Cholesterol levels are measured in terms of good and bad: low-density lipoprotein and high-density lipoprotein, or HDL and LDL. Doctors and dietitians commonly refer to HDL as the good cholesterol and LDL as the bad cholesterol. Maintaining a healthy proportion of these numbers can help prevent you from developing heart disease and other cardiac conditions.
Understanding Heart Disease
As your arteries become clogged with cholesterol, your blood vessels narrow. This makes it difficult for your heart to pump blood throughout your entire body, especially your extremities. If your blood vessels are blocked by the hardened waxy substance, it can result in a heart attack due to the heart not receiving blood and oxygen.
HDL
Having a healthy HDL level can protect against heart attack,. If your HDL level is too low, it can increase the risk of heart attack. HDL helps carry cholesterol away from your arteries and returns it to the liver, where it's then passed as solid waste through your intestines. Cholesterol readings are recorded and charted as milligrams per deciliter, or mg/dL. A healthy HDL level should be a minimum of 60 mg/dL. If your numbers fall below this level, this puts you at a greater risk of developing heart disease.
LDL
LDL is a hard, waxy substance in the blood that can coat the lining of your arteries. It looks similar to hardened animal fat that's left in the pan after you fry bacon or hamburgers. As this waxy substance hardens along your arteries, you develop atherosclerosis. Atherosclerosis is the medical term that describes narrow, hardened arteries. When a blood clot forms, a heart attack can occur.
The American Heart Association notes that LDL levels may be the best gauge of determining heart disease risk factors than total cholesterol levels. The lower your LDL, the better off you are. The optimal LDL level is below 100 mg/dL.
Heart Disease Risk Factors
Heart disease is the leading cause of disability and death in the United States. There are various forms of heart disease, but the most prominent type is coronary heart disease, often manifesting itself as a heart attack. Having high cholesterol levels puts you at risk of a heart attack. Other risk factors include obesity, diabetes, tobacco use, secondhand smoke and hypertension.
