High cholesterol levels can lead to many types of illnesses, especially diseases of the cardiovascular system like hypertension, heart disease and stroke. Cholesterol, fat or plaque can clog small arteries restricting blood flow to the many organs causing increased blood pressure. Plaque can dislodge and journey to major organs like the heart causing cardiac arrest and to the small blood vessels of the brain causing a stroke.

Cholesterol generally comes from two possible sources; from fats that we eat from animal products like meat, poultry, eggs and dairy products and the other from our own bodies when we eat food rich in trans fat. This type of fat causes the body to create unhealthy cholesterol.

It is essential therefore that anyone with a high risk of developing heart diseases to follow a low cholesterol diet as soon as possible. A diet with low cholesterol means:

• A diet with low fat percentage; fat is also a source of energy and calories.

• Diets with more complex carbohydrates that can help eliminate the bad cholesterol in the body. Foods rich in complex carbohydrates are whole grains and bread from white flour contain fiber than can help lower cholesterol levels.

• A diet that is less in saturated fat like food with margarine and vegetable shortening are advised. Cook foods instead with unsaturated fats or monosaturated fats like olive oil or canola oil.

Any medication to decrease cholesterol in the body must be accompanied by a diet low in cholesterol to be able to work. A physician generally prescribes a diet with low cholesterol for at least 6 months to be able to totally reduce cholesterol levels and live healthier than ever before. A diet with low cholesterol may also be a person’s step in achieving the ideal weight he has been looking forward to. Here are some more ways to incorporate a low cholesterol diet in your daily meal plan:

• Eat more fruits and vegetables that contain vitamins and minerals plus are great source of dietary fiber. Fiber acts like small brooms cleaning the body from harmful toxins and decreasing blood cholesterol in the process. Natural chemicals from plants are found in fruits and vegetables like phytosterols and polyphenols that can contribute to a decrease in cholesterol levels. Eat a slice of fruit or a bowl of your favorite berries with every meal or have a vegetable salad instead.

• Avoid foods with trans fat. There are food brands that have made it easy for consumers by listing down ingredients and information on food labels. Anything that says partially hydrogenated in another word for trans fat and must be completely avoided.

• Eat more whole wheat and whole grains like oats, cereals and breads that contain fiber to help eliminate bad cholesterol.

• Meats must be lean without any visible traces of fat like fish, chicken and turkey. Try a lean turkey burger instead of a beef patty the next time you eat a hamburger to follow a low cholesterol diet.

With so many dietary weight loss programs out on the market today, one specific product that gradually becoming popular among fitness and health enthusiasts is the Diet Solution program. This excellent program for losing weight is created by a good fitness trainer and nutritionist named Isabel De Los Rios, as the Diet Solution is a holistic and dietary plan that assesses the individual metabolic type and employs specific diet meal plan, and mind-body connection.

What is The Diet Solution Program?

The Diet Solution is a dietary program based specifically on understanding and determining your body’s metabolic type and calorie intake in order to properly serve the right amount of protein, carbohydrate, and fat in your everyday meals. As every individual have different metabolic type, which can be protein, carbohydrate, or mixed. As eliminating the dietary food that does not suites your metabolic type, the result will be for you to lose weight. The Diet Solution program likewise claims to regulate blood pressure, cholesterol, and blood sugar levels, enhance other health related issues, and increase your energy levels.

The Diet Solution by Isabel De Los Rios is not a fad diet just like some dietary programs today, as it is more of a great nutrition program that focuses on long term benefits. Its not a one size fits all diet plan, as it is a personalized meal plans based on individual metabolic type. The program emphasizes and focuses on nutrient rich and healthy food in order to lose weight and have a healthy lifestyle and well-being.

The Diet Solution – Is It A Scam

In order to determine your metabolic type, there will be a series of questions that you should answer first and then calculate your calorie intake goal. After that, there‘s a 6-week meal plan that you have to follow that outline a variety of food choices for each snacks and meals. Personalized the meal plans to your metabolic type, as you can add more carbohydrate or protein to suit your type. If in case you found out that your metabolic type is mixed, the meal plans need no more modification. In spite of what your metabolic type is, the program encourages you to consume 3 main meals and 2 snacks, as well as taking omega-3 supplement.

