Cholesterol

If cholesterol is manufactured in our body itself, why does it go high? Why is it said to avoid fat when there is high blood cholesterol?

Yes, it is the function of the liver to make cholesterol but our body makes more of it when we (over )eat with fat (And in some people, this excess production of cholesterol happens by heredity). Plus, our body is capable of absorbing it from food we eat, though in very small quantities.

When we talk about blood cholesterol, we can not ignore the two main players. LDL and HDL. What are they?

Cholesterol is fat soluble and since blood is not such a medium, it won’t get dissolved in blood and move around. So, our body has a mechanism to carry the cholesterol through blood. It is done by attaching them to protein. This combination is called Lipoproteins. LDL is Low Density Lipoprotein and obviously, HDL is High Density Lipoprotein. In between comes a third one called Very Low Density Lipoprotein or VLDL.

So, LDL and HDL are not fully cholesterol but if we want to measure the cholesterol levels in our blood we have to measure lipoproteins, since cholesterol is attached to them and they are the transporters. And we call them ‘cholesterol’ in general.

LDL is considered as bad mainly coz it clogs the blood vessels. It builds up in the wall making the arteries narrow.

Where as HDL picks up the excess cholesterol in the blood and takes it back to liver. Since its doing a good deed, it’s good cholesterol.

Now it’s clear that why LDL levels should be low and HDL levels should be high.

Then from where does this Triglycerides come from? Why do docs check that?

This is a kind of fat and the specialty of this fat is that more we gain excess weight, more production in our body. There are many other factors that influence the excess production of triglycerides, like smoking, (alcohol) drinking etc. What is observed in general is that people with high triglycerides has high LDL and low HDL and a high total cholesterol level. That is why measuring this is also very important.

Here are the normal values, measured in milligram per deciliter

Total blood cholesterol – less then 200 mg/dL
HDL – 40-50 for men and 50-60 mg/dL for women
DL – less than 100 mg/dL is ideal.
Triglyceride – less than 150 mg/dL

So, should we completely avoid oil, meat and eggs?

What matters is the daily average (usually calculated on a weekly basis). That is, if we included (full) egg for breakfast for two days, and then had fish, lean meat, whole grains, fruits and vegetables for the rest of the days (for all meals), the daily average wont shoot up.

When we gain weight, all other organs wont grow/adapt to it accordingly, especially the heart which is the main organ affected by the extra cholesterol. It won’t develop any extra pumping capability. It doesn’t have any turbo mode. So, when the blood pipes get clogged and becomes narrow, it’s a strain for our heart.

What are the natural ways to keep cholesterol under control?

Regular exercises
Keeping weight under control
Include oatmeal/oat barn, lots of fruits, vegetables, walnut, almond, fish which has high Omega-3 like sardine, mackerel etc
Avoid Trans fats, to the extent possible.

(I will explain the Trans fat next time, coz an one-liner explanation wont look nice).