Vote for Your Health

The heart pumps blood through blood vessels called arteries and the blood carries vital oxygen with nutrients needed by tissues and organs throughout the body.

When cholesterol levels are above normal limits and stay high, some remnants of cholesterol are deposited in the arteries and through the years, they are hardened by a fatty substance called cholesterol plaque that accumulates on the walls of the arteries and reduces or blocks blood flow.

The organs supplied by these arteries are damaged because they can not get oxygen and nutrients needed by limiting blood flow through the arteries, so for example when blood flow to the brain is blocked, it causes a stroke or if the plaque completely blocks a coronary artery, is when we are in presence of a heart attack.

The cholesterol in the body comes from two sources, most of it is produced by the liver from various nutrients and especially saturated fat.

The liver produces almost all the cholesterol your body needs and the fact that all animals can make their own cholesterol, some of that cholesterol is incorporated into the human body by eating animal products.

These foods include meat, egg yolks, organ meats, whole milk and milk products, which when ingested cholesterol is absorbed by the intestine and is added to what the liver.

We also know that a diet high in saturated fat seems to increase the production of cholesterol in the body. Therefore, reducing dietary cholesterol and fat helps keep cholesterol levels in the blood within a healthy range.