Cholesterol – The Good, the Bad, and the Impact

Note: the following is not professional medical advice. For professional guidance on how cholesterol affects you, talk to your GP.

‘Cholesterol’ is a word we’re all familiar with, but as we age, it takes a more prominent place in our minds. With increasing years, our liver becomes less effective at removing ‘bad’ cholesterol from our body. While unhealthy levels of cholesterol can affect children, those in the 40-59 age group are particularly vulnerable to its effects. And those in their 70s and 80s can’t afford to be complacent. Just because you’ve reached this older age bracket doesn’t mean you won’t be impacted by high cholesterol in the future. So with this under our belts, let’s take a closer look at the substance we should all be more aware of.

Cholesterol is a fatty substance found in our blood. Some of it is manufactured in our liver, and some comes from the foods we eat. While ‘cholesterol’ commonly has a bad name, not all cholesterol is bad for us. High-density lipoprotein (HDL) is regarded as ‘good cholesterol’ because it helps remove ‘bad cholesterol’ from our body. It does this by delivering the bad cholesterol to our liver which then expels it via our bowel movements. A healthy amount of HDL in our body can actually work to reduce the amount of plaque build-up in our arteries.

Did we just say ‘plaque?’ But surely that’s a matter for our dental hygienist? In the context of dentistry, it is, but the plaque in our arteries is laid down by ‘bad’ cholesterol. The cholesterol that causes the problem is LDL or ‘low-density lipoprotein.’ When LDL builds up in our bodies, it produces a plaque which forms on the walls of our arteries. While dental plaque consists mainly of bacteria, arterial plaque is composed of hard fat. This fat forms into lumps which, when they break off from the walls of our arteries, can cause strokes and heart disease. Unfortunately, until the stage that we have such a medical event, we may not even be aware our arteries are at risk.

Managing cholesterol

If ‘bad’ cholesterol has you concerned, be thankful, because there are steps you can take to find out whether it’s something that affects your health, and if it does, you can work towards managing it.

If you’re having regular health check-ups (and we should all be asking our GP for these, regardless of how we’re feeling), your medical professional should be testing you for cholesterol levels. That said, there isn’t a ‘normal’ cholesterol reading, as such. That’s because various other factors come into play, including family genetics (some people have a tendency toward higher LDL than others). If your cholesterol readings are concerning, your GP may conduct a cardiovascular risk assessment in order to gain further information.

Although some of us are faced with ‘bad’ cholesterol contributors which we can’t change (such as our age, genes, biological sex, and various medical conditions), the encouraging news is we may still be able to reduce our high cholesterol levels with lifestyle changes and/or medication.

Reducing our intake of saturated fats (a type of fat that is usually – but not always – solid at room temperature) is a first step to reducing high cholesterol. Saturated fats are found in foods such as butter, cheese, and other dairy products, and also red meat. Coconut oil and palm oil are examples of saturated fats found in liquid form, and they are often an ingredient in cakes, biscuits, pastry, and non-dairy cheeses.

Alcohol is another contributor to the build-up of bad cholesterol. Reducing our intake of it, or going without altogether, is a step toward reducing harmful cholesterol. Along with this lifestyle shift, we can mitigate the effects of harmful cholesterol by moving more, giving up smoking, and where advised by a medical professional, reducing our weight (especially when this reduces the amount of body fat we carry around our ‘middle’).

Cholesterol may be a word we’ve come to be wary of. However, not all cholesterol is bad, and where bad cholesterol is an issue, we can have every hope that there are steps we can take, in our own homes, to reduce its impact on our health.