The program meal plans provide guides on the right portion sizes in your food choices, as people who are on a diet are advised to keep track and have a record of their everyday food intake. The whole dietary program includes a quick start guide, recipes, daily meal plans, shopping lists, FAQs, and a tracking journal.

Conclusion

The Diet Solution program is excellent for individuals who have weight issues and are tired of using diet plans that don’t work, as most of the recommended foods in the program are healthy and taste great. The program is not a quick fix for your weight issues, although it is an effective and easy to follow program that offers more healthy and nutritious food choices compared to other dietary health plans. The Diet Solution is definitely an effective weight loss program that is completely healthy and safe, which is why it comes highly recommended.

The Diet Solution Program is among the popular and widely recognized dietary weight loss program out on the market today, as its weight loss method centers on the principle of metabolic typing. This excellent weight loss program is created by Isabel De Los Rios, a certified nutritionist and owner of New Body, which is a nutrition and fitness center based in New Jersey.

What is The Diet Solution?

The Diet Solution Program begins by answering certain specific questions that will determine your metabolic type, as each individual have different of metabolic rate types. Once established, you will be able to choose which type of diet suites you best in order to loose weight. These types of diet are split into protein or mixed type and carbohydrate rich type.

Comprehensive dietary meal plans comprises most of the Diet Solution Program, as each individual will have to follow a detailed meal plan that includes more than twenty (20) full days meal, snacks and recipes for each specific body type. The program clearly focuses on good healthy eating in order to gain a healthy lifestyle and well-being.

The Diet Solution – How Does It Work

Like all great dietary programs that follow a comprehensive system in order to achieve that much needed weight reduction in your body, the Diet Solution is no exception. As this excellent dietary program greatly reduces or even prevents the consumption of unhealthy and fat rich junk foods, snacks and meals, replacing them with a much more well-balance and healthy foods that are conveniently and easily prepared.

The Diet Solution personalized every meal you consume, assuring that every meal is well balance and in the correct amount in order to lose weight but at the same time keeping fit and healthy. With this excellent program, you can eat real food and it does not starve yourself compare to other dietary programs that force you to eat low-fat, low carbohydrate, and even bad tasting foods. The overall goal of the Diet Solution is healthy eating; it is not a fast track weight loss program. It is more of losing weight and keeping off that loss weight in order to have perfectly trim body and a healthy lifestyle.

Conclusion

The Diet Solution is an excellent program in order to lose weight and have a healthy lifestyle and well-being. It’s not a magic dietary plan that you can take to fast track your weight reduction plan. It caters to a longer health oriented program to fat loss and backed by numerous success stories and testimonials.

The dietary nutrition plan of the Diet Solution is among the healthiest and safe to use out on the market today, which is why it is popular and much sought after by fitness buffs and health conscious aficionados out there. The excellent program is very well balance, from the nutritious and healthy food diet meals to the exercise or workout elements. Although, it does not really work for vegetarians, which is a bit of a let down, nevertheless, the Diet Solution is still an excellent dietary program for people who want to lose weight and have a fit and healthy lifestyle and comes highly recommended.

Try Isabel’s The Diet Solution Program for $1 Today!

Exercise is very healthy for the human body. There is no doubt that regular exercise has many incredible benefits for our health.  Exercise can lower LDL cholesterol (bad cholesterol) and lower triglyceride levels a ton.  Not only that, exercise is one of the best ways in the world to raise HDL cholesterol (good cholesterol).  But it gets even better, when you exercise you improve more than just cholesterol levels, you lower your risk of heart disease, diabetes, some cancers, and even Alzheimer’s disease.  And all while improving your mood and the way you look.  What’s not to love?!

This article will give you medical reasons why you need to exercise and great tips to help you get started right.

