That's a mouthful. But without cholesterol body cannot make sex hormones, adrenal hormones, and vitamin D. Excess cholesterol is converted in liver to bile acids, which are normally eliminated in feces.

Some experts feel high levels of cholesterol have very little to do with dietary intake of it. There is a correlation between blood cholesterol levels and incidence of coronary artery disease. One must, however, distinguish between total blood cholesterol level and cholesterol portion in blood carried by HDL (high-density lipoprotein). Before you begin a strict program to reduce cholesterol blood levels, check total cholesterol to HDL-cholesterol ratio first. This risk ratio can be determined by a simple blood test by any medical doctor

There does exist hope, however, when one has reason for concern over their blood work. But remember--the body is a fantastic mechanism and always moves itself toward health. To help it along, it needs proper information.

This "information" that I speak of has to do with more than adequate nutrition. In addition to eating more raw fruits and vegetables, and drinking pure water, try to locate a sound nutritional supplier. Years ago, Dr. Linus Pauling's work demonstrated value of Vitamin C in helping body dislodge and eliminate harmful arterial plaque. If you were to go to your favorite health store or drug store for Vitamin C, you probably would not receive same benefits as Dr. Pauling did. Why is that? (Pauling, Linus & Cameron, Ewan. "Cancer and Vitamin C." Camino Books. Philadelphia, PA, 1993.)

The last time you were ill and went to your family doctor, did you get a patient hearing? Maybe you did, maybe you didn't. But chances are you were left totally in dark regarding nature of pills and mixtures stuffed down your throat. And what of your illness? Were you in any way enlightened as to its cause, prognosis or even diagnosis. Not likely. Most doctors, while their intentions may be good, are so overworked that they have hardly a minute to spare to deal with you on human level.

Consequently if you enter Internet, millions of people are turning to tens of thousands of health related web sites on Net for information, advise, support and more. It's a great feeling to be able to keep yourself informed on myriad medical problems you may face in life - in some cases, patients are quite happy to help themselves rather than run to doctor at first sniffle. With better-informed patients, doctors can make better diagnosis of illness and doctor-patient relationship could then be on more equal terms.

What role does Internet play in health today? First, it's a medium by which health education can be easily disseminated. Whether you want to learn how your heart works, how to prevent heart attacks, how to recognize onset of a heart attack, what first aid to administer to a heart attack victim, or how to cope with life after a heart attack, you'll find it all on Internet. Through multimedia wonders of web, heart and its beat can be experienced in all its glory.

An area in which web is gaining credence is online medical advice. And in many cases, advice is of extremely high quality, as it is being provided by established experts rather than amateur agony aunts that pop up from time to time in newspaper classifieds. On World Wide Web what you do is read already answered questions in a medical forum or submit a question or two of your own by e-mail and then wait for designated expert at web site to respond.

The Internet has long ago proved that it is an excellent medium for counseling - anonymous face it provides to a troubled soul, through its chat forums and Usenet newsgroups, fabricates a therapeutic cocoon that even a qualified psychiatrist would be hard-pressed to duplicate.