Nowadays everybody speaks of cholesterol, how bad it is, how you should exercise to keep your cholesterol levels down, how you shouldn't eat fatty foods because they get your cholesterol level up, but what's really the truth about cholesterol?
Cholesterol is a sterol combined with a lipid but leaving aside the chemical composition of cholesterol what does it do in our body apart from apparently making us sick? Answer: A lot. The body is entirely made up by cells. Cells have a membrane. The truth is cholesterol helps keep the integrity of the cell's membrane. At high temperatures, the cell's membrane tends to get more fluid, in this case cholesterol holds it together making sure it doesn't split. At low temperatures, the cell's membrane tends to solidify, this must not happen because water, air and nutrients have to be able to go through it so in this case cholesterol makes it more fluid making it possible for the cell to survive.
So we cannot speak of "benefits" of cholesterol since it's a part of every cell and without it our cells would die from lack of nutrients in cold situations or explode in hot temperatures.
Cholesterol is also the precursor for all steroid hormones such as cortisones, androgens (testosterone and estrogen included) and several Vitamins such as A, D, E and K. When pushed to its limits our body secretes cortisones (made up from adding and removing various components from cholesterol) designed to give the ultimate response. Many doctors when fighting off an infection give their patients cortisones; well these cortisones can be made naturally in the body using cholesterol so why do doctors tell their patients to "watch out for bad cholesterol".
Good vs. Bad cholesterol: The body secretes a number of types of lipoproteins to deal with the regulation of cholesterol but two main ones are HDL (high density lipoproteins) and LDL (low density lipoproteins). They are both secreted by the liver. LDL is in charge of taking cholesterol to where it is needed somewhere in the body but when levels are high the liver secretes HDL which gathers cholesterol from the organism and takes it to the liver to be turned into bile and excreted. What happens? When cholesterol levels in the blood get too high like after eating a big barbecue cholesterol traveling with LDL might break off from the LDL and deposit itself in the walls of arteries that could eventually lead to clogged arteries, aneurisms or arteriosclerosis, all pathologies of the arteries. HDL can remove the cholesterol present in the arteries. Hence, LDL is known as "bad" cholesterol and HDL is "good" cholesterol.
So what's the truth? Cholesterol is made by the body for the body to use. It is more than indispensable for the body's natural functions at a cellular level. However, the body is quite capable of making the cholesterol it needs, it does not need "our help" with it. Us ingesting huge amounts of cholesterol like with a fatty steak or eating some bacon gets our LDL levels up in our blood stream and could eventually bring some other complications as the body gets accustomed to the new levels of cholesterol.
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