Reasons to Exercise- Lowering Cholesterol and So Much More

1. Physical exercise enhances the effectiveness of our insulin helping it more easily regulate our glucose levels and helping to burn abdominal fat.
2. Regulates lipids or fats: physical exercise usually increases good cholesterol (HDL) and lowers the bad cholesterol (LDL) and triglycerides.
3. Helps regulate blood pressure.
4. Decreases obesity: our metabolism becomes more active with exercise and helps in many cases to lose weight or prevent heart disease.
5. Eliminate stress: physical exercise is a good way to eliminate or counteract the effects of stress. Relaxation promotes better hormonal balance and help lower cholesterol.
6. Exercise is a natural way to elevate your mood.  It works as well as medications for mild depression.
7. Lowers cancer risk:  including breast, gastrointestinal, and lung cancers.
8. Exercise improves your brain health.  Studies show older people who exercise vigorously and regularly have a 40% lower risk of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease.

How much exercise should I do to lower cholesterol?

Aerobic exercise such as walking, running, swimming, cycling are most beneficial for lowering cholesterol. The intensity and duration of exercise that is best for you will depend on  your overall health and previous activity level.

Remember, any exercise is better than no exercise!

If you are just starting out, walking one hour, three times a week can be enough.  Many people at this point also love in-home video workouts, because they might be a bit self-conscious going to the gym.  Luckily, there is a huge variety of  fun, effective programs to choose from.  Slim in 6 is one I’ve found great for people just starting out.  The moves are easy, and when I did it I saw a big fat-loss in just 6 weeks.  (My wife won’t let me do it anymore because it makes me TOO skinny! )

As your fitness improves, you can graduate to do more intense exercises (running, swimming, cycling, P90X, etc.).

Exercise Guidelines to Lower Cholesterol

The American College of Sports Medicine and American Heart Association recently updated their physical activity guidelines.  Although not specific for cholesterol lowering, following them will improve your lipid profile- especially by lowering your triglycerides and raising your HDL cholesterol.

Healthy adults should:

• do moderate intensity cardio 30 minutes a day, 5 days a week -OR- vigorous, high-intensity cardio 20 minutes a day, 3 days a week.
• also do strength / resistance training twice a week

Note:  this is to maintain good health and prevent disease.  If you need to lose weight or lower your triglycerides and cholesterol by the maximum amount, more exercise will be needed.

Exercise Tips

• Short bouts add up.  Exercise is cumulative throughout the day.  By this I mean that 10 minutes of activity 3 times a day is essentially just as good as 30 minutes continuous exercise.
• Make exercise part of your day.  You shower every day, right?  Exercise is way more important to your health than clean pits (I can say that since I don’t have to sit next to you).   So set aside time in advance every day.  If you make a date, you are more likely to keep it.
• Variety is the spice of fitness, so find feel free to mix it up as you like.  Today, most well-balanced exercise programs combine both an aerobic (cardio) activity with resistance training.  You’ll find these programs will give you the best exercise results and be easier to stick with as well.

Bonus Tips to Help You Love Exercise Even More!

There are many people who have trouble finding the time or discipline to get in enough exercise to lower cholesterol levels.   For you we have these simple bonus tips:

• Go on foot or bike when we go short distances (you’ll love the fresh air and you’ll even save a little on gas!).
• Park a little farther away from our workplace, then walk the last ten or fifteen minutes to get there.
• Go up and down the stairs instead of the elevator.
• When we are nervous, go out for a walk  instead of eating something (which will always be sweet or fat).
• Choose an exercise program just for busy people like Ten-Minute Trainer (below).

We hope you enjoy these simple tips about how you can lowering cholesterol with exercise. Physical exercise is undoubtedly one of the main pillars, along with diet to eliminate or lower cholesterol and improve your health.

OK, enough typing.  Time to put my money where my mouth is and go work out!!

If you want to lower cholesterol naturally, you’ll want to start by eating  cholesterol lowering foods.  (See, it isn’t that difficult!)   Eating healthy foods and exercising regularly can help lower your cholesterol or keep a normal cholesterol level.  On the other hand, lack of physical activities and poor diet can increase your cholesterol.

One of the easiest things to do is eat more plants!  Most plants are high in fiber and getting more fiber is critical, because soluble fiber binds to fats and removes them directly through your GI tract.  High fiber plants to make a big part of your diet include fruits, veggies, legumes, nuts, and grains. 

