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Cholesterol?!?!

Contributed by: Rebecca Anderson, Pharm.D. Candidate

KU School of Pharmacy

Cholesterol	2
What’s on the Website	3
Exubera®	3
Apidra®	4
Hypertension	5
Elderly and Dietary Supplements	6
Osteoporosis	7
Multivitamin	8
Pharmacies	8

Text Box: Do you have questions about cholesterol? Here are answers to five of the top questions. 1.What exactly is cholesterol and why do I need it? Your body actually makes cholesterol and uses it for many things. The most important use of cholesterol is to help strengthen the outer coating of your cells. Your body also uses cholesterol to make many hormones (estrogen, testosterone, progesterone, to name a few), Vitamin D (used mainly to keep good levels of calcium) and bile acids (used to digest fat). LDL (low-density lipoprotein) is considered the bad cholesterol and HDL (high-density lipoprotein) is the good cholesterol. HDL helps clean fat and cholesterol from your arteries and takes it back to the liver to be removed from your body. LDL is the cholesterol that gets deposited in the arteries and leads to blockages. The amount of cholesterol our bodies need is very small. When we have extra cholesterol in our blood it can be deposited in certain blood vessels called arteries. This can lead to our arteries becoming narrow and blocked, thus not allowing oxygen-carrying blood to get through. If the arteries that carry blood and oxygen to the heart muscle become blocked, this can lead to heart attacks and even death.

Text Box: 2. My husband and I eat the same thing every day. Why is my cholesterol too high while his remains normal? There are many things that can influence your cholesterol levels. Diet: Eating foods high in cholesterol. Heredity: Your genes determine not only how fast your body makes LDL (“bad”) cholesterol, but also how fast it removes it from your blood stream. Weight: Excess weight will increase LDL (“bad”) cholesterol. Exercise: Regular exercise can raise your HDL (“good”) cholesterol and lower your LDL (“bad”) cholesterol. Certain medical problems: Diabetes, low thyroid, kidney problems, and liver disease. Smoking: Smoking has been shown to raise LDL (“bad”) cholesterol levels. Age: As you age, your cholesterol levels will rise. Stress: Long-term stress has been shown to raise blood cholesterol levels.

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