LDL and HDL Cholesterol and Heart Diseases

Understanding Cholesterol Video


Cholesterol is a clear evidence of the delicate balance required for biological phenomena. We can not live without cholesterol as it is required for the integrity of cell membranes and for the synthesis of hormones. Cholesterol is made by the body and eaten with animal foods, i.e. the vegetarian body senthesizes its needs of cholesterol.


Since cholesterol is a fatty material and is not dissolved in water , thus it needs a special carrier to be trnsported in the blood stream, these carriers are lipoproteins, either High Density Lipoproteins which clears cholesterol from blood vessels to the liver (Good Lipoprotein), or Low Density Lipoproteins which distributes cholesterol into the body tissues including blood vessels (Bad Lipoproteins).



When LDL cholesterol is higher than 160 milligrams per deciliter, or HDL cholesterol is lower than 40 milligrams per decilliter, cholesterol starts to be precipitated on the intima (the exposed layer of blood vessels) forming plaques which acts as a bed that accumulates constituents of the blood like platelets, thus clogging blood vessels(atherosclerosis).


Atherosclerosis shrinks the space in which the blood moves, moreover it
diminishes the elasticity of the arteries, and both exerts an overburden on the heart to move the same amount of blood, the thing that starts cardiovascular or heart diseases.