Cholesterol
Cholesterol is a waxy, fat-like substance that occurs naturally in all parts of your body and that your body needs to function normally. It is present in cell walls or membranes everywhere in your body, including the brain, nerves, muscle, skin, liver, intestines, and heart. Your body uses cholesterol to produce many hormones, vitamin D, and the bile acids that help to digest fat.

It takes only a small amount of cholesterol in the blood to meet these needs.
If you have too much cholesterol in your bloodstream, it can lead to atherosclerosis, a condition in which fat and cholesterol are deposited in the walls of the arteries in many parts of the body, including the coronary arteries feeding the heart.
In time, narrowing of the coronary arteries by atherosclerosis can produce the signs and symptoms of heart disease, including angina and heart attack.

Cholesterol lowering is important for young, middle-aged, and older adults.
1 out of every 2 men and 1 out of every 3 women will develop heart disease sometime in their life.

Whether you have heart disease or want to prevent it, you can reduce your risk for having a heart attack, as well as improve your health in other ways, by lowering your cholesterol level by eating a low saturated fat, low cholesterol diet, regular physical activity, managing your weight, quit smoking - the more you smoke, the lower your HDL ("good") cholesterol is likely to be.

Lipoproteins
Cholesterol travels in the blood in packages called lipoproteins. Just like oil and water, cholesterol, which is fatty, and blood, which is watery, do not mix. In order to be able to travel in the bloodstream, the cholesterol made in the liver is combined with protein, making a lipoprotein. This lipoprotein then carries the cholesterol through the bloodstream.

There are specific kinds of lipoproteins that contain cholesterol in your blood, and each affects your heart disease risk in a different way.

LDL ("bad") cholesterol:
LDL stands for low density lipoprotein, which is the bad cholesterol in our body. LDL ("bad") cholesterol carry most of the cholesterol in the blood, and the cholesterol from LDL ("bad") cholesterol is the main source of damaging buildup and blockage in the arteries. Thus, the more LDL ("bad") cholesterol you have in your blood, the greater your risk of heart disease. If you have heart disease or are at high risk for developing it and your LDL ("bad") cholesterol is 100 mg/dL or higher, your cholesterol may well be too high for you.

HDL ("good") cholesterol:
HDL stands for high density lipoprotein, which is the good cholesterol in our body. HDL ("good") cholesterol carry cholesterol in the blood from other parts of the body back to the liver, which leads to its removal from the body. So HDL ("good") cholesterol help keep cholesterol from building up in the walls of the arteries. If your level of HDL ("good") cholesterol is below 40 mg/dL, you are at substantially higher risk for heart disease. The higher your HDL ("good") cholesterol, the better. The average HDL ("good") cholesterol for men is about 45 mg/dL, and for women it is about 55 mg/dL.

Triglycerides
Triglycerides are a form of fat carried through the bloodstream. Most of your body's fat is in the form of triglycerides stored in fat tissue. Only a small portion of your triglycerides is found in the bloodstream. High blood triglyceride levels alone do not necessarily cause atherosclerosis. But some lipoproteins that are rich in triglycerides also contain cholesterol, which causes atherosclerosis in some people with high triglycerides and high triglycerides are often accompanied by other factors (such as low HDL or a tendency toward diabetes) that raise heart disease risk. So high triglycerides may be a sign of a lipoprotein problem that contributes to heart disease.

Cholesterol Level
(measured in milligrams per deciliter)
Total cholesterol should be under 200 mg/dL
HDL (good cholesterol) 40 mg/dL (the higher the better)
LDL (bad cholesterol) under 100 mg/dL

Cholesterol Lowering Medicines
For some people it is necessary to combine cholesterol lowering medications with changes in life habits to get enough of a reduction in cholesterol. Your doctor can help to decide which combination of cholesterol-lowering activities is right for you. This section outlines the medications that are available.

I don't think I've ever had my cholesterol checked so I don't know if my cholesterol levels are good or bad. Does anybody know when a good age is to start getting that checked out? I just had a physical a few months ago and I guess the doctor didn't think I needed to get mine checked since it doesn't really run in my family and I'm not over 30 years old yet.

I would think even if high cholesterol doesn't run in your family, you can still have a chance of getting high cholesterol. If you eat lots of bad fats or high cholesterol foods, and are sedentary, isn't that a risk of getting it? I would think so. But if you eat healthy, and exercise daily, regular physical activity, they say, may lower LDL ("bad") cholesterol and raise HDL ("good") cholesterol levels.

But....
I also heard that someone who exercised daily and was in pretty good shape, found out their cholesterol was getting higher than it should be.



I think the best bet is to get a cholesterol check done, no matter what your age is. Then you will know for sure what your cholesterol numbers are.

I am pretty sure you have to fast 12 hours before a cholesterol test can be preformed. If I had a doctor appointment coming up, I would fast the 12 hours and tell the doctor I want the cholesterol test done, even if the doctor says you don't need one. I am also pretty sure they just take some blood from you for the test?

I found more info on the National Cholesterol Education Program, National Heart Lung and Blood Institute website...

Thanks for the information. I think I will get my cholesterol checked the next time I have a check up. It will be good to know where I stand!