Blood lipids

Lipids are fat-like substances found in human blood and body tissues. Human body needs small amounts of lipids to work normally.

Cholesterol, triglycerides, and high-density lipoproteins are important constituents of the blood lipids fraction of the human body.

Cholesterol is an unsaturated alcohol of the steroid family of compounds; it is essential for the normal function of all animal cells and is a fundamental element of their cell membranes. Cholesterol is a fatty substance produced by the liver and carried by the blood to supply material for cell walls and hormones. It is also a precursor of various critical substances such as adrenal and gonadal steroid hormones and bile acids.

Cholesterol is a type of fat, and fats can’t travel in the blood on their own. They need to be attached to proteins. Lipoproteins are little parcels made of fats and proteins that carry fats around the body. Lipid is another name for fat, so ‘lipoprotein’ means fat plus protein.

In the human bloodstream, triglycerides play an important role in metabolism as an energy source and in helping to transfer dietary fat throughout the body. They contain more than twice as much energy as carbohydrates, the other major source of energy in the diet.

When eating, human body converts any calories it does not need to use right away into triglycerides, which are stored in body fat cells. When body need energy between meals, hormones trigger the release of some of these stored triglycerides back into the bloodstream.
Blood lipids

What are triglycerides?

Triglycerides are a type of fat (lipid) found in human blood. Eating more fat than the body burns can lead to high triglyceride levels (hypertriglyceridemia). Any calories your body doesn’t convert to energy right away get turned into triglycerides.

Normally, the triglycerides are stored in body fat cells. Later, hormones release triglycerides for energy between meals.

High triglyceride levels can increase the risk of stroke or heart attack by thickening artery walls and hardening arteries. Extremely high triglycerides can also cause acute inflammation of the pancreas (pancreatitis). This severe and painful inflammation of the pancreas can be life-threatening.

They can be part of metabolic syndrome, which also includes too much fat around the waist, high blood pressure, high blood sugar, and abnormal cholesterol levels.

Among the factors that can raise your triglyceride level include: regularly eating more calories than body burn off, overweight or having obesity, cigarette smoking, excessive alcohol use, certain medicines, some genetic disorders, thyroid diseases, poorly controlled type 2 diabetes, liver or kidney diseases.

A normal healthy range should be less than 150 mg/dl. High triglycerides levels are designated as the 200 to 499 mg/dl range, while very high is 500 mg/dl or above.

The best ways to lower triglycerides include losing weight, eating fewer calories, and exercising regularly (30 minutes daily). Regular exercise can lower triglycerides and boost "good" cholesterol.

Diet changes that may help include avoiding fats and sugar and refined foods (simple carbohydrates such as sugar and foods made with white flour).
What are triglycerides?

Triglycerides: Ester derived from glycerol and three fatty acids

Most of the dietary fat is in the form of triglyceride. Triglycerides are nonpolar lipid molecules formed by the three fatty acids esterified to a glycerol backbone and they represent the main form of lipid storage and energy in the human organism.

They are synthesized primarily through the glycerol phosphate pathway, and the traffic of triglycerides in specific tissues, such as muscle, liver, and adipose tissue, depends on the nutritional state of the individual, and is a biological process that is essential for life.

The amount of triglycerides (or blood fats) in blood are one important barometer of metabolic health; high levels are associated with coronary heart disease, diabetes and fatty liver disease.

Triglycerides do not build up in the arteries like bad cholesterol (LDL). Instead, high levels can make LDL cholesterol change into a more harmful form that damages the arteries.

High triglycerides also keep the patient from forming good cholesterol (HDL). If triglycerides are very high, a dangerous condition called “pancreatitis” (inflammation in the pancreas), can develop.

Even if people have not been diagnosed with triglycerides outside the normal range, if they eat too many simple sugars (refined grains, added sugars and alcohol) their triglycerides will increase.

Other causes might increase triglycerides level:
• Being overweight,
• Eating too much unhealthy (saturated) fat,
• Having diabetes or kidney disease,
• Genetics.
• Some medicines.

Lose weight – there is evidence that a 5-10 percent weight loss results in a 20 percent decrease in triglycerides – the magnitude of decrease in triglycerides are directly related to the amount of weight lost.

Quality of foods consumed – A healthy eating pattern limits intake of sodium (salt), solid fats (such as full fat dairy products, meat and some tropical oils, such as coconut oil), added sugars, and refined grains and emphasizes more nutritious foods and beverages—vegetables, fruits, fiber-rich whole grains, fat-free or low-fat milk and milk products, seafood, lean meats and poultry, beans, nuts and seeds.
Triglycerides: Ester derived from glycerol and three fatty acids

Low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol

Cholesterol and triglycerides are fats and are insoluble in the blood. However, when they combine with protein they became lipoproteins and are able to dissolve in and be carried by blood throughout body.

Low density lipoprotein (LDL) is cholesterol packaged in a protein and phospholipid coat. Cholesterol is insoluble, so it must be encased in this coat to facilitate transport in the blood.

 

LDL is the major cholesterol carrier to the periphery and supplies the cholesterol essential for the integrity of nerve tissue, steroid hormone synthesis, and cell membranes. It circulates throughout the body and is available to all cells.

As LDL circulates in the blood it may adhered to arterial walls which feed the heart and brain. When there is too much LDL cholesterol circulating in the blood, it can slowly build up in the walls of the arteries that feed the heart and brain. It forms plaque and may result in a blockage in the artery which may lead to arthrosclerosis.

The association between elevated plasma cholesterol carried in LDL and the risk of coronary heart disease has been well established. LDL is also sometimes called the ‘bad’ cholesterol.
Low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol