fat content that it possesses. This fat lines the inner walls of your arteries and lowers the amount of blood that can pass through them, leading to a stroke or other cardiovascular diseases. To manage your cholesterol, prevention is better than cure, so stay active, eat sensibly and maintain your weight at optimum levels.

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This article is contributed by Sarah Scrafford, who regularly writes on the topic of EKG Training Courses. She invites your questions, comments and freelancing job inquiries at her email address: sarah.scrafford25@gmail.com.