Some Facts Concering Cholesterol Cholesterol has a bad press to be certain, but this is because the press does

no t normally give the full story. It is easier and more frightening to leave a cou ple of bits out. The fact is that we have to have cholesterol and triglycerides for that matter in order to live properly. The point where these fats become a p roblem is if we have too high a percentage of them in our blood. This is a comparable situation to having a lot of sugar in the blood on a regula r basis, which is otherwise called diabetes. Another word for this is hyperglyca emia and hyperglycaemia can be a cause of having too many triglycerides in the b lood too, which by the way is called hypertriglyceridemia. 'Hyper' meaning 'too much'. Cholesterol and triglycerides are the two foremost fats in our blood system. Cho lesterol and triglycerides come from the foodstuffs that we eat, but our own bod ies make them as well. Cholesterol is necessary for several basic bodily functi ons like controlling hormones and making bile. Having said that, there are two sorts of cholesterol: low and high density chole sterol. The low end can go very low and the lower it goes the worse it is for yo u. This is a very complicated subject which is better explained in a longer piec e, but all you have to bear in mind is that low density or LDL is bad and high d ensity cholesterol is 'better'. This is a very simplistic explanation, but it is the one that we are told of in the popular press. HDL cholesterol is believed to help mop up LDL cholesterol, w hich is why it is called good. If this natural process does not take place or goes out of balance, the LDL chol esterol waxy fat will stick to the walls of arteries making them thinner, narrow er. This is known as atherosclerosis (furring of the arteries) and means that th e heart has to pump blood harder in order to get oxygen to every part of the bod y. This is called hypertension or high blood pressure and puts the heart at danger of stress and failure - coronary heart disease and stroke are the possible resul ts of furred arteries. There is a lot that you can do to amend any concerns with your cholesterol level s. Most of our cholesterol comes from eating red meat and full-fat dairy product s, so just by replacing every other steak with a salad could hugely reduce your problem. There are other ways of doing this too, like exercise. Exercise is a useful way of burning off the surplus fats in your blood stream, b ut it has to be carried out on a regular basis. Not that it takes much. If you t hink about what you eat and reduce the foods weighty in cholesterol, you may jus t need 30 minutes moderate exercise a day in order to get healthy. The fact is that if you do not do something about your situation, you will be pl aced on tablets for the remainder of your life. You may think that this is a goo d alternative to diet and exercise, but it is not really. It is merely the easy option. Owen Jones, the writer of this piece, writes on a number of subjects, but is now involved with the question: <a href="http://whatfoodslowercholesterol.com/whatis-a-triglyceride.html">what is a triglyceride?</a>. If you want to know more, p lease visit our site at <a href="http://whatfoodslowercholesterol.com">What Food s Lower Cholesterol?</a>