Everyone enjoys hearing trivia that is interesting and useful but no one likes to hear bad news. Unfortunately, we have both. This article is all about cholesterol, both good and bad, and is chuck full of information and little known interesting facts. These are the kinds of facts you either did not know or knew and wish you did not. Read on, trivia lovers. Who knows, you might learn something that could save your life! Did you know…?

– The body HAS to have cholesterol to live

– Cholesterol is the main substances in the membranes of cells that hold them together

– Cholesterol is used in the liver where it transforms to cholic acid, which then turns into the bile salt that we need to break down and digest fat

– Without cholesterol, men would be small, fat, and frail and women would not be able to speak or understand language.

– Without cholesterol, men would have no desire for sex, food, sports, or just about anything else and women would not be women but would be blank people-neither woman nor man. The reasons behind this are that without cholesterol, estrogen and testosterone would not form as hormones.

– Without cholesterol, illnesses and disease would run rampant across the world killing millions upon millions of people because without cholesterol, we would not be able to synthesize vitamin D with sunlight.

Two Of A Kind

So what is cholesterol? It is an indispensable, fat -like substance that we produce naturally. It is a heavy-duty hitter that comes from the family of steroids. Without it, well…, I think you get the picture. The problem with cholesterol is that it is unable to dissolve in the bloodstream because it is a fatty-like substance. It has to be bound and carried about by a fat-protein complex called lipoproteins. They also carry the dreaded, triglyceride, a greasy fatty acid of glycerol. With two of our players in the game, let\’s introduce our carrier, the taxi cab of the bloodstream, the lipoprotein.

Three Out Of Five Ain\’t Bad

Plasma lipoproteins are sorted into five types according to their density when hydrated, their mobility-electrophretically, how big (or small) they are, and finally, by the content of protein, triglyceride, or, you guessed it, cholesterol. They are:

– Chylomicrons
– Very-low-density-lipoproteins or VLDL
– Intermediate-density-lipoproteins or IDL
– Low-density-lipoproteins or LDL
– High-density-lipoproteins or HDL

The Good,-The Bad- And The Healthy

These transporters constitute high or low, good or bad cholesterol. As you have seen from the beginning of the article, we have to have cholesterol to live. Now that we know what cholesterol is, how do we know which are the good ones and which are the bad?

The Higher The Good-The Lower The Bad

LDL, the low-density-lipoprotein is the bad cholesterol. It will accumulate and build up in the arteries blocking the flow of blood and can lead to heart disease.

HDL, the high-density-lipoprotein is considered good cholesterol because it actually helps the body to eliminate the LDL from the body. The higher your HDL cholesterol count, the lower the chances are that you will develop heart disease.

Author Bio: For more information please visit our HIPAA HITECH website.

Category: Wellness, Fitness and Diet
Keywords: lipoproteins,vitamin D,testosterone,membranes,cholesterol,estrogen,HIPAA HITECH