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.
