Cholesterol is a soft, waxy substance found in all of your body's cells. Your body needs it in order to work properly. This is because your body uses cholesterol to hold cells together. Your body also uses it to make hormones, vitamin D, and substances that help you digest foods.
However, if too much gets into your blood, it can cause problems. This is known as
high cholesterol, hypercholesterolemia, or hyperlipidemia.
Cholesterol comes from two places. Your body actually makes most of what it needs in the liver. The rest comes from the foods you eat.
Cholesterol is only made by animals, so you can only get it by eating animal products, such as:
- Meat
- Chicken
- Fish
- Eggs
- Butter
- Cheese
- Whole milk.
These foods can provide you with more than enough cholesterol. You will not find it in anything that comes from a plant. For example,
cholesterol-free foods include fruits, vegetables, or whole grains.
How Does the Body Transport It?
In order to get to all of your cells, cholesterol needs to travel through the bloodstream.
But because cholesterol is a fat, it separates from the blood, similar to the way that oil separates from water. To keep this from happening, proteins form a shell around it, making a "cholesterol complex." It is then released into the bloodstream and travels to where it needs to go.
A protein that is linked to cholesterol to form this complex is called a "lipoprotein." There are two main types of lipoproteins. One is good and the other can potentially be bad (but not always).
LDL Cholesterol
The lipoprotein that can be bad is called "
LDL," which stands for low-density lipoprotein. Remember, a lipoprotein forms a shell around cholesterol. Normally, LDLs transport it from your liver and deliver it to the necessary tissues. But if you have a lot of LDLs left over after all of your tissues have been taken care of, the LDLs will "let go" of the extra cholesterol while traveling through your blood. This can cause a buildup known as
plaque and can lead to a condition called
atherosclerosis, or narrowing and hardening of blood vessels.
HDL Cholesterol
The good lipoprotein is called "
HDL," which stands for high-density lipoprotein. HDLs are "good," because they pick up the extra cholesterol that was dropped off by the LDLs and brings it to your liver. This way, your liver can repackage it to use it later, or simply get rid of it.
This is why it is good to have high levels of HDL in your system and low levels of LDL. Think of "H" for "high" to help you remember this about HDL. And "L" stands for low, which is a way to remember that you want low levels of LDL.
The only way to determine your
cholesterol level is to have a blood test. According to recent guidelines, a person should get a fasting test every five years; however, a person with
heart disease risk factors should have this test more frequently.
Several types of tests are available. Each test can look at different components of cholesterol and fats in the blood, including:
- Total cholesterol
- Low density lipoprotein (LDL) -- the "bad" cholesterol
- High density lipoprotein (HDL) -- the "good" cholesterol
- Triglycerides.
Some tests, like a lipid profile done at the doctor's office, will look at all four components. Other tests, like most home tests, only look at total cholesterol. Some tests also provide a ratio or
VLDL (very low density lipoprotein) as part of their results.
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Cholesterol Category
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Healthy Level
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Total Cholesterol
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Less than 200 mg/dL
|
|
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Less than 100 mg/dL, but will depend on the number of risk factors
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Greater than 40 mg/dL, but the higher the better
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Less than 150 mg/dL
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(These levels are measured in milligrams [mg] of cholesterol per deciliter [dL] of blood.)
