Conquer Your Cholesterol (Part 1)
Cholesterol is mainstream news these days. Take a walk through any supermarket isle and you will be bombarded with signs for low-cholesterol and cholesterol-free products. Advertisements abound for dairy spreads that claim to lower your cholesterol. Pharmaceutical companies advertise cholesterol-lowering medication and its benefits. In some countries, such as the UK, this medication (statins) can now be purchased straight over the counter in pharmacies without a doctor’s prescription.
You probably already know that cholesterol has something to do with heart disease. Heart disease is the biggest cause of death in Ireland for men, and one of the best ways to prevent heart disease is to keep your cholesterol at a healthy level. But, like many people, you may be confused about cholesterol, all the different fats you eat, what happens to them in your body and how they affect your heart. So what is the story with cholesterol? Why is it important? And what should you do about it?
What Is Cholesterol?
Cholesterol is a soft fatty-like substance that, in healthy amounts, is used by the body for normal cell function. You need a certain amount of cholesterol for all the cells in your body to work properly and to produce important hormones. Some of the cholesterol in our systems is made in the liver and we get the rest from our diets. Food rich in cholesterol and saturated fat will increase the amount of cholesterol in our systems.
The problem is that, over time, excess cholesterol in the blood vessels can cause the cholesterol to stick to the walls of the blood vessels, leading to the development of fatty plaques (see diagram on page 94). These plaques can then cause narrowing of the blood vessels and eventually lead to heart disease or stroke.
In this context, it is worth knowing what the normal values of these types of cholesterol are. These are shown in the table below. There are two main types of cholesterol: LDL and HDL.
LDL Cholesterol
Firstly, the bad guy: LDL cholesterol. This is the bad cholesterol, which I call ‘lousy’ cholesterol. The less LDL or lousy cholesterol you have the better. This figure should be less than 3 millimoles/litre (less than 2.5 mmol/litre if you are diabetic or already have heart disease).
LDL cholesterol comes from two separate sources. Firstly, as most of us know, we get LDL cholesterol in our diets. Particular sources of LDL cholesterol include fried foods and stodgy carbohydrates. Secondly, LDL cholesterol is made in the liver and some people simply make too much LDL cholesterol. Therefore, even if you eat a very healthy diet, it is still possible to have high total and high LDL cholesterol levels.
