Judging from the medical perspectives, cholesterol is basically viewed as the type of fat which our human body uses for many
things. This thing so-called cholesterol by nature is a building block of cell
membranes which plays an important role around our skin cells. Cholesterol is used to make bile acids that help us digest and absorb foods naturally. Nevertheless, cholesterol is necessarily required for the formation of vitamin D
and some hormones including testosterone and estrogen.
To kick start with the above topic
discourse, the function of cholesterol in a human body is very essential. Our body regulates cholesterol levels through our blood called the serum cholesterol. Nutritionists by far use a term to distinguish the types
of cholesterol food that we eat so that they can identify and
recommend us with a variety of health advises;
encouraging us to work out on the improvement of our cholesterol degree.
Technically, the blood flow system embedded inside our fragile body acts as a distribution channel to supply cholesterol
and other lipids which our cells require. The process of how this blood flow functions is not that simple. Like oil and water, our fat and blood do not blend or mix up easily. Hence, in order to comprehend this problem, the first thing that
we need to know is how the amount of our fat is shaped and turned into proteins, and how they
can possibly be mingled with our blood circulatory system. For your additional
information, these tiny particles formed and fused in medical subjects are commonly known as lipoproteins
(fat plus protein).
a. Low-Density Lipoprotein (LDL - the villain type of cholestrol)
Nearly all the form of cells
functioning in a human body can exploit LDL cholesterol according to their needs. However, due to the
fact that there are usually more circulating LDL particles at one
time than what a human body needs, hence, the duty of care to eliminate an excessive amount of blood and turn it into more required bile acids or new lipoprotein is vital for the blood circulations. If the liver organ cannot compete with
the supply of LDL, then these formed particles so-called bile
acids or lipoprotein will likely to settle in a wrong spot (usually, they end up in the blood vessels), which makes them
quite toxic for a human’s heart.
As for the safety precaution, the LDL level which stands at 130 mg/dL or above
is considered high and risky for people to suffer from a heart disease. Nonetheless, there are also some recent studies which argue that people with the LDL level below 70 mg/dL are less prone to the threats of
suffering from a heart attack or stroke.
b. High-Density Lipoprotein (HDL – the good type of cholestrol)
While it is crystal clear that LDL cholesterol is the vicious type, the HDL which is the good type of cholesterol in contrast works very differently from the LDL one. By definition, HDL
particles have many therapeutic proteins which do not contain a lot of fat. They draw excessive cholesterol away from blood vessel bricks to other parts of a human body.
If we think of LDL (the villain cholesterol) is formed in the blood
vessels as circulatory trashes, then the HDL acts like a
garbage collector that takes the fatty material from the brick of blood vessels and
deliver it to the liver for disposal. After all, the HDL level reaches less than 40 mg / dL in men and less than 50 mg/dL in women are considered safe to have low risks of heart disease (60 mg/dL or higher is argued to be much safer).
As for the non-cholesterol fat spotted in lipoprotein particles, they are called triglycerides. The term is derived from its chemical structure; three fatty acids attached to one
alcohol and are called glycerol. Triglycerides are
important for our health system because it is normally used as an energy source. However, too many triglycerides seem to be damaging for our arteries and our heart organ. Thus, triglyceride level shown below 150 mg/dL is considered normal, 150 to 199 mg/dL is moderately high, 200 to 499 mg/dL is fairly high, while 500 mg/dL or above
is considered threatening or harmful.
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