The Stages of Heart Disease

How cholesterol wreaks havoc in your body.

Stage I

You don't really need to remember all of the nitty-gritty details on the various types of cholesterol, just the bottom line:

If your cholesterol levels are out of whack, your heart disease risk is increased. Exactly how cholesterol wreaks havoc is fairly complicated.

All cells have receptors, or "doors," that suck LDL into them. If you have too much cholesterol in your blood, the cells make fewer receptors so they can avoid, quite literally, drowning in cholesterol. This, in turn, leads to more cholesterol floating in your bloodstream. While some of it gets returned to your liver for disposal via the garbage-bearing HDL, some of it stays in the bloodstream. If it hangs around long enough, it may become oxidized. And some of it burrows into your artery walls, where it's even more likely to become oxidized.

To understand oxidation, think about what happens to a metal chair when it's left out in the backyard: It rusts. That's what happens to cells in the body when they're attacked by free radicals -- unstable molecules that damage cells. Free radicals are a by-product of just about any bodily process that involves oxygen.

Why doesn't cholesterol in the bloodstream always become oxidized? Because of wonderful compounds called antioxidants, which do just what their name implies.

Your body has a system to deal with this oxidized cholesterol, dispatching specialized white blood cells called monocytes to gobble it up. If there's too much oxidized cholesterol, however, the monocytes get stuffed. They take on a foamy appearance, hence their new name, "foam cells." These foam cells collect in the blood vessel wall, where they turn dangerous and begin producing free radicals, which further oxidize the cholesterol. Eventually a fatty streak forms -- the dreaded plaque. This is stage I of atherosclerosis, or hardening of the arteries.

Nearly everyone, regardless of their diet or lifestyle, will have at least a low level of damage in their blood vessels by the time they die. And thanks to growing rates of obesity and physical inactivity, even children under 10 are now susceptible.

• Healthy Heart
• Cholesterol
• • Heart Disease

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“ Need to shovel? Pick the right tool. A smaller blade shovel will require you to lift less snow, putting less strain on your body. ”

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