Good and Bad Cholesterol
Habish Ribin Haneef
Let’s start with “health is wealth”. This is not just a saying, fact, a real fact. Nothing is more important than your health. No matter whatever you achieved in your life, if your health is not proper, then everything will simply go in vain. If you are healthy enough, you can live a very happy and prosperous life that is free of many dreaded diseases and sicknesses. Cholesterol is one of the huge concerns people are facing then and now. Raised cholesterol levels lead to heart disease and stroke. High cholesterol causes 4.4 million deaths every year, threatening, right? In this blog let’s discuss about cholesterol, its types, and methods to restrict this threat.
Many are not yet aware of what is cholesterol. They mistake cholesterol as the name of a horrible disease. But actually, cholesterol is a waxy substance and is not as horrible as many people think. The human body requires cholesterol to construct cells and make vitamins and other hormones. But the issue is that if anything exceeds the limit, it can cause trouble and it is evident in the case of cholesterol too. The human liver produces the required safe proportion of cholesterol to do all the useful functions in the body. This cholesterol is what you need and it does not affect you. But, the problem arises from some of the food items you consume, especially meat, poultry, and dairy products that contain dietary cholesterol. These food items also contain a huge proportion of saturated and trans fats that causes the liver to make more cholesterol than usual. This extra cholesterol causes humongous problems for many people taking their lives to a disaster. So what we require is good cholesterol, not the bad one.
What is Good and Bad Cholesterol?
You may have got a small idea of what is good cholesterol and bad cholesterol reading this blog until this point. Right? Ok, now let’s make the picture clear. Yes, as you thought, good cholesterol is the one our liver produces to construct cells and make vitamins and other hormones. On the other hand, bad cholesterol arrives in our body through food items like meat, poultry, dairy products, etc. Cholesterol advance through the blood on proteins called “lipoproteins”. There are two types of lipoproteins that carry cholesterol- Low-Density Lipoprotein (LDL) and High-Density Lipoprotein (HDL). LDL is also called bad cholesterol and our body has more bad cholesterol than the good one. A huge proportion of bad cholesterol increases the risk of heart disease and stroke. HDL is also called good cholesterol and it absorbs the cholesterol ultimately taking it back to the liver. The liver then drives it from the body. High proportion of good cholesterol reduces the risk of heart disease and stroke.
How Bad Cholesterol Affects You?
As mentioned earlier huge proportion of bad cholesterol increases the risk of heart disease and stroke. So what happens is that when your body contains enormous bad cholesterol, it causes a build up on the walls of your blood vessels. This build up is termed as “plaque”. As the plaque increases, the inner part of the blood vessels gets narrowed. This narrowing is way too dangerous as it blocks the blood flow to and from your heart and other organs. The blockage of blood flow to the heart causes Angina, which we commonly call chest pain. This may lead to severe problems like heart attack and stroke. So this is how bad cholesterol can harm you.
Methods to control cholesterol
Yes, you can control the dreaded bad cholesterol, but the thing is that you should sincerely work for it. The following are some methods that can control your bad cholesterol and helps you to lead a very happy life.
- Consume healthy food items- This is the most important method to control bad cholesterol. Yes, it seems to be difficult, but to eradicate something that is way too dangerous, you have to take some risks. Hence you have to reduce food items rich in saturated fats and trans fats. So, always have healthy food items that benefit your heart.
- Exercise on a consistent basis- Exercise is a very good remedy not only to control cholesterol but also to keep you safe from all deadly diseases and sicknesses. Experts suggest that exercising on a consistent basis will help to boost the quantity of High-Density Lipoprotein (HDL),i.e. good cholesterol. You can also lose weight via exercise and this will also help to boost your HDL levels. Exercise will also keep you happy and fit in all aspects.
- Quit smoking- As it says- smoking is injurious to health. Obviously, yes. Smoking leads to many dangerous threats that may even risk your life. So, quitting smoking will help you to escape from many issues including cholesterol. Quitting smoking will improve your HDL levels and will slowly make you healthy and fit.
Conclusion
After reading this entire blog, you would have got a clear picture regarding cholesterol. It will be always good to check your cholesterol levels consistently so that you can realize whether you have bad cholesterol or not. If you have bad cholesterol, no need to worry too much, do the recovery measures soon and surely you will get the much-awaited positive results. On the other hand, if you didn’t do any recovery measures even after realizing that you have bad cholesterol, you will be in trouble. So, always stay with good cholesterol and stay away from bad cholesterol. Hence it is very imperative to always stay healthy and that will help you to lead a scintillating life. Once more mentioning- “health is wealth”.
Check your knowledge
High-Density Lipoprotein (HDL) and Low-Density Lipoprotein (LDL)
When your body contains enormous bad cholesterol, it causes a build-up on the walls of your blood vessels. This build-up is termed as “plaque”.