What is Cholesterol?

Cholesterol is a naturally occurring waxy, fat like substance in the human body. It is vital in the way cells work, but can become dangerous when there is too much of it.

What is cholesterol?

What is cholesterol?
There are two main types of cholesterol: high-density lipoprotein (HDL) and low-density lipoprotein (LDL). Lipoprotein is the name for cholesterol combined with the proteins that carry it around your body.

Low-density lipoprotein (LDL) takes cholesterol from the liver to the body tissues. If there is too much of this cholesterol in the blood it can build up in the walls of the blood vessels and cause them to narrow. This is why LDL cholesterol is sometimes called ‘bad’ cholesterol. To maintain a healthy heart, people should try to keep their ‘bad’ LDL cholesterol at a lower, healthy level.
High-density lipoprotein (HDL) returns the extra cholesterol, that isn’t needed, from the bloodstream to the liver. HDL is a ‘good’ type of cholesterol because it removes the bad cholesterol from the bloodstream rather than depositing it in the arteries.

What are healthy cholesterol levels?
Guidelines from the Joint British Societies suggest that the most important factor is keeping your LDL level under 3mmol/L.

You should also aim for a total cholesterol level of less than 5mmol/L and an HDL level of more than 1mmol/L.

People who are at high risk or who already have heart and circulatory disease should aim for:

A total cholesterol level under 4mmol/l
An LDL cholesterol level under 2mmol/l
A HDL cholesterol level above 1mmol/l
A triglyceride level under 1.7mmol/l

Ask your GP if you’re unsure if you are at risk.

Cholesterol and heart disease

One of the main causes of high cholesterol levels is eating too much saturated fat. Heart disease occurs when the coronary arteries become narrowed by a gradual build-up of fatty material within their walls. This fatty substance develops when the level of the ‘bad’ LDL cholesterol is too high. In time, the arteries may become so narrow that they cannot deliver enough oxygen rich blood to the heart muscle.

But small changes in diet and lifestyle are often all it takes to keep your cholesterol levels healthy, or to lower them if they’re too high.

Causes of high cholesterol
Eating too much saturated fat is a common cause of high cholesterol. However, some people have high cholesterol even though they eat healthily. Some have high cholesterol as a result of an underactive thyroid gland, long term kidney problems, or having too much alcohol. Also about 1 in every 500 people in the UK has high cholesterol because they have an inherited condition called familial hypercholesterolaemia.

Watch our video below to find out more about the causes of high cholesterol as part of our Flora pro.activ ‘guide to cholesterol’ series. Or you can also scroll down for more information on ‘causes of high cholesterol.’

Other contributing factors:

Getting older
Diabetes
Ethnicity
Menopause
Family history
Smoking

What is Cholesterol?

What is cholesterol?

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