High cholesterol - Cholesterol and triglycerides

High cholesterol

More about cholesterol and triglycerides

Cholesterol and triglycerides are fatty substances in your body. Fats in your body are called lipids.

Cholesterol

Cholesterol is a soft, waxy substance. Your body needs cholesterol to help build cells, keep your nerves healthy and to make some

hormones
Hormones are chemicals that are made in certain parts of the body. They travel through the bloodstream and have an effect on other parts of the body. For example, the female sex hormone estrogen is made in a woman's ovaries. Estrogen has many different effects on a woman's body. It makes the breasts grow at puberty and helps control periods. It is also needed to get pregnant.

hormones and other substances. There is some cholesterol in every cell in your body.

Most of the cholesterol in your body doesn't come from food. It's made by your liver. Your liver is a large organ that sits just below your ribs on the right side of your body. It checks the amount of glucose, proteins, vitamins, fats and other substances in your blood. And it stores some of these substances if you have too much. Your liver makes cholesterol from the fats you eat, particularly from saturated fats and trans fats. Your liver produces all the cholesterol that your body needs.

But you can also get some cholesterol from some foods, including eggs, dairy products and shellfish.

You may have heard about good cholesterol and bad cholesterol.

Bad cholesterol is the type that can build up in your arteries, making it difficult for the blood to flow through them. This type is called LDL cholesterol. LDL stands for low-density lipoprotein.
Good cholesterol helps get rid of the bad cholesterol. It's called HDL (high-density lipoprotein) cholesterol.

So, it's not just the amount of cholesterol in your blood that counts; it's how much there is of each type that's really important.

It is also important to remember that you cannot burn off cholesterol in your body by exercising. This is why the balance between how much cholesterol your body makes and how much it removes decides the level of cholesterol in your blood.

Triglycerides

You may not have heard of triglycerides. If you eat more

calorie
A calorie is a unit that is used to tell how much energy is found in food. But when we talk about how many calories food contains, we actually mean kilocalories, or kcal, which contain 1,000 "small" calories. When your body stores energy instead of using it, you get heavier. This is why you gain weight if you eat foods that are high in calories and the energy is stored instead of used. If your daily calorie intake is the same as the amount of energy your body uses up, your weight will remain the same. If you consume more calories than your body uses, you put on weight. Foods containing fat are high in calories.

calories than you can use right away, your body stores the extra calories as triglycerides. They are made from fats and other foods such as carbohydrates. Triglycerides are carried to fat cells, where they are stored until your body needs them for energy.

If you eat more than you need, the fat cells build up and you put on weight. When you haven't eaten recently, these stores of fat act as a reserve and help to keep your body running. People who exercise regularly have lower levels of triglycerides in their blood.

This information was last updated on Nov 06, 2008

This information is for educational use only, and is not a substitute for prompt professional medical advice. Readers should always consult a physician or other professional for advice and treatment.
© BMJ Publishing Group Limited 2009. All rights reserved.

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