Wednesday 9 November 2011

CHOLESTEROL

   By now,most people that high levels of blood cholesterol can lead to blocked arteries. If an artery that supplies blood to your heart becomes blocked, a heart attack may occur. if an artery that supplies blood to your brain becomes blocked, a stroke could occur. Still, confusion abounds over the role of diet in affecting cholesterol.
    Although often portrayed as a dietary evil, cholesterol is essential to life. The body needs it to make sex hormones, bile, vitamin D, cell membranes, and nerve sheaths. These and other functions fall to serum cholesterol, a waxy, fat like compound, termed a "lipid," that circulates in the bloodstream. the liver manufactures about a gram each day, which is all the body requires.
    Dietary cholesterol is found only in animal products. The body does not need this cholesterol, but anyone other than a strict vegetarian who excludes all animal products will consume varying amounts of it. many factors-exercise, genetics, gender, and other components of the diet-influence how the human body processes dietary cholesterol; some people can consume large amounts but have normal blood levels, while others eat very little but have high blood cholesterol. Diet appears to account for about 20 percent of the cholesterol in the body,with the remaining 80 percent produced by the liver.

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