High fiber fruits:

• Apples, 1 medium, 5.0 g 
• Blueberries, 1 cup, 4.2 g
• Pears, 1 medium, 5.1 g
• Strawberries, 1 cup, 4.4 g
•  Raspberries, 1 cup, 6.4 gm

Veggies are almost all good sources of fiber for lowering your cholesterol.  Leading the list are: 

• Avocados, 1 medium, 11.8 g
• Broccoli, 1 cup, 4.5 g
• Carrots, 1 cup, 5.2 g
• Kale, 1 cup, 7.2 g
•  Peas, 1 cup, 8.8 g
•  Spinach, 1 cup (cooked), 4.3 g
• Winter squash, 1 cup, 6.2 g

Grains, nuts, seeds, and seeds are more staple foods in your cholesterol lowering diet (our hunter and gatherer ancestors had it right!):

• Almonds, 1 oz, 4.2 g
• Barley, 1 cup, 6.0 g
• Black beans, 1 cup, 13.9 g
• Bran cereal, 1 cup, 19.9 g
• Brown rice, 1 cup, 7.9 g
• Flax seeds, 3 tbsp, 6.9 g
• Kidney beans, 1 cup, 11.6 g
• lentils, 1 cup, 13.6 g
• Lima beans, 1 cup, 8.6 g
• Oats (oatmeal), 1 cup (dry), 12.0 g
• Quinoa, 1 cup (cooked), 8.4 g
• Soybeans, 1 cup, 8.6 g

Other Important Cholesterol Lowering Foods

You must use cold-pressed vegetable oils such as olive oil, canola, soy, sesame, sunflower, and corn. It has been found that using these vegetable oils in your cooking reduces LDL cholesterol levels in the blood.

Lower cholesterol level by as much as 30 mg/dl with the regular use of garlic in foods or by taking garlic supplements.  It helps to decrease bad cholesterol and increase artery elasticity, and is also thus a good natural remedy for hypertension.

Consumption of oily fish such as salmon, sardines and tuna reduce blood cholesterol.  The American Heart Association recommends that everyone gets at least 2 servings of fish per week, and people with high triglycerides need to eat even more.  If that much fish is difficult for you, then it is important to get your needed Omega-3 through supplements.

The use of chromium picolinate: it has been shown to reduce total cholesterol levels and improves the ratio of LDL and HDL.

Coenzyme Q10: powerful antioxidant that improves circulation and reduces arterial blockages.

Soy Lecithin: it also reduces blood cholesterol.

Vitamin B complex controls the level of cholesterol. These vitamins are necessary for the metabolism of fats because they protect the liver from fatty deposits. Vitamin C and vitamin E are used to lower cholesterol because they improve the circulation.

Foods to Avoid

Trans Fats. These  are evil.  Trans fats raise your LDL “bad” cholesterol and lower your HDL “good” cholesterol.  Foods that contain trans fats include most commercially prepared baked foods such as pies, tarts, cakes, pastries and energy bars.

Margarine, lard and butter: they are hydrogenated fats that clog arteries.

Dairy foods: cheeses are especially rich in saturated fats.  Saturated fats are closely linked to obesity, overweight, cardiovascular disease etc.  Choose low-fat or non-fat milks and cheeses in moderation.

Eggs: The egg still is an excellent and healthy food because the egg white contains protein of high biological value.

The egg yolk, on the other hand, is a mixed bag.  Egg yolk is rich in cholesterol.  A single egg contains about 200 mg of cholesterol (all in the yolk).  But the yolk is not all bad.  It provides healthy fats: phospholipids, and linoleic acid. It is also a source of choline, phosphorus, zinc and selenium, as well as vitamin A, vitamin D, B12, folic acid and biotin.  Newer studies indicating that cholesterol from moderate yolk-eating does not change the values of blood cholesterol, so most people following an otherwise healthy diet can eat three or four eggs a week without causing harm.  However, if your cholesterol is above normal levels then you should stick to 1-2 per week.

The best ways to cut down include using 2 egg whites in recipes instead of one whole egg, or using cholesterol free egg substitutes.

