The Bad Cholesterol

Know your health with Dr. RK Mahapatra.

Point 1.

Our cholesterol are of two types.

The Good Cholesterol ( HDL Cholesterol) is an essential ingredient for our brain tissue.

The non HDL Cholesterol is the bad cholesterol and can block our arteries causing heart attack or brain stroke in older ages.

Point 2.

The bad cholesterol gets inside our system from trans-fat that we take along with fatty foods especially junk food.

But our liver also produces Cholesterol every day. That is your diet is not 100% responsible for your cholesterol.

If you have a family history, you probably are adding it for no fault of yours.

Point 3.

The length of period your vessels are exposed to this high bad cholesterol matters most in clogging your coronaries.

You may be safe if you have a high level only after 60. But the same blood level at 35 would surely clog some of your vessels by the time you reach 70. Most of the time we are fortunate. No significant vessel is affected. Only when some strategically important vessel like the coronaries or some vessels *inside your brain* gets clogged then only you would get a stroke.

1. Start early

In summary, you must get your cholesterol numbers pretty early say around 25.

2. Genes:

You must find out whether your liver is genetically mischievous. Family heirloom matters.

3. CV
You must get assessed for your CV risk score ( Cardio Vascular Risk depends on more than one thing- your BP, Sugar, Weight, Diabetes, Family link, smoking, aggressive life style etc. )

If you are young and have high bad Cholesterol, probably you won’t need a drug at all. Life style change, healthy Diet, Weight loss, activity is sufficient.

For bad Cholesterol you must
Start early, Drive carefully, Reach safely.