How does cholesterol cause heart disease?

Here’s a question I was recently asked:

How does high cholesterol affect your cardiovascular system?

Let me see if I can explain and keep the process easy to understand!

First the endothelium (thin inner lining of your blood vessels) becomes damaged and inflamed. This damage can be caused by a variety of factors, such as high blood pressure, high stress level, poor diet, toxic chemicals and metals, tobacco smoke, etc.

So, your inflamed endothelium becomes susceptible to attracting fatty particles like cholesterol. The cholesterol particles work their way into the lining. These deposits of cholesterol can then be damaged by free radicals to form oxidized LDL cholesterol.

The immune system responds to the inflamed site by secreting a substance to make the endothelium sticky. The process leads to the formation of macrophages whose goal is to “seek and destroy” foreign objects. However, the oxidized LDL is toxic to macrophages, causing macrophages to be immobilized and unable to return to the blood stream.

The process continues to draw white cells to the area where they too are immobilized by oxidized LDL leading to the formation of a “fatty streak” on the artery wall.

A number of steps now take place involving C-reactive protein, fibrinogen, white blood cells, elastin, and collagen that eventually form a tough, fibrous cap over the fatty steak. Under the fibrous cap, dead cells accumulate, decay, and produce pus. You now have the development of a dangerous plaque within your artery walls. Plaque can continue to grow and instigate the development of additional plaque within the arteries leading to the narrowing of your blood vessels, reduced blood flow, heart attacks, etc.

FYI – Cholesterol does not necessarily need to be elevated for the above steps to take place. It’s becoming more clear that knowing your LDL and HDL particle size gives you a better overview of your heart health than typical cholesterol levels. Particle size can be determined with lab work, such as a Lipoprotein Particle Profile.

All the best,
Lisa Nelson RD
Heart Healthy Tips