Discover Your Own Recipes to Lower Cholesterol and Health Goals right away with these Simple and Effective Healthy Meal Plans. Try Isabel’s The Diet Solution Program Today!

Food Allowed (moderate consumption)

- Milk and dairy products: semi-skimmed milk, skim milk, non-fat dry milk, low-fat yogurt, cheeses made from skim milk, soft cheeses and low-fat cheeses.

- Meat and protein: fish, tuna, salmon, semi-fat meats (lean beef, pork, chicken), chicken and turkey sausages,  low-fat ham (no bacon), whole egg. Chicken (no skin), turkey (no skin),  shellfish, veal, peanut butter, nuts, textured vegetable protein, soy and tofu.  Limit to 9 oz. per week of lean and trimmed beef, lamb, pork or ham packed in water or vegetable oil.

- Cereals, potatoes and vegetables: Potatoes, rice, pasta (prefer whole grain).  All vegetables, raw or cooked.

- Beverages: Coffee, tea, coffee substitutes, low calorie carbonated drinks, unsweetened fruit juices, vegetable juices.

- Fat: Low-calorie margarine, polyunsaturated fats including margarine with liquid vegetable oil, oils made from corn, soybean, safflower, cottonseed, mayonnaise and salad dressing made with allowed oils.

LIMITED FOOD (eating sporadically or in small quantities)

- Milk and dairy: Chocolate milk, whole milk, 2% milk, regular buttermilk, condensed milk, sour cream, regular yogurt, non-dairy cream substitutes, other cheeses.

- Meat: Fried meats, duck, goose, heavily marbled and fatty meats, ribs, mutton, frankfurters, sausage, regular ground beef, bacon, luncheon meats, kidney, brains, heart, sweetbreads, liver.

- Vegetables: Vegetables prepared with butter, cream, cheese and other sauces.

- Fruits: Dried fruits (figs, dates, prunes), in syrup, candied and crystallized.

- Beverages: All alcoholic. Hot chocolate, regular milkshakes, eggnog, regular soft drinks, fruit flavored drinks and fruit juices with sugar added

- Fats: Butter, regular margarine, palm and coconut oil, solid shortening, lard, bacon fat, regular gravies, salad dressings with cheese.

- Other products: sugar, fructose, glucose syrup, jam, honey, chocolate and products, bakery products, sugar-sweetened. Yolk-containing products (mayonnaise, cakes, pies).

“I hear everyone talking about trans-fats.  But what exactly are they and why are they so bad?”

Trans fats, or trans-fatty acids, are largely artificial fats manufactured by a process called hydrogenation.  If you read a label and see anything with ‘partially-hydrogenated’ in front of it, it is a trans fat.    Companies started using them all over the place bechause they were cheap, had good flavor, and extended the shelf life of products.

What foods contain trans fat?

Since trans fats seemed to be the perfect fat, they made their way into practically all of our favorite processed foods.

You’ll find trans fats in processed foods,  fast foods, and commercial baked goods pretty much all the foods that taste good, but you are not supposed to eat.  They are in  french fries, pies, pastries,  cookies, crackers, chips, popcorn, frozen waffles and margarine.  Many of these foods are also high in saturated fat.

Trans fats are fats that contain trans fats which are a type of unsaturated fatty acids.  It is very similar to the structure of saturated fat and therefore affect our health in similar ways.

Hydrogenated fat is formed when unsaturated fatty acids react with hydrogen under high temperature. Trans fats are formed during the chemical process by which oil is hardened, while the disappearance of fat content of omega-3 fatty acids.

In recent years, however, we’ve learned of an alarming number of health risks associated with intake of trans fat, which explains why trans fats are such a hot health issue.

