In my role as cholesterol “Category Expert” for www.answers.com, I recently answered a question sent in by an Answers reader that I was surprised to find I’d never expressly addressed here on my blog: “Why does high cholesterol lead to heart disease?”
Here’s the answer I posted: you can read it on this page of wiki.answers.com, or I’ve pasted it here as well:
Once you look at the definition of cholesterol, it’s easy to see why high cholesterol can cause heart disease.
The National Institute of Health defines cholesterol as, “a waxy, fat-like substance that’s found in all cells of the body.” Cholesterol in and of itself is not bad – in fact,
Did you know that any old person (and by ‘any old’ I mean a regular, non-doctor person, not any OLD person!) can purchase the American Heart Association’s “guidelines pocket cards” meant to keep doctors up to date on latest treatment protocols/recommendations?
On the American Heart Association website, these pocket cards are described as:
“These quick reference tools provide instant access to current AHA/ASA and ACCF/AHA guidelines in a clear, concise format – available in print and in the Guideline Central Mobile app for iPhone, iPad and Android.”
For months, I have been wondering whether there have been any updates or changes to the November 2013 Cholesterol Guidelines –
As you may know, as “cholesterol expert” I’ve written many articles for Answers.com, which you can find in two places. First, on the cholesterol page of the Answers.com site. Also I have all the articles listed by title on the “Answers.com Published Articles” page on this Going Lo-Co site.
And now, new news…
This week, Answers.com added a new page to their site: a Q&A with me. Of course, if you have cholesterol questions, you can always email me/comment right here on the Going Lo-Co site. But now you can also ask me a question (but not,
The cholesterol-watching world is filled to the brim with acronyms and easily confused verbiage. Who can remember what LDL and HDL stand for – much less which is the good and which is the bad cholesterol? And then there’s Apo-B and LDL particle size to boot. But today I learned one that was total news to me: FH.
Turns out, FH stands for Familial Hypercholesterolemia which, in a nutshell, is very high LDL (bad) cholesterol that is caused by genetics. A more complete definition is given on The FH Foundation website:
