What Cholesterol Is and How it Works

Cholesterol is a naturally-occurring, fat-soluble, sterol found in the cell membranes of your body tissues.

What?

Let's break that down:

Naturally-occurring: this means that cholesterol was not invented by the potato-chip companies. It has been around for millions of years and is created independently of synthetically developed foods.

Fat-soluble: these molecules don't play well with water and are often attracted to each other. That's why fat often conglomerates in one place.

Sterol: a sterol is a type of steroid found in the cells of animals and plants. The sterol attribute of cholesterol strengthens cell membranes and helps cells send signals to each other and within each other.

That's it! It isn't a scary yellow blob that lives under your kitchen sink and leaves slime in your pudding cup each night. Cholesterol is actually vital to your health, but it is in extreme quantities that it becomes dangerous.

You've probably heard of LDL and HDL cholesterol. Cholesterol is an overall term actually used to describe FOUR separate components:

LDL: Low-density lipoids. This is known as the "bad" cholesterol because it is singled out by other body products and used for evil. LDLs are not bad by nature. It is how they are used by the body that makes them unfavorable. Since they are much larger for their weight (less dense), they are used to pave arteries. New science shows that even LDLs can vary in size, and high quantities of small particles can be worse since they accumulate more quickly. Think of them as rocks. It is easier to move many small rocks quickly than a few very large ones.

HDL: High-density lipoids. These little buggers are known as "good" cholesterol because it is believed they actually seek out LDLs and drag them back to the liver to be reused as bile or excreted. Think of it as the big brother dragging little brother back to mom for judgment.

Triglycerides: these are a source of energy and assist in transporting fat molecules throughout your body. Don't be fooled by this statement though. Remember that energies are measured in calories, so to say that a triglyceride has twice as much energy as the same volume of carbohydrate or protein only means it has twice as many calories. You'll have to work twice as hard to remove it.

Lp(a): Lipoprotein(a) molecules are manufactured from LDLs and the levels can be used to predict or indicate the extent of artery disease.

The cereal commercials advertise healthy cholesterol levels as being 180 mg/dL or less. But what does this mean?

The measurement mg/dL means milligram per deciliter. This gives you the number of milligrams (thousands of a gram) of cholesterol molecules per deciliter (tenths of a liter) of blood.

Your total cholesterol represents the total of your four cholesterol levels. The number 180, or sometimes 200, is a generally accepted number that helps doctors rate your risk based on the problems people have had at those levels. This is why you will see that people with a cholesterol level of 240 mg/dL or higher are considered to be at double the risk of people with a level of 200 mg/dL or less. Data has shown that twice as many people with the higher levels have documented problems.

Your cholesterol test result should give you four numbers. Your total level, along with your HDL, LDL, and triglyceride levels.

HDL (good) levels: The higher, to an extent, is better with HDL. less than 40 mg/dL for men or 50 mg/dL for women is considered unhealthy. Over 60 is optimal.

LDL (bad) levels: Healthy ranges are considered to be 100 mg/dL or less. Up to 160 mg/dL is really pushing it, and over that is dangerous.

Triglycerides: A normal level is less than 150 mg/dL. Anything over that is considered borderline high, and 200 mg/dL plus is too high.

Each of these levels can be individually affected by food, exercise, and other chemicals you put into your body.

So does a favorable number mean you're not at risk? Absolutely not. But it helps categorize your expected prognosis and give you an idea of how your

Nope. My dad had a heart attack when he was 50, and had a cholesterol level in the 120s - lower even than mine! Doctors and scientists are finding that genetics play a large role in the size of lipoids that your body creates and where they get stored. This means that even seemingly healthy people with low total cholesterol levels can be genetically predisposed to chronic atherosclerosis.

For more information on how you can get screened for artery disease factors and symptoms, contact your doctor.