Cholesterol has a terrible press to be sure, but this is because the press does not normally give the full story. It is easier and more frightening to leave a few bits out. The fact is that we have to have cholesterol and triglycerides for that matter in order to function normally. The point where these fats are a problem is when we have too high a percentage of them in our blood.

This is a comparable situation to having a lot of sugar in the blood on a regular basis, which is otherwise called diabetes. A different word for this is hyperglycaemia and hyperglycaemia can be a cause of having too many triglycerides in the blood as well, which by the way is known as hypertriglyceridemia. ‘Hyper’ meaning ‘too much’.

Cholesterol and triglycerides are the two main fats in our blood system. Cholesterol and triglycerides come from the foodstuffs that we consume, but our own bodies create them too. Cholesterol is crucial for several basic bodily functions like regulating hormones and making bile.

Having said that, there are two types of cholesterol: low and high density cholesterol. The low end can go very low and the lower it goes the worse it is for you. This is a very complicated issue which is better explained in a longer piece, but all you have to keep in mind is that low density or LDL is bad and high density cholesterol is ‘good’.

This is a very simplistic description, but it is the one that we are told about in the popular press. HDL cholesterol is believed to help mop up LDL cholesterol, which is why it is called good.

If this natural process does not take place or goes out of balance, the LDL cholesterol waxy fat will stick to the walls of arteries making them thinner, narrower. This is known as atherosclerosis (furring of the arteries) and means that the heart has to pump blood harder in order to get oxygen to each part of the body.

This is known as hypertension or high blood pressure and puts the heart at risk of stress and failure – coronary heart disease and stroke are the possible consequences of furred arteries.

There is a great deal that you can do to amend any concerns with your cholesterol levels. Most of our cholesterol comes from eating red meat and full-fat dairy products, so just by replacing every other steak with a salad could greatly reduce your problem. There are other ways of doing this as well, like exercise.

Exercise is a good way of burning up the surplus fats in your blood stream, but it has to be done on a daily basis. Not that it takes a lot. If you think of what you consume and reduce the foodstuffs weighty in cholesterol, you might only need 30 minutes moderate exercise a day in order to become healthy.

The fact is that if you do not do something about your state of affairs, you will be put on tablets for the rest of your life. You may think that this is a fair alternative to diet and exercise, but it is not really. It is only the simple option.

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