Archive for the ‘Cholesterol’ Category

About Cholesterol and Heart Disease

Heart DiseaseHeart disease is the number one health problem in the United States. 80% of people who had had a heart attack high cholesterol, a risk factor for developing heart disease. If you have high cholesterol, may be under increased risk of heart disease *. If you have high cholesterol and other risk factors, may have more than 6 times the risk of heart disease than an average man to . Remember, the more risk factors you have, the greater your risk of heart attack or stroke.

Unfortunately, you may not know you have high cholesterol. People with high cholesterol often have no symptoms. So if you do not know their cholesterol levels, now is the time that your doctor check your cholesterol.
Your total cholesterol is important, but the guidelines suggest that you focus on your level of LDL (“bad” cholesterol) to control high cholesterol.

Having high LDL “bad” means that you have much LDL cholesterol in the blood. LDL is low-density lipoprotein or “bad” cholesterol. LDL cholesterol can build up in your arteries and prevent blood from reaching his heart. HDL cholesterol is “good.” Get the LDL cholesterol from the walls of your arteries.

When you have high cholesterol, a thick plaque accumulates on the walls of the arteries. When plaque builds up, the arteries narrow and become less flexible, which reduces blood flow. If a blood clot to form and reach the artery becomes blocked, you could suffer a heart attack or stroke.

7 Causes of High Cholesterol

High cholesterol comes from a variety of sources, including family history and what you eat.

Your Diet
Eating too much saturated fat can cause high cholesterol. You will find this type of unhealthy fat in foods that come from animals. Beef, pork, beef, milk, eggs, butter and cheese contains saturated fat. Packaged foods that contain coconut oil, palm oil or cocoa butter can have too much saturated fat.

Your Weight
Being overweight increases triglycerides and lowers HDL or good cholesterol.

Your Activity Level
Keep moving. Lack of physical activity can increase LDL or bad cholesterol and lowers HDL or good cholesterol.

Your Age and Gender
After you reach age 20′s, their cholesterol levels naturally begin to rise. In men, cholesterol levels generally low after the age of the 50′s. In women, cholesterol levels remained fairly low until menopause, after more or less up to shoulder level.

Your Health
Always ask yourself a physical exam annually, and make sure your doctor will explain the risks of heart disease. Having certain diseases such as diabetes or hypothyroidism, can cause high cholesterol.

Your Family History
If family members have high cholesterol, you too can have it.

Cigarette Smoking
Smoking can lower your good cholesterol and can kill you too, so do not smoke.

A Cholesterol Story: the Battle of the Good HDL Cholesterol and the Bad LDL Cholesterol

When there is the good power, there always is the bad power, the negative who always tries to beat the good one. And in every story that applies this good and bad concept, it is always the same that the good one wins and beats the bad one. Do you know that our body also applies this good and bad concept? Without we even noticed, our body has two kinds of cholesterol, the good one or so called the hdl cholesterol as well as the bad one and so called the ldl cholesterol. Normally, in ordinary yet healthy condition these two cholesterols work together and play their role to support our body function.

But along with our habits and lifestyle to eat more junk food, the LDL level often goes up rapidly and if we keep our bad habit on and on, the LDL will keep up uncontrolled that furthermore will cause your body to get ill, or even worse. Although the good and bad concept is applied to our body, in real life, most often the bad one wins, when someone is hurt by the heart attack. In order to reverse such situation and restore the good one’s ability to win, you need to consume healthy and high fiber food. So start to have more veggies and fruits as well as less meats and fats.

Regular Check to Know When and How to Lower Cholesterol

Cholesterol in blood is substance that cannot be degraded easily by the body system because it is actually lipoprotein by nature. The lipoproteins are formed as the result from the polymers of fatty acids that are bonded. If this substance accumulates in the cells, the system would not be able to work properly. Cholesterol that is building up in the blood vessels is considered highly dangerous as it may lead to fatal diseases. High level of cholesterol in blood has been one of the major culprits responsible for heart attack. Some other diseases that could be the results of high cholesterol levels are atherosclerosis and acute myocardial infarction.

Lipoproteins are also called as the stored energy in the body, and the accumulation of cholesterol happens because the stored energy remains unused. If you want to know how to lower cholesterol, you first need to understand that uncontrollable eating habits and poor life style are the main causes of this accumulation. Many people do not realize that their diet contains a lot of carbohydrate, preventing the cholesterol to be used in the body system. This is why the lipoproteins are kept in the dissolved form in the body. Check out lowercholesterol.org to find more tips on keeping your cholesterol at normal level. In addition, medical experts always suggest checking your cholesterol levels regularly so that you can take necessary steps immediately when the level is rising.