Cholesterol

Cholesterol is an essential molecule for our life.

Wait what you’re saying, Cholesterol madam ! Many of you might be surprised by this pronouncement right, But I will pertain to the same assurance and further clarify that people, this waxy fat like substance found in all the cells of our body which is considered as a bad guy actually serves many important functions for us like: build structure of cell membrane, make hormones (which works like chemical messenger), helps the metabolism to work efficiently, produces some compounds which help our body to digest fat, absorb important nutrients, to make Vitamin D and so on.

I mean it’s just like criticising a dedicated worker who works day and night for an organisation but still didn’t get a word of appreciation and gets hypersensitive. Same with cholesterol which as a matter of fact is essential for so many things but still is a brute especially when that whole body checkup report freak you out by seeing those bold values on that piece of paper.

Won’t you agree that Nature bestowed us with so many natural things which actually works naturally in our body to keep us healthy but our carelessness imbalances the things, thus throwing us in many health malady, Agreed! Well our body itself makes the cholesterol it needs, approximately 80% of our body makes the cholesterol to keep us healthy and only 20% comes from the food claimed as per The Harvard Special Health Report.

Now this cholesterol executes its job as described above but cannot travel by its own, so aid by the proteins present in blood which helps them to undertake their journey called as lipoproteins. Now here is the climax, there are different types of lipoproteins which sway our life with different purposes:

• LDL, Low density lipoprotein aka Bad cholesterol.Why? Because they carry cholesterol from liver to rest of body cells and the cells bolt on the particles in surplus amount and you know eating anything excess is poisonous so in the same way too much LDL in blood leads to build up plaques in the arteries, thus raise the risk for heart disease and stroke.
• HDL, High density lipoprotein aka Good Cholesterol as it Carries the cholesterol from other parts of body back to liver and then our liver withdraws the excess cholesterol out from the body.
• VLDL, Very Low Density Lipoprotein, a kinsfolk from from LDL family and also contributes to the build up of plaque in arteries but differ in one perspective that it carries the triglycerides.

Now are you acquiring the visuals that if our body stores too much cholesterol in the blood then it gets combined with other substances and can lead to atherosclerosis thus making the coronary arteries narrower and narrower or even blocked which can cause chest pain or even a heart attack.

So the optimal values for the total cholesterol level under 200mg/dl considered normal ; LDL values should be less than 100mg/dl and HDL optimal values should be 60mg /do or higher is considered safe.

Now the moral of story “HDL ko badao and cholesterol ko bagao” but wait let me present you some pearl of wisdom of this plot where many of us must be reciting what causes high cholesterol? Why my levels are high even after leading a healthy lifestyle or How can I lower my cholesterol and blah blah…

Firstly, broadly we all are now stranded in the modernism era of lavished lifestyle with contrasting eating and living patterns, I mean much sedentary with no physical activity and transmutation of our own traditional diets and it’s epic curriculum into western style patterns into the bargain, where we love to completely rely on highly-ultra processed foods, junk items, artificially made and synthetic coloured foods which are manufactured somewhere in a large plant but not naturally from our locally known and seasonally grown plants.

Secondly, Cholesterol levels vary with age, sex, weight like: males tend to have high cholesterol levels with increase in age and in females they tend to rise after menopause.

Thirdly, there are some health conditions and lifestyle factors that can raise your cholesterol like: type 2 diabetes, obesity, familial hyper cholesterolemia (an inherited condition), high B.p, smoking, alcohol consumption etc. So it’s better to get your cholesterol level checked about every 5 years as per CDC recommendations.

So better kick up your day with 30 min. of any regular physical exercise routine, eat whole grains, fresh vegetables and fruits, vitamins , minerals, legumes, fish, good fats. Include the percentage of essential fats in your diet which can be found abundantly in nuts, seeds, certain cold pressed oils etc.

Limit the dependency of life on saturated fats, trans fat found in all sort of packaged food items and on alcohol consumption too, instead rely on balanced meals from all the food groups, unsaturated oils, complex carbs and healthy loving practices to ourself.

So here am environing the recital with hefty words by Anne Wilson “Good Health Is Not Something We Can Buy. However, it can be an extremely valuable savings account”.

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