SIMPLE HEALTH: Making sense of Cholesterol's ABCs

COLUMN BY SUSAN HILL

Making sense of Cholesterol's ABCs

posted 03/03/2008
Cholesterol doesn't deserve all of the bad rap it gets. It is a normal lipid molecule necessary for cellular function and we couldn't survive without it. But many of us have too much of a good thing. When you get your cholesterol blood test , several things are measured: total cholesterol, HDL, LDL and triglycerides. What do they all mean?

There are two sources of cholesterol-- that obtained directly from foods like eggs, cheese and meat, and the cholesterol made by your liver from anything else you eat. You can control the cholesterol you eat but you can't control how much your liver makes. Some family's genetics cause high levels of these lipids and trigger heart attacks at a young age.

Triglycerides are another type of fat or lipid that our bodies store in fat cells for energy, like a battery stores power for later use. Dietary sources include carbohydrate/starches, sugars/sweets and alcohol. High triglycerides are associated with diabetes, pancreas problems and can also contribute to heart attacks.

But what are those HDL, LDL alphabets all about? Before the cholesterol you ate can be used by your cells, it needs a carrier, a mode of transport. Enter the HDL and LDL lipoprotein molecules.

If there are lots of those hefty HDLs floating around, then most of the cholesterol ends up being excreted. If there are more of the little LDLs, then much of the cholesterol ends up plugging your arteries.

So you want a higher level of HDLs and a lower level of those LDS.

Think of them as cholesterol magnets. The HDL is the hefty one. It links to cholesterol and escorts it out of your blood vessels, back to your liver where it is broken down and eventually excreted from the body. The LDL is the little one that also links to cholesterol but this bad guy deposits cholesterol on the inside of the blood vessels. As cholesterol deposits build up, the risk of a heart attack or stroke increases.

Then there is "the ratio"- is it high or low, good or bad? This is the ratio of total cholesterol to HDL. If you have low cholesterol and lots of the good HDL, then your ratio number is low. So a lower ratio number is "good" and a higher ratio number is "bad". What cholesterol, HDL and LDL numbers are the best targets for you? Ask your health care professional because the goals are different based on your health, if you have a history of high cholesterol, have had a heart attack or if you are diabetic.

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