High Cholesterol and Heart Disease
When there is excessive LDL in the blood, it increases the possibility of a build up of plaque on artery walls.
When this happens, the arteries become narrow and the amount of oxygen and nutrients that can pass through them decreases.
The process continues slowly and silently, taking decades to manifest discernible symptoms. One is angina pectoris, or chest pain.
When a coronary artery is completely blocked, often by a blood clot, the part of the heart that receives blood from that artery dies. The result is a sudden, often deadly, myocardial infarction—better known as a heart attack.
Even partial blockage of a coronary artery can lead to death of heart tissue, which may not be manifest by pronounced physical discomfort.
Blockage of arteries in other parts of the body can cause strokes, gangrene of the legs, and even loss of kidney function.
Will everyone with higher than normal cholesterol levels develop heart disease?
Not necessarily. The problem arises when the cholesterol we do have circulating in our bloodstream is oxidized by free radicals, molecules produced as a by-product of energy production. The LDL then turns rancid, much as unrefrigerated butter does.
In this altered form, cholesterol gets sticky and more likely to attach itself to the artery walls, where it's quickly gobbled up by cells of the immune system called macroghages.
Stuffed with fat globules, these macrophages enlarge into dreaded "foam cells", which insinuate themselves into artery walls, beginning the gradual narrowing of your coronary artery known as atherosclerosis.
If you can prevent this toxic transformation, your LDL cholesterol may remain relatively harmless.
So the issue is not just how much LDL cholesterol your blood contains, but how much of it is "toxic oxidized LDL" capable of clogging your arteries.
So some researchers now believe that cholesterol is not so dangerous to arteries unless it's converted into a toxic form by oxygen free radicals in your blood.
Tags:
Cholesterol
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