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A low cholesterol diet is one of the best ways to decrease your bad cholesterol levels; read food labels and be conscious of what goes into your body. Everybody has cholesterol, but this is not necessarily bad news. The LDL the reading should not go above a total of 160 mg/dl though the optimal number would be 100 mg/dl.
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Three categories of cholesterol medication include the statin, bile-acid binding resin, and cholesterol absorption inhibitors. This in turn, causes infraction of the heart, stroke, and heart attack many times fatally. Cholesterol information can be found everyone, on a site online or in a magazine and can be very informative as well as educative, but dont judge your own cholesterol level from what you read.
LDL, or low-density lipoprotein, cholesterol has been dubbed bad cholesterol. This bad cholesterol is bad because high level of LDL cholesterol levels in your blood over time can build up in the walls of your arteries that feed the organs in your body. Plaque causes the arteries to become narrow and less flexible, a condition called atherosclerosis. If an artery becomes too narrow or becomes completely blocked by a clot heart attack and stroke can be the result.
A cholesterol test revealing a measured bad cholesterol level of between 130-159 mg/dl is considered to be borderline high. LDL cholesterol blood levels of 160 mg/dl or higher are considered high. Bad cholesterol levels should be held down to 129 mg/dl or lower, anything less than 100 mg/dl is optimal.
Controlling Bad Cholesterol
Controlling high levels of bad cholesterol can be difficult by dietary means alone. Reading labels and ingesting low fat, cholesterol free foods along with increasing regular exercise can help lower LDL cholesterol levels. But having high levels of bad cholesterol also comes from genetics. If your parents and their siblings and their parents generally have higher than normal cholesterol levels it is likely that you will too.
There are many prescription medicines that can help lower bad cholesterol. If you have made proper dietary and lifestyle changes with no result, cholesterol-reducing drugs, known at statins, can be taken. As with any medicine, statins have side effects. Mild side effects such as stomach upset, gas, constipation and cramping usually go away after taking the drug for a short while. Serious side effects while taking statins are rare but include liver problems and muscle pain and weakness. Liver function tests are regularly given to patients using statin drugs to monitor for problems.
Good Cholesterol Must Be Monitored Also
When your cholesterol levels are tested another type of cholesterol, known as high-density lipoprotein or HDL, is measured also. HDL cholesterol is commonly though of as the good cholesterol. Unlike bad cholesterol, low levels (40 mg/dl or less) of HDL cholesterol can increase the risk of heart attack and stroke. An HDL cholesterol level of 60 mg/dl is desirable.
Increased Risks As You Age
Monitoring your cholesterol and maintaining healthy levels becomes more and more important as we get older. Aging brings about changes that increase our risks for health problems such as high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease. Age related diseases such as arthritis cause people to become less active when they get older. So controlling your cholesterol levels become even more important later in life to ensure a long vigorous life.