What is heart disease?
Heart disease occurs when the arteries that supply blood to the heart are clogged. Deposits of fat and cholesterol prevent the blood from flowing as it should. If the blood supply is completely blocked, you are in danger of having a heart attack.
What is cholesterol?
Cholesterol forms in the liver. It is a waxy substance that has many important functions in the body. It is part of various hormones, the makeup of the walls of your body’s cells, a component of bile, and many other purposes. How the body processes it is very complex. It joins with a protein and forms a package called lipoprotein. These lipoproteins carry cholesterol through the blood.
Foods of animal origin contain cholesterol. These foods include eggs, dairy products, shellfish, and meat. Foods of plant origin-fruits, grains, and cereals—do not contain cholesterol.
How is cholesterol measured?
Cholesterol is measured in metric system units. The LDL’s (low density lipoproteins) have the bad cholesterol. LDL’s are the main source of blockage in the arteries. HDL’s (high density lipoproteins) have the good cholesterol. HDL’s help keep cholesterol from building up in the wall of the arteries.
A total cholesterol level less than 200mg/dl is considered good. It represents the least risk of heart disease. At 200, your level is borderline high. If you are above 200 your level of cholesterol is high.
Why is my cholesterol so high?
Some cholesterol is essential to many body processes. However, problems can develop when there is too much cholesterol.
Your cholesterol level is high because of the amount of cholesterol and fat in the food you eat. It’s also affected by how quickly your body makes LDL cholesterol and disposes of it.
The following factors determine whether your LDL level is high or low:
-Heredity –Your Diet –Your weight –Your exercise program –Your age & sex –Other medical conditions you may have, such as diabetes.
How can I control these factors?
1-You can’t do much about heredity, age, sex or race (non-modifiable factors – meaning you have no control on these factors to keep cholesterol low).
2-You can do a lot through diet. To lower cholesterol, limit your daily calories from fat to 30 percent should be saturated fat and not more than one third from polyunsaturated fat. At least one third of the total fat calories should be from mono-saturated fat. Weight loss helps to lower LDL’s and raise HDL’s.
3-Physical Exercise can also do a lot in lowering cholesterol. It can help in lowering LDL’s and raise the HDL’s.
4-Some women find that estrogen replacement following menopause lowers cholesterol.
5-You should take care of other medical problems like diabetes as best as you can.
6-Medications are a very important part of treating high cholesterol. Studies have shown that your life span can be improved by taking mediations if you have high cholesterol.
What else can you do?
You should lower a high LDL cholesterol level whether you have heart disease or not. Our doctor may prescribe medication to help you do this. He or she can provide information about low fat food plans. You can also get specific food listings for fat and cholesterol.
You must do most of the work, though. For the same number of calories, you can develop a food plan that includes enough food with lower fat and cholesterol. This type of plan will satisfy your hunger and be enjoyable, as well.
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
National Heart Lung and Blood Institute
P.O. Box 30105
Bethesda, MD 20824-0105