What is cholesterol?
Cholesterol is a waxy, fat-like substance that’s found in every cell in your body that helps your body perform many important functions. Cholesterol travels through the blood on things called lipoproteins.
There is a test your doctor can use to check how much cholesterol is in your body. It is called a Lipid Profile or Lipid Panel. Before you do the test, you can’t eat or drink for at least 12 hours.
The lipid test
The lipid test will tell you how much of the different types of cholesterol you have in your body:
- Total cholesterol is the amount of all the cholesterol that’s circulating in your blood.
- LDL (low-density lipoprotein) cholesterol is sometimes called “bad” cholesterol because too much of it can damage your artery walls and sometimes make plaques in your blood vessels.
- HDL (High-density lipoprotein) cholesterol is also known as “good” cholesterol because it takes cholesterol from other parts of your body back to your liver. Your liver then removes the cholesterol from your body.
- VLDL (very-low-density lipoprotein) is another “bad” kind of cholesterol that can make plaques.
Why take a lipid test?
You can’t tell how much cholesterol you have by how you feel, and you can live many years with high cholesterol without knowing it. This is why it’s important to get your cholesterol checked regularly by your doctor.
Although cholesterol is important for the body, too much of it will harm you. Too much cholesterol can make you have problems like blocked blood flow to your heart, legs, or brain. It can also cause heart attacks and strokes.
Ask your doctor how often you need your cholesterol checked and take the cholesterol screening to stay aware of your cholesterol level.
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/ health/articles/11920-cholesterol-numbers-what-do-they-mean
https://www.jantaxray.in/ blog/what-is-cholesterol-types-symptoms-cause-treatments-prevention.html
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