Everyone has heard of cholesterol but no one wants to see it in their body. But few people know that we would not be able to live without it. Like all
Everyone has heard of cholesterol but no one wants to see it in their body. But few people know that we would not be able to live without it. Like all other living beings, we humans are a collection of organic compounds that are living in this time and place. And the most infamous of all these compounds is cholesterol.
Everyone has heard of it but no one wants to see it in their body. But what do we know about Cholesterol Needed for Life? First of all, and if you ask me, the most important thing is that we would all die without cholesterol.
Contents
The importance of cholesterol in life
Cholesterol plays an important role in the fulfillment of important biological factors in the body.
For example: It is a basic component of the membranes of animal cells. Plant cells contain similar molecules called sitosterol’s and stigmasterol’s. Their job is like a guard who allows a molecule to enter and stops someone at the door.
Sex hormones are made from them. The male sex hormone testosterone and the female hormone estrogen are derived from a type of cholesterol called styrene. When it comes to sexual characteristics, we would be homosexual in the absence of cholesterol.
Cholesterol is the source of cortisol and aldosterone. Cortisol raises blood glucose levels while aldosterone raises blood pressure. Simply put, without them we would not be able to act immediately in a situation of danger or biological stress.
Cholesterol is a major component of vitamin D, so it helps calcium to become part of the body. Without cholesterol, our body would be very fragile, and osteoporosis would cause our bones to break at the slightest pressure. Cholesterol is a major component of liver salts that are excreted from our leaves and help our digested fats become part of the body.
Cholesterol (glycolipids and sphingolipids) help build strong membranes that block the passage of bacteria or viruses, according to specific sections of membranes (especially neuronal membranes) and other recent studies.
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So what’s the problem?
Why do our doctors keep following us to lower our cholesterol? Let’s know
Our body transmits substances through blood but blood is a liquid and cholesterol is hydrophobic, meaning it does not dissolve in water at all. To do this, our bodies use lipoproteins, which are large molecules that contain insoluble compounds in water, such as cholesterol and triglycerides.
Our bodies coat them with proteins and phospholipids, which allow them to become part of our bloodstream and travel through the body. The problem is that some types of lipoproteins, if they get too high, can get stuck in our blood vessels, called atherosclerotic plaques.
Simply put, it blocks our arteries
But not all types of lipoproteins pose such a risk. That’s why we can classify our cholesterol according to the type of lipoprotein they are traveling in. That’s why some types of cholesterol are notorious and some are good.
Good, bad and bad cholesterol
There are five types of lipoproteins in our body: chylomicrons, ultra-low density lipoproteins (VLDL), low density lipoproteins (LDL), medium density lipoproteins (IDL), and high density lipoproteins. HDL
Only three of these lipoproteins play a direct role in the delivery of cholesterol to our body and one of them is that if increased it can increase the risk of blockage in our arteries.
Good Cholesterol
High-density lipoproteins (HDL) are those that carry cholesterol to the liver. There, hormones are made from a portion of them and the residues are sent to the intestines by the liver fluids from where they are excreted in the feces.
The function of HDL is to draw cholesterol from our body tissues and deliver it to the liver. The cholesterol in our body that travels on this train called HDL is called good cholesterol.
Bad cholesterol
Low-density lipoproteins are those that enter cholesterol from the liver into the bloodstream and are directly linked to heart disease. These low-density cholesterols have four main adverse effects on our arteries. This narrows our arteries, which reduces blood flow. This causes the inner walls of the arteries to become uneven, causing fluctuations in blood flow. The result is more inequality
If this cholesterol stays in the arteries, it can cause the arteries to close completely, which can affect the supply of oxygen to the body’s organs. We may not even know if it is in the smallest part of our toe, but if it is in the veins that carry blood to the heart, it can cause a heart attack.
Occasionally there is a build-up of cholesterol in the arteries, which can build up in the arteries. But it is also not a happy thing because they can get stuck anywhere in the body circulating through the blood. If it gets stuck in the earlobe, it may not make much difference, but if it gets stuck in an artery that carries blood to the brain, it can be very serious.
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Worst cholesterol? Cholesterol
Extremely low-density lipoproteins (VLDL) are lipoproteins that carry cholesterol from the liver to the blood. However, VLDL lipoproteins are given less importance than LDL for two reasons.
The first reason is that they deliver more triglycerides than cholesterol, and the second is that if the amount of triglycerides in the blood is high, the indirect methods of determining the amount of VLDL may not be as effective.
Advantages and disadvantages of this distribution
This is a simple distribution that people can understand in general and it is very useful. In addition, it is useful as long as the cholesterol is not only viewed as a statistic, but also the overall ratio of HDL and LDL in the blood.
But it also has its disadvantages. Many analysts believe that this division could lead to the misconception that high-density lipoproteins, if present, would protect our arteries, although this is not guaranteed.
In addition, the function of lipoproteins is more complex than just the delivery of molecules, which is why some people think that HDL is good for health while LDL is bad for health. So VLDL is not the worst cholesterol but the worst.
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