A World Health Organization (WHO) report from 2009 on health effects of trans fats wrote that “trans fat from industrially hydrogenated fats should be severely limited or completely removed. In the first instance, trans fats are replaced with unsaturated fat that is not cured. In principle, it is about fats that are rich in omega-6, omega-3 or monounsaturated fat. ”

Trans fat raises LDL cholesterol levels even more than saturated fats. In addition to raising the so-called bad cholesterol and also lowers HDL, the “good cholesterol” that serves as protective factor against cardiovascular disease. Therefore, for good health we need  to reduce the amount of trans fat in foods we eat.  We eat saturated fat and trans fat from food, which in an unbalanced diet can contribute to cardiovascular disease, diabetes and overweight. It is also very important to reduce intake of saturated fat while increasing intake of unsaturated fats in order to achieve balance in fat intake. Unsaturated fats are found in olive oil, canola oil, nuts and fish.

What foods contain saturated fat?

Saturated fats are found mainly in full fat dairy and meat products, such as cream, butter, fat cheese, bacon, greasy sausage, ice cream, pastries and chocolate. Some vegetable oils contain saturated fats such as coconut and palm oil.

Cardiovascular diseases are diseases of the heart and the rest of the body’s blood vessels. The main cause for the disease is blockage of your arteries, known as atherosclerosis. You get different symptoms depending on where in the body arteriosclerosis is most developed.

Types of cardiovascular diseases

Aneurysm
Angina
Atherosclerosis
Cerebrovascular Accident (Stroke)
Cerebrovascular disease
Congestive Heart Failure
Coronary Artery Disease
Myocardial infarction (Heart Attack)
Peripheral vascular disease

Cardiovascular Disease Symptoms

Most common is that you get symptoms of atherosclerosis of the heart, brain or leg arteries.

The symptoms of heart is mainly angina, which you get when the blood supply to the heart is insufficient, or in severe cases, a blood clot in the heart, called myocardial infarction. Atherosclerosis in the brain may also lead to a clot, which in turn can lead to paralysis or speech disorder. Atherosclerosis in the legs can lead to “claudication” (intermittent claudication), which is severe pain when walking.  It progresses to rest pain and may even end up with gangrene.

What causes heart disease?

Calcification of arteries is the leading cause of cardiovascular disease. Atherosclerosis involves a narrowing of the blood vessels so that blood flow is impaired, leading to the areas affected may be too little oxygen and nutrients. The calcified vessel is often broken and blood starts forming small clots.

Risk Factors
All people may get heart disease. It starts in your 20′s and increases with age. But there are a number of known risk factors contributing to the exacerbation of atherosclerosis and leads to disease at an early age:

Tobacco smoking
If atherosclerosis in the family.
Diabetes, type 1 and type 2
High blood pressure
High cholesterol content in blood
Obesity, especially abdominal obesity
Stress
Too little exercise

Early atherosclerosis has no symptoms. In more severe atherosclerosis can get chest pain and angina. If a calcified area in one of the coronary artery defects, can cause a blood clot in the heart. A typical warning sign is oppressive chest pain that may radiate to the left arm. The pain often comes with exertion, but can also show up during sleep.

Atherosclerosis of cerebral arteries can lead to cerebral thrombosis or cerebral haemorrhage (stroke), symptoms of impaired brain function, weakness, or speech disorders and is then called a TIA (transient ischemic attack), or cause permanent failure of brain function.

Arteriosclerosis in the leg arteries can get “claudication”, or intermittent claudication. When you exercise you get sore legs, especially in the calf muscles. The pain disappears after 5-10 minutes rest. More severe atherosclerosis can cause ulcers and possibly gangrene of the toes and feet.

Cholesterol is one of the major known risk factors for the incidence of cardiovascular disease, such as heart attacks, cardiac chest pain (angina) and other circulatory diseases. Other modifiable risk factors are hypertension, smoking and diabetes.

Cardiovascular disease are still the leading cause of death in world, although the mortality rate has halved over the past 20-25 years. It has been shown to over 50 percent of the risk of heart attacks can be attributed to cholesterol.

The reduction of cardiovascular diseases is largely due to the improved lifestyle and cholesterol. People also smoke much less and exercising more than 25 years ago. In a recent study, which examined the relative importance of changes in treatment and risk factors, was nearly 40 percent of the decline in mortality attributed to decreasing cholesterol levels in the population, almost entirely due to changes in dietary habits.

