When people hear the word cholesterol they often misunderstand what it actually is. Cholesterol is a substance that makes up most of the components of our cells in the body. It is a waxy and fatty substance found in many food items and plays an important function in our body such as making hormones, vitamin D and also helping in the process of digestion.

Furthermore, cholesterol is divided into three types. Knowing these types is very important as they indicate the condition of your health from inside the body and help you control your intake of foods that are high or low in cholesterol.

1. Good cholesterol or High-Density Lipoprotein: HDL serves a healthy purpose in the body and removes excess cholesterol. 
2. Bad cholesterol or Low-Density Lipoprotein: LDL is typically the cholesterol you don’t want to make a home in your blood circulation as it can build up inside the walls of arteries and veins and lead to heart diseases. 
3. Very Low-Density Cholesterol: VLDC is the main cause of plaque growth in the circulatory system of your body. 

The cholesterol level of your body will hugely depend on your age. Other contributing factors after your age that put you in a risk zone of high levels of bad cholesterol are your genes, diet, level of physical activeness, smoking and drinking, oral medication and obesity. 

When your body has high levels of cholesterol in it, this will cause an automatic increase in the levels of triglycerides. Triglycerides are a type of fatty substance that settles inside arteries and veins and makes it difficult for the blood to circulate easily around the body because there are excess calories and fat in the body.  

This can be a dangerous indication that can make you prone to type 2 diabetes and put you in the risk of several heart diseases. 

Cholesterol and aging go hand in hand. Because as soon as you start aging the cholesterol level in your body will increase too. If you are not careful with your diet or you are not as physically active as you should be, you might be heading for trouble. Men tend to have a higher cholesterol level as compared to women.

The normal level of cholesterol in adults is less than 200 milligrams but it is still considered borderline high between 200 to 239 milligrams. If it’s more than 240 milligrams means your cholesterol level is undesirably high and you need to find ways to tune it down.