With cholesterol, just like in any movie or TV show, there's good guys and bad guys. LDL, or low-density lipoprotein, cholesterol contributes to plaque that can clog your arteries. If a clot occurs, you could suffer from a heart attack or stroke.

Most annual checkups at a physician’s office include blood work, complete with cholesterol measurements. While labs do measure total cholesterol, they also break the total cholesterol count into several subcategories, two of which are called HDL cholesterol and LDL cholesterol.

You may already know about "good cholesterol," or HDL-C, versus "bad cholesterol," or LDL-C. And, in general, this is a good way to think about cholesterol types: high LDL-C and low HDL-C tend to go together, and this profile puts you at increased risk of having a heart attack.

Cholesterol is a class of lipid/fat. Too much cholesterol in the blood, particularly low-density lipoprotein or "‘bad" cholesterol, contributes to plaque formation that clogs arteries, a risk factor for heart disease. On the other hand, elevated levels of high-density lipoprotein or "

Numerous conditions or factors can cause low levels of high-density lipoprotein, or HDL, cholesterol. According to MayoClinic.com, HDL cholesterol, or good cholesterol, acts as a cholesterol scavenger, transporting excess cholesterol in the blood back to the liver where it is metabolized, or broken down.

Cholesterol is made by the liver in adequate amounts to supply all your body needs to protect nerves, produce specific hormones and make cell tissues. A source of additional cholesterol is the food you eat. LDL, or low-density lipoprotein, and HDL, or high-density lipoprotein, are the two types of cholesterol.