What is cholesterol?
Cholesterol is a waxy-like substance that is found in almost all cells of the human body. Unlike what most people think cholesterol is an essential compound which is essential for your body to produce vitamins, hormones and other elements which help in the digestion of the food you ingest. Cholesterol is not the bad guy, in fact, its a significant factor inside your body. Your body is capable of meeting all the cholesterol needs by manufacturing it.
On the other hand, cholesterol is also available in some of the foods you consume. It makes its way into the bloodstream using tiny packages called lipoproteins. These packages are composed of proteins on the exterior and fat on the interior. It is essential to know how to lower LDL cholesterol.
Types of cholesterol:
There are two kinds of lipoproteins which circulate the cholesterol around your body.
Maintaining a nominal level of both of these types is crucial for good health.
LDL cholesterol is referred to as ‘bad’ cholesterol. A high value of LDL in your blood means that there’s an active buildup of cholesterol in the walls of your arteries (these are blood vessels which are responsible for transporting blood from your heart to the rest of the body). If you have a high LDL level, you need to know how to lower LDL cholesterol.
HDL cholesterol is also known as ‘good’ cholesterol. That’s because HDL is responsible for bringing cholesterol from various parts of the body to the liver. The liver is capable of eliminating cholesterol from your body.
High blood cholesterol
High cholesterol and high LDL cholesterol are terms that can be used interchangeably because they pretty much mean the same thing, cholesterol that isn’t good for your body. You need to figure out how to lower LDL cholesterol.
This is a condition in which you have way too much cholesterol content in your bloodstream. The interesting part about this situation is that there are no apparent, evident symptoms or signs. As a result of this, a lot of people who have high cholesterol have no idea that they are silently increasing their chances of a heart attack.
The amount of LDL cholesterol is directly proportional to the risk of having a heart attack. Higher the LDL, more are your risks. On the other hand, larger amounts of HDL, as a matter of fact, reduces your chances of going down with a heart attack. Thus, you need to know how to lower LDL cholesterol.
Cholesterol ranges
Below mentioned are the nominal cholesterol ranges:
Causes of high cholesterol
Other reasons for high cholesterol include:
Ways to treat and prevent high levels and how to lower LDL cholesterol
There are different ways to lower LDL levels. If you want to know how to lower LDL cholesterol levels, then read on:
Apart from the above methods, there’s always the obvious choice of visiting a doctor for an effective solution, but most of these cholesterol-reducing drugs have certain side effects, which is why several dieticians and physicians recommend natural, drug-free ways to keep the cholesterol down.
To sum up, lowering LDL cholesterol is not difficult. All you need to do is maintain a healthy lifestyle, stay away from things that increase your cholesterol, and exercise.
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