With familial hypercholesterolemia, familial means the disease runs in families, so it has a genetic predisposition, hyper means excess and lastly cholesterolemia refers to the level of cholesterol in the blood.
So, familial hypercholesterolemia is a genetic disorder associated with high levels of cholesterol in the blood.
Now, cholesterol is a lipid molecule, so a type of fat, that normally helps maintain the structure of cell membranes, and is a precursor to steroid hormones, bile acids, and vitamin D.
There are two main types of cholesterol: LDL or Low Density Lipoprotein which is sometimes called “bad cholesterol,” nad HDL or High Density Lipoprotein which is sometimes called “good cholesterol.”
But good and bad is overly simplistic, and like all things - the subtleties matter.
LDL is produced by the liver and it carries cholesterol out to the rest of the body.
If all of the cholesterol from LDL is not completely distributed to the peripheral cells, then HDL brings some of that cholesterol back from the peripheral tissues and sends it to the liver.
Now, what makes LDL bad and HDL good is that, whenever there’s a high blood concentration of LDL, the LDL can be ingested by macrophages that sit along vessel walls, forming atherosclerotic plaques.
Over decades, large atherosclerotic plaques can lead to myocardial infarctions, strokes, and peripheral vascular disease.
That’s why we want to keep LDL blood levels under control.
On the other hand, HDL can remove cholesterol from cells and that can help reverse the process of atherosclerosis.
