Here is a little informational article I found very interesting about cholesterol that I would like to share with you! There's a dilemma that has often puzzled doctors: Roughly half the people who have heart attacks have perfectly normal cholesterol levels. Patients with cholesterol levels well below the recommended level of 200 have often experienced heart attacks at a relatively young age while people with levels of 300 or higher have exhibited no plaque in their coronary arteries at a much older age. How could this be?
Doctors now have at least a partial explanation. While we've all been focusing on our total cholesterol numbers, it turns out that the size of the cholesterol particles is equally important. Excess LDL ("bad" cholesterol) ends up getting deposited in arterial walls and forming plaque, which causes arteries to stiffen, blood pressure to rise, and ultimately leads to heart attacks. However, not all LDL particles are equally likely to do damage. If they are very small, they are like darts that easily pierce and stick to the arterial lining resulting in the deposit of plaque. If they are large in size, they harmlessly bounce off the arterial walls like beach balls.
Most of us check our cholesterol levels every year, but very few of us get tested for particle size, even though the tests have been widely available in the past five years. So next time you're in the doctor's office checking your cholesterol, ask if it would be beneficial to you to have that additional test done! They're graded in different ways, but most tell you if your particle size is small, medium, or large. The healthier your diet and exercise, the more your LDL particles will resemble those beach balls. As your waist shrinks, your particle size will grow. When it comes to LDL, big is beautiful!
