Cheeseburgers may taste good, but cholesterol is risky business

By Martin A. David martin.david@hqpublications.com Pharmavita Columnist October 5, 2004

Before you take another bite of that double cheeseburger, look around. Do you see anything you like? Well if you’d like to see it again—and again, put down that high cholesterol food and get yourself on a decent cholesterol lowering diet.

I don’t mean to scare you—well, on second thought, maybe do mean to scare you. If all my readers died I’d be very lonely and out of work.

Unless you’ve been hiding in a cave you’ve heard that lower cholesterol is good. But what does it all mean? Good cholesterol, bad cholesterol, HDL cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, cholesterol in white cowboy hats and cholesterol in black cowboy hats…

Your body is a cholesterol factory

The first cholesterol you ever meet is manufactured right inside your own body. It’s a fatty substance that the body uses to build cells. Some people manufacture more than they need and have to work to reduce cholesterol.

Most of us, however, shovel our high cholesterol in by eating fatty foods. The excess cholesterol ends up building fatty roadblocks on the walls of our blood vessels.

Bad cholesterol and good cholesterol

When the blood can’t get through, the heart is injured and that is called a heart attack. LDL cholesterol is the worst culprit (bad cholesterol), but HDL (good cholesterol) can help minimize the damage.

If you have trouble remembering which is which, think of LDL as Lousy cholesterol and HDL as Happy cholesterol. In addition to doing more exercise and changing to a low cholesterol diet, you can also see your doctor for a cholesterol medication prescription.

About the Author
Martin A. David consults as a Senior Technical Writer for a number of Silicon Valley firms. He is also a translator, specializing in Danish, French and Spanish literary works. He has written numerous feature articles for publications including the Los Angeles Times. He has also published a novel, and a non-fiction book in the area of dance. Martin earned his B.A. in Liberal Arts from Brooklyn College in his native New York. He currently chairs the Santa Clara Cultural Advisory Commission in Santa Clara, California.