Two manifestations of lipid disorders

We are talking about two different manifestations of lipid disorders, both of which represent an increased risk of cardiovascular disease. The first is dominated by one of high LDL cholesterol. A typical example is the so-called familial hypercholesterolemia. Here, men without lipid-lowering treatment of myocardial infarction in 40-45 years of age, while women generally survive a little longer. It has been found effective preventive medicine against elevated LDL-cholesterol.

The second manifestation is elevated triglycerides combined with low protective HDL-cholesterol (“good” cholesterol). LDL cholesterol is usually not elevated in this condition, but the state is still a major CVD risk. Triglycerides are fats that we ingest in food and transported in the body especially in apolipoprotein B, that is, the “bad” part of lipoproteins. They are composed of glycerol with three fatty acids linked to itself. The amount of triglycerides is also a measure of how likely you are to suffer from arteriosclerosis. Therefore, there is a limit of 2 millimoles per liter, which should not be exceeded. Triglycerides increases especially in overweight so-called abdominal obesity and occurs frequently in type 2 diabetes.

What is cholesterol?

Cholesterol belongs to the body’s fats, lipids, which have a variety of functions in the body, for example, the importance of thermal insulation, energy stores and production of important hormones.

Often you hear of “bad” LDL and “good” HDL cholesterol. This is because high levels of LDL may contribute to atherosclerosis and ultimately cardiovascular disease, while HDL cholesterol has a protective function and helps to remove excessive levels of bad cholesterol.

Desirable level and goals for treatment:

Total cholesterol: <5.0 mmol / l
LDL cholesterol: <3.0 mmol / l

Indicators of increased risk for cardiovascular disease:

Triglycerides> 1.7 mmol / l

HDL cholesterol: <1.0 mmol /l for men and <1.3 mmol /l for women.

High Cholesterol Causes

Both heredity and environment play a role for the content of cholesterol in blood. Today we know of several hereditary forms of high cholesterol – you have a cholesterol level above 8.0 mmol / l, it is often a familial hypercholesterolemia, thus hereditary.

The diet plays a major role in cholesterol. Northern European countries have higher cholesterol levels than those living in southern Europe and Asia. One reason could be that people in Northern Europe eat less vegetables, fruit and choose saturated fat to a greater extent than unsaturated fat (like olive and canola oil).

Risk factors for high cholesterol

Patients with manifest atherosclerotic disease, patients with type II diabetes.

High Cholesterol Symptoms

Crushing pain behind the breastbone, possibly radiating to the arms or the neck associated with physical exertion and cold, angina pectoris. If the symptoms become more severe, it can be a blood clot in the coronary arteries (heart attack).

Other symptoms may include pain in the calf muscles when walking (claudication) and from the brain with symptoms such as dizziness or impaired vision (cerebral infarction, stroke, transient anemia in the brain).

What happens when there is too much cholesterol in your blood?

The blood vessels become more and more narrowed, the surface becomes more irregular and the blood may be difficult to pass freely through the veins. A blood clot can be formed and trapped in the narrowed artery. When the blood supply to a tissue area is stopped, the tissue area begin to die. That is, if the clot is in one coronary artery (one of the heart’s own blood vessels), killed the part of the heart muscle receiving blood from the clogged vessel, and a heart attack occurs.

High Cholesterol Treatment

Quit smoking, start exercising, changing your diet and ensure that blood pressure is under control.

Regular jogging helps to reduces the risk of heart disease and high cholesterol levels, high blood pressure and a wide variety of other health problems.

Get aware with the things you need to know regarding nutrition. Eat more vegetables, fruits and berries. Add more fiber rich foods in your diet such as wholemeal bread, pasta, rice and potatoes. Soft or liquid fats such as olive or canola oil is recommended while cooking. Fish and lean meats are recommended, especially oily fish such as salmon, mackerel and sardines have proven to be very good for maintaining healthy cholesterol levels. Therefore, it is good to eat fatty fish at least twice a week. Eat less saturated fat, found in fatty cheese, cream, candy, sugar and fat meat and processed meat products. Moderate amounts of alcohol (about 2 oz / day) appears to have beneficial effect on on triglyceride levels.