Simply, cholesterol is lipid. Lipid is one of the substances that constitute the cell membrane of mammals or animals including man. There are two sources of cholesterol, diet and liver. Some foods like meat, poultry and fish contains high level of cholesterol. In addition to these foods, nuts and cocoa oil also contains a high level of cholesterol. Liver also produce cholesterol when the dietary cholesterol is not enough.
The cholesterol is classified into two main categories, LDL (low density lipoprotein) and HDL (high density lipoprotein). Both types are supplied through the same food and through liver as well. Also liver is responsible for discarding the LDL.
Let us first differentiate between the two types. The LDL is the bad cholesterol and it tends to accumulate on the walls of the blood vessels especially arteries. If the accumulation of these bad lipoproteins increases then the arteries tend to get narrower causing what is known as atherosclerosis. More accumulation of LDL causes complete blockage of the artery causing stroke or heart failure.
On the other hand there is the friendly HDL, this type of cholesterol is secreted by the liver mainly and tends to help the body to overcome the effect of LDL. Maintaining a high level of the HDL and low level of the LDL is the most desirable situation. All the cholesterol medications opt to get this desirable balance.
There are some cases where hereditary factors induce an increase in the LDL against the HDL level. The main cause in this case is the deficiency of the LDL receptors on the surface of the liver. People who suffer from this case are more reliable to develop atherosclerosis and heart strokes.
Treatment of cholesterol should be done through different axis. The first axis is the prevention of new formation of new cholesterol on the vessel walls, the second axis is the removal of existing cholesterol and the other axis is decrease the complications that occur with the cholesterol increase.
The different axis of treatment should work simultaneously because one axis alone will not deliver the desired results. So, any treatment of high LDL levels should compose of these three axes together.
Diet control is very important part of the first axis of treatment because it is the only way to control the amount of new cholesterol entering the body. Every one over the age of 40 should monitor his cholesterol level.