What is Cholesterol? Understanding its Nature!
If you are wondering why you have high cholesterol and what is cholesterol anyway. We have here tried to explain it to you in lay-mans terms. This is not easily done, but might give you an indication of how and why these cholesterol levels should be lowered. Similar to not needing to know how the internal combustion engine works, in order to drive a car, you really don’t need to understand what cholesterol actually is. But we believe it might enlighten you to some degree, and at least if someone asks you “what is cholesterol?” You will have the answer ready for them!
One way of answering the question, what is cholesterol? Is to look at it from an organic chemistry point of view, although this might appear complex to a lay person, it is really quite easily understood. Cholesterol is an aerobic chemical compound that is hydrophobic in nature. Still sounds complex doesn’t it?
Cholesterol is not all bad, it is absolutely vital to the existence of any animal; this includes us humans. The cell membranes of the human body have to remain fluid and flexible, unlike that of a plant. Plant cell membranes are rigid and have no flexibility. This is where cholesterol comes to the fore, this substance keeps the cell membranes of the animal flexible. The cell membranes of an animal/human consist of two layers of lipids. Both lipid cell layers have a head and a tail, these are hydrophilic and the head aligns with the watery exterior and interior of the cell while the tail aligns in the relatively water free centre of the cell. Cholesterol, travels between these two layers of lipids, keeping the membranes elastic. Kind of like a layer of oil between the surface of a piston ring and sleeve.
From this we conclude that the presence of cholesterol is vital to the life of an animal. Cholesterol is carried through the body on lipoprotein carriers, the most important are HDL and LDL. LDL or low-density lipoproteins are the dangerous ones. When LDL levels are high, there is a great risk of them clogging arteries.
So, what is cholesterol? In broader terms it is something we cannot live without but in terms of LDL, it could be something that could kill us. Essentially cholesterol is a building block of the body, it is produced naturally in the liver and we do not need to eat or take any kind of supplements to ensure its production. You liver will produce all the cholesterol you will ever need. Therefore there is nothing you need to eat to produce it. Cut out all LDL cholesterol producing foods and your body will continue to run just fine without them.