What is triglyceride

The professional term triglyceride may be unfamiliar to most people, but most high school students know that triglyceride is fat, which is fat in the form of energy storage. Appropriate triglycerides play a role in protecting the internal organs of the human body, but if there are too many triglycerides in the human body, it will seriously threaten human health.

What are triglycerides? Triglycerides can provide corresponding energy when the human body is active. It is of great help to the human body that the human body contains standard triglycerides. With the improvement of life and the lack of exercise of people, the triglycerides in the human body will become more and more.

Triglycerides are a source of stored calories. As its name suggests, triglycerides are the fat component of the human body. If we take pork or beef as an example, triglycerides are the white fat parts. Subcutaneous fat is formed by the accumulation of triglycerides. Triglycerides are composed of three molecules of fatty acids combined with one molecule of glycerol. Under normal circumstances, they become a storage depot for fatty acids and will be broken down according to the body's needs.

The broken down fatty acids will be used as a source of heat for our life activities. Fatty acids separated from triglycerides are free fatty acids, which are an efficient source of heat that can be quickly used in life activities.

In addition, subcutaneous fat also has the function of maintaining body temperature, protecting the body from cold attacks, and acting as a buffer material to protect the body from external attacks.

In other words, triglycerides have played an important role in human evolution in adapting to the harsh nature and surviving. However, in modern life with a comfortable environment and abundant food materials, triglycerides are facing the risk of increasing excessive accumulation.

At present, in China, adults with fasting serum total cholesterol exceeding 5.72 mmol/L and triglycerides exceeding 1.70 mmol/L are generally diagnosed as hyperlipidemia. Total cholesterol levels between 5.2 and 5.7 mmol/L are considered marginally elevated.

Based on the results of serum total cholesterol, triglycerides and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, hyperlipidemia is usually divided into the following four types:

(1) Hypercholesterolemia: The total serum cholesterol level is elevated, exceeding 5.72 mmol/L, while the triglyceride level is normal, i.e., triglyceride <1.70 mmol/L.

(2) Hypertriglyceridemia: The serum triglyceride level is elevated, exceeding 1.70 mmol/L, while the total cholesterol level is normal, i.e., total cholesterol <5.72 mmol/L.

(3) Combined hyperlipidemia: The serum total cholesterol and triglyceride levels are both elevated, that is, the total cholesterol exceeds 5.72 mmol/L and the triglyceride exceeds 1.70 mmol/L.

(4) Hypohigh-density lipoproteinemia: The serum high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL-cholesterol) level is reduced, <0.9 mmol/L.

The above is an introduction to what triglycerides are. I hope that after reading it, you will have a better understanding of triglycerides, because triglycerides exist in your body and you must not ignore them. Its existence affects your physical health. Don't let triglycerides accumulate too much in your body.