›› High Cholesterol
If you are like me,
you’ve got some seriously high cholesterol. It can
be a little scary when your doctor takes one look at your blood work
lab results and gasps. I need to have a little chat with my
doctor about keeping a good poker face. I think
he’s just out of medical school, and is still working on his
bedside manner, but that’s all beside the point.
The point is, high cholesterol is a serious matter, and really
increases your chances of developing heart disease and/or having a
stroke.
So what is cholesterol anyway? And why is having high
cholesterol so bad? Here comes the scientific explanation, so
bear with me. Cholesterol is a chemical compound present in
high amounts in animal cell membranes. It helps to keep the
membranes of your cells ‘fluid’, which is important
for reasons that are too complicated for the scope of this
discussion. Because it can slip into and out of cell
membranes, it also acts as a sort of transport molecule. By
attaching to proteins and other molecules that normally would be unable
to pass through a cell membrane, cholesterol allows these compounds to
enter the cell. Additionally, it is a vital component part to
more complicated proteins and enzymes, including steroid
hormones.
That all makes cholesterol sound pretty good, and it actually
is. Without it, we would not be able to live.
Unfortunately, cholesterol has one little nasty problem associated with
it. It has a tendency to get stuck in blood
vessels. When it gets stuck in blood vessels, other
cholesterol molecules get stuck to the first ones, so on and so forth
until the blood is completely blocked. A blocked blood vessel
in most parts of the body is not really a big deal, and happens all the
time. However, a blocked vessel in a crucial part of the
heart or brain is more serious and can lead to heart attacks and
strokes, respectively. Having high cholesterol increases the
chances of these events occurring.
So what can you do about high cholesterol? First of all, see
a doctor. Many forms of high cholesterol can be reduced to
safe levels just by committing to regular exercise and the right
diet. Though it was long thought that high cholesterol was
caused primarily by a poor diet, it is now known to have strong genetic
components. More serious forms of high cholesterol may need
to be treated with medication. Only your doctor can help you
to determine if you should consider taking such a medication.
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A Healthy Dose of Good Advice
