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May 16, 2012
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May 9, 2012
Sharon Palmer, R.D. How you can reduce your risk -- or delay -- chronic diseases associated with aging
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Jewish World Review
How Stuff Works: How cholesterol works
By
Marshall Brain
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | (MCT)
Heart disease is the No. 1 killer in the United States. According to the federal Centers for Disease Control, "About every 25 seconds, an American will have a coronary event, and about one every minute will die from one." One per minute works out to over half a million people dead from heart problems per year.
One of the leading causes of heart disease is cholesterol. The fact that cholesterol is the leading cause of the leading killer makes cholesterol important. So let's take a look at how cholesterol works.
What is cholesterol? It is a chemical that is essential to the cells in your body. If you were to hold a blob of pure cholesterol in your hand, it would look and feel waxy. Cells use cholesterol to make their membranes (the outer envelope that holds each cell together).
Because cholesterol is essential to your body, your liver and several other organs make the cholesterol you need - on the order of a gram per day. Then you add some extra cholesterol to the mix in your food - maybe 300 milligrams a day. Therefore plenty of cholesterol is floating in your bloodstream for your cells to use. When cells need it, cholesterol is readily available from a nearby capillary.
If cholesterol is essential to your body, how can cholesterol be bad? The very simplest explanation: cholesterol collects on artery walls and eventually clogs them up. When it clogs up the arteries on the heart, you have a heart attack, which is frequently fatal. Why, you might ask, are the arteries on the heart so susceptible? They are not - all the arteries are clogging. It's just that the heart is one place where a clog causes an immediate and often deadly effect. If an artery in your leg clogs, it is known as peripheral artery disease. It's a problem, but not one that will kill you in a few minutes.
Cholesterol tests used to produce just one number - the amount of cholesterol in the blood, measured in milligrams per deciliter - and you needed to keep it below 200. Then came the differentiation between "good" and "bad" cholesterol, and then all the stuff with density and triglycerides, to the point where today a cholesterol report looks like a confusing bowl of alphabet soup.
It is interesting because it is the result of a better and better understanding of what actually seems to be going on with cholesterol inside the human body. The lipoproteins are there to transport things like cholesterol in the blood. Remember that cholesterol is waxy, and blood is watery. Wax and water don't mix, so cholesterol can't flow in the bloodstream and get where it needs to go without help. Lipoproteins provide the help. Low-density lipoproteins (LDL) are what cause artery walls to clog, and are therefore "bad." High- density lipoproteins (HDL) seem to prevent clogging, and are therefore "good." So your doctor is trying to keep overall cholesterol in the good range while decreasing LDL and increasing HDL.
What can you do about cholesterol? Your doctor can prescribe drugs like statins. Statins break a chain in the liver that creates cholesterol, so the amount of cholesterol goes down. They also can lower LDL levels.
In addition, you have some dietary steps you can take. Eating low- cholesterol foods and avoiding high-cholesterol foods can help to some degree, although the body continues making cholesterol and will sometimes make more when you eat less.
There are also several foods you can start eating that affect cholesterol levels. You have probably heard about oat bran. It lowers LDL because it contains soluble fiber. So do fruits like apples. Walnuts also help. In some people, walnuts make a big difference. They contain "good fats" that push cholesterol numbers down. Omega-3 fatty acids found in things like salmon, flax seed and fish oil pills, also help. And olive oil is a good thing to eat, especially if it is replacing unhealthy fats.
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Previously:
How leather works
How vaccines work
How the smart grid works
How sea level works
How employee screening works
How to avoid catching a cold
How bread works
How a home energy audit works
How Omega-3 fatty acids work
Social networking
How trick birthday candles work
How electric cars like the Nissan Leaf work
How a manned mission to Mars works
How gold works
How bad breath works
How the ultimate sunglasses work
Any rocket is easily converted to a missile
How to have a great staycation
How a black box works
How a solar roof works
How nuclear bombs work
How the Hubble Space Telescope works
How hay fever works
How to know when to rent vs. buy
How swine flu works
How a kidney dialysis machine works
How children die in hot cars
How a trillion dollars works
How electronic cigarettes work
How chimpanzees work
How in vitro fertilization works
How supertankers work
How poisons work
How corn works
How dog ID chips work
How President Obama's limousine works
How emergency power works
How aircraft carriers work
How antibiotics and vaccines work
How mucus works
How iron and steel work
How aspirin works
How igloos work
How the Predator UAV works
How retention ponds work
How water absorbers work
How melamine works
How digital music works
How coal mining works
How an economic depression works
How the liver works
How 3D movies work
How oil pipelines work
How jet packs work
How seismographs work
How Olympic technology works
How Personal Rapid Transit works
How 3G works
How the Global Position System (GPS) works
How octane works
How cruise missiles work
How submarines work
How miles work
How octane works
How food preservation works
How beer works
How holding your breath works
How smoke detectors work
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How your night vision works
How concentrating solar collectors work
How your key fob works
How the common cold works
How the Large Hadron Collider Works
How making a TV show works
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How exoskeletons work
How an oil refinery works
How landfills work
How the Orion spacecraft works
The cutting edge in HDTV
Redefining the CD
How the HDMI cable scam works
How glow-in-the-dark toys work
How the subprime mortgage crisis works
How gift cards work
How Tasers work
How giant TV screens work
How foreclosure works
How Air Force One works
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© 2007, How Stuff Works Inc. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
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