Cholesterol: Benefit Or Harm?

Do you know the name of the world-famous killers? Nicotine and cholesterol. But if the first is poison in itself, then the second becomes a murderer involuntarily, or rather, we ourselves make this killer a useful, even irreplaceable, substance.

How exactly? Let's understand together.

Cholesterol - irreplaceable and ubiquitous

In any organism of the world of animals (with the exception of some protozoa) cholesterol is present. If there is no cholesterol, then before you a representative is not a fauna, but a flora, that is, a plant. By the way, in plants there is an analog of cholesterol, which has a consonant name "phytosterol" and performs similar functions.

What does cholesterol do in the body? A lot of things:

• Is a part of all membranes, providing them with natural "hardness";
• Isolates nerve cells, improving the conductivity of impulses;
• Performs the role of "border control", with the passage of molecules into and out of the cell;
• Participates in the synthesis of certain vitamins, for example A, E and D;
• Performs an important function for the production of hormones, including - sex (both male and female);
• Directly involved in the production of bile;
• Protects human erythrocytes from hemolytic poisons ;
• In the early childhood forms connections between neurons, that is - improves work of a brain.

Cholesterol is so useful that it is even produced industrially from the spinal cord of animals and used in pharmaceuticals to produce female and male sex hormones, hormones of the adrenal cortex. Cholesterol is also used as an antidote for poisoning with certain poisons.

How cholesterol becomes a killer

All the poison and the whole medicine. These words of Hippocrates can be vividly illustrated by the example of cholesterol. How can such a useful substance prove to be a killer?

The fact is that cholesterol is spread on the body with the help of lipoproteins. Where do they come from? Lipoproteins are a complex of fats (lipo) and proteins (-proteins), to which cholesterol joins. And now - the most interesting: if the cholesterol is in the composition of medium, low and very low density lipoproteins, then it "rides" in the tissue. But, imagine that the tissues and cells are already saturated with cholesterol and no longer take it. Then the cholesterol "is unloaded at the entrance," that is, on the walls of the vessels. Fortunately, there are also high-density lipoproteins that capture cholesterol from the vessels and are "taken" to the liver for processing. With rational nutrition, these processes are balanced, the vessels remain clean and elastic.

However, if the body provides medium, low, very low density lipoproteins in larger quantities than necessary, but high-density lipoproteins - in insufficient, the situation becomes deplorable: "excess" cholesterol is regularly deposited on the walls of blood vessels, narrows their lumen and leads to atherosclerosis . And to what is atherosclerosis today everyone knows everything - to death.

Proceeding from the foregoing, it is necessary to bring into equilibrium high-density lipoproteins and lipoproteins of other densities. But how? It turns out that low density lipoproteins are formed by eating saturated fats in fatty meat, fat, butter, cream, eggs, eggs, and therefore in cakes, cakes and the like desserts. High-density lipoproteins are formed by consuming unsaturated fats contained in vegetable oils, fish, nuts and seeds.

It would seem that everything is simple, but ...

In our age, most people are completely disregarded of what they eat, considering it quite normal snacks in fast food restaurants, the use of meat semi-finished products, a large number of animal fats.

And how can it be otherwise, if a person first hears the dangers of butter and fatty meat at a therapist's reception, which has already come with the consequences of a common atherosclerosis. Unfortunately, in this case, the diet will not save from the sad result, only slightly prolong life.

So what should I do?

It is necessary to know about the three whales on which good health rests:

• Proper nutrition;
• Sufficient physical activity;
• Timely medical examinations.

Proper nutrition is nutrition with a predominance of plant foods. In a month, each person needs to eat at least 15 kg of vegetables and fruits (both raw and cooked). Animal fats need to be replaced by 2/3 vegetable.

Vegetable oils (olive, sunflower, soybean, corn, etc.) containing phytosterol increase the level of unsaturated fats, which means high-density lipoproteins, which remove excess cholesterol from the bloodstream. Look closely at the products on the shelves of stores. Among them there are those that are useful. For example, spreads - for us the name is unusual, and therefore we do not buy. However, Europeans have long been choosing combined fat blends, realizing that this is a product of daily nutrition, which means that it should be useful for every member of the family.

Physical activity is not necessarily an exhausting visit to gyms and fitness centers. A two-hour walk per day or a half-hour walk is enough.

Timely (every six months) tests of blood cholesterol level will help you quickly learn about its increase and normalize with a more rigid diet.

As you can see, everything is simple. The main thing is not only to know about this, but also to act!