What is High LDL Cholesterol and How Does It Affect the Heart?

If you have heard the term hypercholesterolemia, it is a fancy word for high cholesterol. In recent years, many people have been diagnosed with it. If you have been told that you have a low HDL and a high LDL, this means that you have unhealthy cholesterol levels. Your LDL measures your "bad" cholesterol. What causes a buildup of plaque on the walls of arteries is having a high LDL that goes unchecked. "Good" cholesterol is measured as your HDL. Your HDL helps to rid the body of LDL; a high level of HDL is a sign of healthy cholesterol levels.

The higher your HDL, the better off you will be in avoiding heart disease. VLDL and triglycerides are other types of cholesterols that don't get a lot of attention but they do exist and they too can be measured. LDL and VLDL are very similar in that they are not very good at ridding the body of unhealthy cholesterol. Triglycerides are another type of fat that is carried in the blood by VLDL. When there are a lot of calories, alcohol, or sugar present in the body, they are converted into triglycerides in the liver and stored in fat cells throughout the body.

High cholesterol can cause some major health risks if it is not treated appropriately. High cholesterol can lead to heart disease and stroke. Plaque is a thick, hard deposit that forms on the walls of blood vessels causing narrowing of the arteries. This narrowing can cause decreased blood flow to the heart. This is the result of having high cholesterol levels. This plaque build-up that has been forming for a number of years causes atherosclerosis. The end result is usually heart disease.

Angina is a form of heart disease that is caused by plaque build-up in the walls of arteries decreasing the amount of oxygen and nutrients that is reaching the heart. When the heart is deprived of oxygen-rich blood caused by the arteries being narrowed or totally blocked by plaque, a heart attack will occur. The more LDL that is present in the blood, the greater the risk of having heart disease. If your levels of HDL are too low, you are also increasing your risk of heart disease.

High cholesterol is caused by many things. Not eating properly or eating the wrong foods is one of the key causes. Sometimes putting yourself on a low-cholesterol diet is all it takes to improve your cholesterol levels. If this approach does not help, your doctor may prescribe medications to help you to maintain your cholesterol at a healthy level. Sometimes high cholesterol runs in families. Genetics plays a vital role in how much cholesterol your body will produce. If LDL cholesterol is not removed from the blood at a rapid pace, your LDL levels will start to incrementally increase.

Familial hypercholesterolemia is an inherited form of high cholesterol that affects 1 in 500 people. This form leads to early heart disease. Gender and age are also determining factors of high cholesterol. As we age not only does our knowledge increase but so do our cholesterol levels. Before women reach menopause, they sometimes have lower cholesterol levels than men who are at the same age. A woman's LDL levels tend to increase after menopause until about 60 to 65 years of age. After the age of about 50, women often have higher total cholesterol levels than men of the same age.

Maintaining healthy cholesterol levels can be a concern at any age. It does not have to wait until you reach a certain age. By thinking about the amount of cholesterol that you eat on a daily basis, you can put yourself onto a road that leads to a healthier cholesterol level in the future.

Todd Peterson has done extensive research on nutrition and high cholesterol. For more information on
lower cholesterol,
Visit his website on maintaining healthy cholesterol levels the safe and natural way.