Good Guys and Bad Guys

Inside your arteries there’s a battle going on. LDLs are the enemy force, and HDLs the defenders. If your ratio of “enemies” to “defenders” is favorable, you win—plaque will not form. Here’s how it plays out. VLDLs, produced in the liver, travel through the bloodstream, where they shed triglycerides for use by cells. In the process they give rise to LDLs HDLs, manufactured in the liver, travel through the circulation, seeking LDLs. An HDL particle fuses to an LDL and “opens” it with a “lock-and-key” mechanism to take some of its cholesterol, The HDL then carries the cholesterol back to the liver and out of circulation.