Cholesterol and triglycerides, which is fat in the blood and is your nemesis, have made you a prime candidate for heart disease, strokes and diabetes. "Even if you control bad LDL cholesterol to less than 70, you still need to look at triglycerides," said Leslie Cho, director of the Women's Cardiovascular Center in Cleveland. Cholesterol is not harmful in and of itself, but is dangerous when it's oxidized by free radicals. Similarly, triglycerides are a common form of fat and energy in the body but become dangerous when you eat way more calories than you burn throughout the day.
To get your triglycerides and cholesterol back down to a normal level, you will have to make some dietary changes. For people who have high cholesterol levels from eating too many fattening foods, cholesterol lowering can be accomplished by as much as 10-20% from dieting alone. Reducing calories to 1,200-1,500 for women and 1,500-1,800 for men will help you lose 2 pounds per week. When losing weight, you shouldn't drink more than one serving of alcohol per day and you should be ingesting eight cups of water daily. Adding just 30 minutes of exercise per day, either all at once or in 3 intervals of 10 minutes, can work wonders for heart health.
Each day you should be ingesting 3-4 low fat dairy servings, like 1% milk or yogurt, 2-4 fruit servings including juice, 3-5 vegetable servings (of ½ cup or more), 6-11 bread servings, which includes pasta and rice and 6-8 fat/oil servings (choosing olive oil, canola oil or peanut oil, low fat salad dressing and miracle whip instead of mayo). Diet experts recommend adding fish oils to your weekly intake, whether it's a daily fish oil supplement or salmon and tuna several times a week. As a satisfying snack, you can try a handful of nuts, raisins, a cup of tea or hot cocoa and a yogurt smoothie. By following these simple tips, your cholesterol and triglycerides levels should lower in no time at all!
To get tested for cholesterol and triglycerides, you will have to get blood drawn to analyze the level of cholesterol, lipids and triglycerides in your blood. To prepare, do not eat or drink anything other than water for 12 hours prior to your appointment. This is a relatively painless procedure. If you're doctor-o-phobic, then there are even home cholesterol screening tests available for purchase.
As we start to get older there are significant numbers that begin to weigh to a great extent upon us. We have to concern ourselves about our weight, levels of cholesterol, as well as our blood pressure. These are some of the things that most of us have ignored for the vast majority of our lives now suddenly have great importance. But these are things that should never have been pushed aside. A lifetime of abuse on the body returns merely damaging things when left unrestrained.
Your cholesterol level is absolutely crucial if you want to continue in good health and your body working properly. High levels can lead to heart attacks and stroke, both of these things you do not want to have to deal with. Being concerned about your cholesterol level is not only for the elderly. It is something both younger people and older people must be concerned with as well as be conscious of if they hope to to lead a healthy life. In this article we will go over the fundamentals of cholesterol and hopefully you will realize how essential a healthy level is to your body and peace of mind.
What is bad cholesterol?
LDL cholesterol is bad. All cholesterol is carried by lipoproteins but the low-density lipoproteins moves in the blood stream and allows the cholesterol to begin to accumulate. If there is too much LDL then the cholesterol begins building up on the walls of the arteries. It begins to form plaque which makes the arteries hard and not as flexible. When clots form and block the artery a heart attack or stroke can occur.
What happens when cholesterol gets too high?
Well when LDL gets too high then the cholesterol begins to accumulate on the artery walls and then hardens into plaque. The build up continues until the entire artery is blocked off. This added blockage makes it hard for blood to get to the heart where it can be pumped to the rest of the body. It can lead to a heart attack or stroke.
When HDL levels are high this is a good thing because researchers believe that HDL helps rid the body of cholesterol build-up. That is why a diet rich in foods that promote HDL is always heavily recommended.
In what way is the blockage from the arteries removed?
The first stage is through medicines but if there is a measurable constrictive or obstruction in the artery or blood vessel then a slightly more aggressive procedure is required. The actual procedures may change but one frequent method is through a balloon angioplasty. The mechanical device is entered into the artery and then naviagted to the blockage where the build up of plaque has taken place. The balloon is then inflated to clear the passage. Nowadays the routine is minimally intrusive and the majority of patients are capable of going home on that very day.
Does a diet rich in fish really help lower my cholesterol?
You may be surprised but a diet rich in fish, particularly salmon, can help you lower your overall LDL cholesterol while helping raise the HDL cholesterol. It is the omega-3 fatty acids that have been shown to help the body. But do not stop at just salmon. There are other great foods that can help you reduce your LDL's and raise your HDL's such as: avocados, garlic, black beans, uncooked soy and even Shitake mushrooms.
To find out additional information Controlling High Cholesterol with more helpful material at Cholesterol Drugs and at Total Cholesterol Levels
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