The whole issue of cholesterol can be very confusing. You may have heard that some cholesterol is good for you while other cholesterol can be harmful, but you may not know which is which. You may have been told that too much dietary cholesterol increases your risk for heart disease, but you may not know how. You can improve your cholesterol consciousness by learning about what cholesterol is, where it is found, and what it actually does to your heart.
Cholesterol is a lipoprotein -a fatty substance in the blood that is coated with protein.
The body itself manufactures about 1,000 milligrams of cholesterol daily so dietary cholesterol is not essential for health, and can actually be harmful. LDL has a thin protein layer and tends to deposit itself on the walls of the blood vessels, while HDL has a thick protein layer and actually removes cholesterol from the bloodstream. Cholesterol And Atherosclerosis Excess cholesterol and other fats can build up on the inner walls of blood vessels- a condition known as atherosclerosis . The only way to determine whether you have too much cholesterol in your bloodstream is to have a laboratory blood test performed. This test will measure how many milligrams of cholesterol are present in a deciliter of blood.