Cholesterol is used by many of the cells in your bodies to make hormones, vitamins, and other things that aid in digesting food. So it doesn’t really GO anywhere. Your cells transform cholesterol into other useful things. It’s when we have an excess that your body starts storing it in its fat form, usually in your arteries.
Cholesterol means a few different things. At the most basic it is a chemical that is the basic structure for many hormones (testosterone, estrogen, etc) and also serves to strengthen cell membranes.
The “cholesterol” often referred to in the blood is a mixture of cholesterol, fat, and proteins that is responsible for transporting fat throughout your body for energy in little droplets, because fat is not water soluble.
High Density Lipoprotein (HDL) is considered “good cholesterol.” It is essentially an empty sphere/container with relatively little fat molecules inside. Low/Very Low Density Lipoproteins (LDL/VLDL) are full of fat molecules and considered “bad cholesterol.” If LDL and VLDL levels are too high in your blood, they can stick to the sides of your arteries and cause immune cells to try to remove them. This process causes a lot of inflammation which further closes off arteries and attracts more LDL/VLDL. The type of fat matters too: saturated fat is stickier than unsaturated fat. Think about a stick of butter versus olive oil running through your veins.
But LDL and VLDL are still necessary to deliver energy through out your body. When you exercise or otherwise burn energy, LDL and VLDL drop off fat molecules in your muscles and then become HDL. HDL is then re-filled most commonly in your liver from dietary intake of fat.
So lowering “bad cholesterol” is more about fat/caloric intake and exercise than cholesterol intake.
Source: PhD in pharmacology
There are two types of cholesterol in your body High Density Lipoproteins (HDL) Low Density Lipoproteins (LDL). Cholesterol is needed for some body processes so it is constantly being used, there can be issues if you are consuming more cholesterol than your body is needing. – https://youtu.be/_a2f4vuEOmg
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