The Ups and Downs of Cholesterol – Topics

You don’t really need to remember all of the nitty-gritty details on the various types of cholesterol, just the bottom line: If your cholesterol levels are out of whack, you’re heart disease risk is increased. Exactly how cholesterol wreaks havoc is fairly complicated. All cells have receptors, or “doors,” that suck LDL into them. If...

Generally, your doctor will order a cholesterol test as part of your routine health exam. You should fast for 9 to 12 hours before the test. If you’ve recently had a stroke, surgery, infection, weight loss, pregnancy, or a change in your usual diet, the results may be skewed, so try to wait until you’re...

Eat too much and you gain weight, It’s one of the simplest facts in medicine, But the repercussions of gluttony go beyond weight gain. When you eat more calories than you need, your body converts them into a form of fat called triglycerides and sends them to your fat. cells for storage. Although triglycerides aren’t...

As if HDL, LDL, and VLDL weren’t enough to track, researchers are discovering other types of lipoproteins that play a role in your CHD risk. Again, the standard cholesterol test doesn’t measure them, but most are included in a complete lipid profile. Chylomicrons You probably haven’t heard of this class of lipoproteins, as researchers are...

Like so many things, cholesterol isn’t bad for you unless there’s too much of it, at which point it begins to cause trouble. The story isn’t quite that simple, however. As you probably already know, there are different kinds of cholesterol—some bad, some good. And how much you have of each type makes a tremendous...

Although cholesterol has gotten a bad rap over the years, it’s not, by itself, a badthing. Cholesterol is a soft, faintly yellow, naturally occurring waxy substance found it cell walls and membranes throughout your body, including your brain, nerves, muscles, skin, liver, intestines, and heart. It’s one of several fats, or lipids, your body produces...