Some Facts You Should Know About Cholesterol
Written by: Haman Oakley
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Word Count: 464 |
Date: Fri, 15 Jan 2010 |
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We often shrug away when we hear about cholesterol because it can become technical and it sounds unmanageable. Medicine today have many ways to help and today we can control it.
Our bodies naturally produce cholesterol by making particular hormones, bile acids and cell walls and not forgetting the all important vitamin D. Cholesterol is also known as a natural fat molecule and is the function of the liver to produce cholesterol. This function is strongly influenced by what we eat.
Cholesterol consists of two types namely; LDL and HDL. Lets look at LDL first. Once the liver produces cholesterol, it is taken by the low-density lipoprotein to our body tissues. If there is an imbalance, the arteries become saturated and a build up of unwanted fatty tissues is the result, which in turn narrows the arteries and inhibits blood flow.
Another type namely; HDL has the job to take the cholesterol away from the arteries to the liver where it is then processed and cast-off. Our bodies should have a high level of HDL (high-density lipoprotien), which in turn gives us healthy arteries and a healthy heart. The heart and cholesterol foundations of the world, now concur that an acceptable level of cholesterol in ones bloodstream would be 5. 5mmol/L or a bit lower. In layman's terms this means we must maintain our bad LDL low and our good HDL high.
Unfortunately our diets consists of many saturated fats which is found in products such as milk, butter, cheese, fatty meats, snacks and fast foods. Consuming too many of these food types can cause us to develop high cholesterol. What we essentially do is saturate our bodies with an oversupply of fat. Here you would want to change your diet which is low in saturated foods for example oily fish, walnuts, pumpkin seeds and margarine instead of butter.
What else can you do to change your cholesterol level? It is proven that physical activity can decrease that unwanted high cholesterol level in one's body. An increase in your body weight translates into an increase in blood cholesterol and high blood pressure. Drinking of alcohol is also known to negatively affect ones cholesterol level. Smoking is also another factor which should be considered.
Unfortunately some things would count against you which you will not be able to do anything about, like; gender (men have higher cholesterol levels than women - menopause would level the risk, one's age is a big factor because cholesterol tends to become a problem with increased age, some ethnic groups have a higher risk than others and lastly your family history. It is most likely that you would have inherited your cholesterol problems from a mother or father.
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Would you like to learn more about foods that lower cholesterol? Read other article at low cholesterol diet
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