[YellowJacket]

Cholesterol is a fat-like lipid created naturally in out body by the liver and can be consumed in our diet from only animal foods, plants do not yield cholesterol that is present in all parts of the body including the nervous system, skin, muscle, liver, intestines, and heart.
Facts-

-Cholesterol forms part of every cell in the body.
-Cholesterol is needed to create hormones within the body, maintain healthy cell walls, make vitamin D, and make bile acid which aids in digestion.
-High amounts of cholesterol can clog blood vessels and cause heart disease and increase the risk of hear attack or a stroke.

Your body tends to make too much cholesterol when the body consumes too much saturated fat. Cholesterol comes from animal foods such as eggs, meat and dairy products.

There are 3 types of common cholesterol:

High Density Lipoprotein (HDL) This has a very thick outer wrap, this is a "good" cholesterol.
Low Density Lipoprotein (LDL) This is the "bad" cholesterol, a thin outer wrap making it easy to unwrap and allow the cholesterol to deposit on the artery walls.
Very Low Density Lipoprotein (VLDL) These are horrible in the diet and will eventually lead to rapid difficulties.

-Cholesterol is the key ingredient in bile, sexual characteristics, and cell membranes.
- HDL will pick up cholesterol on artery walls and take it where it is needed.
-200 or 190 milligrams per deciliter (mg/dl) are considered "desirable" in the human diet.

**This is a vague, yet simple description of cholesterol but it goes much deeper than this, but this is from my own words on the basics of cholesterol and the importance, and to prove that it isnt the devil all the time like we were taught growing up. I was always taught, and see why not that it is good to do higher intensity exercises at the beginning of the week to obtain optimal testosterone levels from cholesterol (yes it does that too).
At the end of the week, cholesterol levels are depleted and bit so it would be wise to do things like squats, bench press, deadlifts, things of that nature at the beginning of the week to get the best from your cholesterol. Physical activity increases the amount of HDL (good cholesterol) in the body while at the same time decreasing the amount of LDL and VLDL in the body. This is another reason why physical activity is needed on the food guide pyramid.

SiSide Note: How alcohol damages the body and exercise- The liver is in charge of wrapping the cholesterol to send it on its way....the thicker the wrap, the better. A thick wrap insures that the cholesterol (lipoprotein) is wrapped tightly (dense) and will not come lose only to deposit the cholesterol on the artery walls. If alcohol is ingested, it hampers the liver from putting dense wraps on the lipoproteins, thus allowing it to escape on the artery walls, eventually collecting and causing severe problems such as cardiac arrest, heart disease, etc.

**Why AAS lead to high cholesterol levels- If you are injecting artificial hormones into your body, your body does not need use as much of its own hormone. Cholesterol is responsible for creating this natural hormone. The body begins to shut down (not completely) its own use of cholesterol since it isnt need from the injection of ASS. This causes a rise in cholesterol in the body... this is why it is very good to monitor choesterol levels while on a cycle and when not on an AAS cycle, it is good to get your cholesterol checked around every 5 months, this goes for everyone, not just older people in which we commonly see health problems stemming from high cholesterol.

Thanks for taking the time to read this, took me awhile to prepare, but like I said there's much more out there...and if you have anything to add at all, please feel free to do so, I would appreciate it, YJ

[curt2go]

You know too much.. Good post. Talk to ya...

[U of R Man]

Originally posted by curt2go
You know too much.. Good post. Talk to ya...

Agreed Just messing with ya...Great post bro.

[true_c]

yea man nice post

[sage]

even before i read the responses, i was about to say YJ keeps piling on the infos on this board.

[crazypete]

There are 3 types of common cholesterol:

High Density Lipoprotein (HDL) This has a very thick outer wrap, this is a "good" cholesterol.
Low Density Lipoprotein (LDL) This is the "bad" cholesterol, a thin outer wrap making it easy to unwrap and allow the cholesterol to deposit on the artery walls.
Very Low Density Lipoprotein (VLDL) These are horrible in the diet and will eventually lead to rapid difficulties.

YJ [/b][/quote]

great write up, just a couple of quick additions if you please:

HDL, LDL, and VLDL are not from the diet, they are actually large transport vessicles composed of apoproteins and phospholipids and surround a core fillled with cholesterol esters (transport form) and free fatty acids. Cholesterol absorbed in the diet is packed in the liver into VLDL. As VLDL goes through the blood to peripheral tissues, some of the cholesterol and fatty acids are released and it becomes LDL which then returns to the liver (you can see why high LDL is bad, high LDL=lots of cholesterol and fatty acids delivered to the body at once-could lead to arterial plaque). Basically VLDL and LDL take cholesterol to the body. HDL has the opposite role. It picks up cholesterol from the body and returns it to the liver. As YelloJacket said cholesterol doesn't deserve a bad rap so long as you are normal, although there are some people with defects in one or another of the many processing steps who will have high cholesterol regardless of dietary intake. That said for you normal folks out there, don't shy away from dietary cholesterol as the body can handle quite a bit as it is quite adaptable - it just excretes it. To keep cholesterol levels optimal, don't eat to much saturated fat (a little is needed) try to stay away from all trans fat, eat lots of "healthy fats", lift heavy, get rest and you'll do fine.