How Does This All Effect Me?
You need cholesterol to live, you need cholesterol to form cell membranes, many hormones and bile acids (which digest fat), without cholesterol, you couldn't live. But, as is so often the case, too much cholesterol can hurt you.
When there's too much cholesterol in your blood, it can build up on the inside walls of your arteries. Over time, the cholesterol build up, called plague, can narrow the space for blood to flow through. This can happen in the arteries everywhere in the body but is most dangerous in the arteries that feed the heart and other vital organs.
When plague build up narrows the coronary arteries, which supply oxygen-rich blood to the heart, chest pain, shortness of breath and other symptoms of coronary heart disease occur. If a coronary artery is blocked completely, a heart attack results. Decreased blood flow to your brain can cause a stroke...
