Cholesterol and Your Health

By Debra Gordon

How new understanding can help you see past the myths and take the steps to stay healthy.

You’ve seen the ads. “Looks can be deceiving,” the tag line reads. Then it shows an overweight middle-aged guy standing next to a slim young woman. Guess who has the higher cholesterol levels? If you guess the man, you’re wrong. And that’s the purpose of the ad: to destroy the myth that you have to be old and overweight to have high cholesterol levels.






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There are numerous myths about cholesterol, the soft, faintly yellow, naturally occurring waxy substance found everywhere in your body. One of the worst is the myth that the word “cholesterol” is synonymous with “bad.” Dubbing all cholesterol “bad,” however, is like calling all teenagers juvenile delinquents.


Cholesterol is actually quite a handy substance, used to produce sex hormones, vitamin D and bile acids that help you digest fat. As with everything, however, too much of even a good thing is not quite so good. (See “Cholesterol By the Numbers.”)


Cholesterol Deconstructed


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