Children and Cholesterol

Controlling cholesterol in children, childrean health and high cholesterol

It has long been known that high cholesterol leads to heart disease, but the benefits of cholesterol is unknown to many. The media can easily create the belief that cholesterol is always bad, but the fact is that cholesterol is indispensable for the maintenance of good health. And even the body produces cholesterol to perform its normal functions. In spite of all these, very few people are aware of the benefits of cholesterol.

Hence it is necessary to know about cholesterol better before panicking. Cholesterol is a waxy compound which can be compared to candle wax. Cholesterol is a type of sterol occurring naturally in the tissues of plants and animals, but it is obviously shown only in animals.

Our body can naturally synthesize cholesterol, needed largely by the liver and in lesser amounts by the small intestine and other individual cells of the body. And food substances like fish, chicken, eggs, beef, dairy and other animal products, etc increase the normal level of cholesterol in the body. Most of the cholesterol, nearly 85% is manufactured by the body and only 15% is from food.

Liver packs up the cholesterol into lipoproteins (combination of fats (lipids) and proteins). These lipoproteins function like commuter buses for carrying cholesterol, vitamins, triglycerides and other substances via the blood to the cells which require them.

But what is cholesterol doing? Cholesterol carries out many important functions in our body, out of which the most important is the formation and maintenance of cell walls and cell structures. The cells require cholesterol to adjust themselves to temperature changes, especially for insulating the nerve cells.

Besides, cholesterol is necessary for the synthesis of several critical hormones like the sex hormones progesterone, testosterone and estrogen. The liver, by using cholesterol, produces a fluid namely bile which helps in the processing and digestion of fats.

Cholesterol is also used in the production of vitamin D by the body. In fact, the body converts cholesterol into vitamin D on exposure to sunlight.

So cholesterol is indispensable but then the question why is it referred as bad cholesterol arises. The main reason is that blood and cholesterol is very similar to oil and water, they do not mix with each other. Cholesterol is actually an oily fatty substance dissolve into water-based blood.

In case of high cholesterol in the bloodstream, it starts t deposit in the inner linings of the blood vessels in a similar way like grease and fats collecting in the drain pipes when poured into sink. When such deposits form plaques inside arteries, it leads to hardening of arteries, a condition referred to as atherosclerosis. This can in turn lead to heart diseases and strokes.

The problem here rests with the cholesterol that is packed as lipoproteins which have low density with protein and contain more fats, referred to as LDL. These are the bad cholesterol which deposits as plaques on the artery walls.

Hence cholesterol can act both as the hero and the villain in our body. LDL is the villain. There is also cholesterol that is packed by liver into lipoproteins which are dense and contains low fat, called as high-density lipoproteins (HDL). HDL is the good cholesterol or the hero. HDL also performs the function of removing or cleaning the LDL plaques from the arteries when passing through the blood stream.