Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States, claiming the lives of more than 700,000 Americans each year. The heart is a muscle that pumps blood throughout the body. Like any muscle, the heart requires a steady, plentiful blood supply to thrive. Heart attacks happen when the arteries that deliver blood to the heart become blocked. Starved of the oxygen and nutrients carried in the blood, heart cells die. If you don't receive swift medical attention, so will you. Cholesterol is a soft, waxy, fat-like substance found naturally in animal products, such as meat and dairy foods. The human body requires a certain amount of cholesterol to form hormones and vitamin D, among other things. Indeed, it's so important that the body can make all the cholesterol it needs. An overabundance of cholesterol in the body, however, can result in high levels in the blood, where it can add to the plaque on artery walls.
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Scientists are still trying to figure out what causes plaque to form, but there is no question that having high blood cholesterol is a major cause of heart attacks. In this article, we'll talk about what those cholesterol numbers mean and steps you can take to help get your cholesterol under control. The risk to your heart is affected not only by the total amount of cholesterol in your blood, but also by how it is packaged. It's well known that water and oil don't mix. The same is true for blood, a watery substance, and cholesterol, an oily one. For cholesterol to move through the blood, it must be packaged with protein into a molecule called a lipoprotein. There are two primary types of lipoproteins, high-density and low-density. High-density lipoproteins (or HDLs) are considered the "good" form of cholesterol because they help shuttle excess cholesterol out of the body.

Low-density lipoproteins (or LDLs), in contrast, tend to deposit their cholesterol into plaque, where it hinders blood flow. So the more of your total blood cholesterol that's packaged as HDLs, the better for your arteries and heart