Cholesterol

cholesterol can be carried in your blood in 2 ways:

• low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol which is 'bad' and can cause heart disease.
• high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol which is 'good' and can protect you against heart disease by helping you to remove cholesterol from the walls of bloody vessels.

A healthy artery has a stretchy wall and a space in the middle for blood to pass through . sometimes, a substance called plaque builds up in the wall. this is most likely to happen if you have alot of cholesterol in your blood. the plaque slows down the blood and a clot may form. A part of the plaque may break away

• A high levle of cholesterol in the blood increases the risk of developing plaques in the walls of ther arteries.
• sometimes, a clot blocks one of the arteries that take oxygenated blood to the heart muscel. this causes a heart attack - the muscel cannot work so the heart cannot beat properly.
• eating saturated fats (those found in animal products) raises blood cholesterol levles. unsatuated fats, found in plants, seem to lower blood cholesterol levles.
• some peoples bodies are better than others at keeping low levles of cholesterol in their blood. they have inherited this from their parents!