Cholesterol–heart attack causes?

When we talk about high cholesterol level, most of the time it is due to  low density lipoprotein (LDL ) cholesterol is high which cause the overall cholesterol number is high. But why many health specialists have keep warning us that high cholesterol level will expose us to the high risk of getting heart attack, stroke, or other heart diseases?

First, let us understand what cholesterol does for us in our body. Basically, cholesterol is consists of 3 major types of cholesterol –

a. LDL cholesterol (bad cholesterol)

LDL cholesterol is essential in our body as it is used to build up new cells,  insulate nerves and produce hormones. HDL cholesterol is used to

b. HDL cholesterol (good cholesterol)

HDL cholesterol is used to carries extra LDL and triglycerides out of the cell and back to liver for reutilization or disposal.

c. Triglycerides

most of the fats digested by us will be transformed to triglycerides. It is some kind of fatty acid. In triglyceride form, lipids cannot be absorbed by our duodenum. Triglycerides play an important role in metabolism as energy sources and transporters of dietary fat.

Normally, our live will make sufficient cholesterol for our body needs. But, when we consume high cholesterol food like animal based foods, the cholesterol will also enter our body. This may cause too much cholesterol in our body, especially LDL cholesterol and Triglycerides cholesterol. When this happen, the two types of extra cholesterol in our arteries may start to deposit and build up the wall of arteries. This causes the arteries getting narrower. This process is called atherosclerosis, one kind of heart disease.

When this atherosclerosis happens, the blood flow to the heart muscle is slower and even clogged. If the blood carries oxygen to the heart is not enough, we will have pain in the chest area.  When this getting worse, the blood supply to heart may be completely cut off at certain portion, this will results in heart attack.

Hence, high cholesterol level is been recognized to be one of the most common causes to many different types of heart diseases. It is better to lead a healthy life style and low cholesterol diet to keep us away from those critical heart diseases.

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