Health and Fitness Coach

What is Cholesterol? How Does Cholesterol Affect Our Health?

7 March 2009 7:11 pm

If someone asked you ‘what exactly is cholesterol?’ could you confidently answer them? More than 1 in 3 Australians and Americans suffer from high cholesterol but many of us don’t really know what is it and how it works. This post will explain in layman’s terms what cholesterol is and how it directly affects your health.

What is cholesterol?

Think of cholesterol as the repair kit for our arteries. The inner lining of our arties needs to be super smooth so that blood can easily flow through it, but sometimes we get little nicks from wear and tear such as nicotine, high blood pressure, stress or too much fat in the diet. Think of it like a few tiles coming off the bottom of a swimming pool. Cholesterol acts as the grout to fill these holes and prevent further damage. The problem is one type of cholesterol fixes these nicks beautifully whilst the other does such a patchy job that it makes the arteries even more rough and congested.