These days we hear a lot of bad news about cholesterol and what are the bad thing it does to our body. These, in relation, increase the general awareness of the health food and diet that is of low fat, low cholesterol. The fact is simple, if our body don;t need it, it will not produce it in the first place.

All the bad presses on cholesterol are easily available, centering around the subject of being the culprit of clogging our arteries and triggering heart attack, stroke and other cholesterol related conditions. In our pursuit to bring cholesterol level down, will it ever be too low for our own good ?

Basically, you have two forms of cholesterol - the good kind, known as high density lipoprotein or HDL cholesterol, and the bad kind, known as low density lipoprotein or LDL cholesterol. The two combined make up your total cholesterol level. In general, your HDL cholesterol should be higher than your LDL cholesterol, your total cholesterol should be at least 160 mg/DL and your HDL cholesterol should be at least 100 mg/DL.

HDL is the good cholesterol that transport the LDL cholesterol back to liver to be eliminated. When there are excess LDL, it forms a sticky layer of plaque around the arteries and clogged it.

While total cholesterol level is a guide to how much cholesterol is in the body, it is more important to know what makes up this level. If comparatively HDL cholesterol forms the majority part of your high cholesterol level, you can be consider to have healthier cholesterol level then the person who has lower total cholesterol level but high in LDL cholesterol.

The fact is our body needs the cholesterol to maintain proper production of hormones and cell membrane. The fact is also that our liver produces and eliminate cholesterol. We need cholesterol from birth and one major source of cholesterol then is breast milk. Breast fed babies tend to have higher cholesterol level then formula fed babies. Don;t jump the gun here and think breast feeding is bad, as nature has it way to help the babies body adapt to metabolized the cholesterol faster, these adaptation will be somewhat permanent, that adult breast-fed babies are less likely to have heart attack and other cholesterol related problems.

While there are many studies out there saying that cholesterol that is too high can be dangerous, newer studies are suggesting that cholesterol that is too low can also be dangerous. Having lower than normal cholesterol levels has been linked to anxiety, depression, and even suicide. This is thought to be because many people who have lower than average cholesterol also have lower levels of serotonin, the neurotransmitter responsible for “feel good” emotions in the brain. There have also been some suggestions that having abnormally low levels of cholesterol may be linked to some forms of cancer. And the most recent study have shown an increase risk of accidental death comparing very low and normal cholesterol level respectively.

Moderation and balance is probably the best thing can be done to reduce most of the risks associated to cholesterol problems.