Cholesterol Hdl Ldl
Ldl Definition
Cholesterol Numbers Hdl Ldl
Triglyceride Formation
How To Lower Triglyceride Level
Lowering Triglyceride Levels
Calculate Ldl
Cholesterol Questions
Cholesterol
HDL LDL
cholesterol and hdl ratio
The cholesterol home test is a great way to check to see if you are indeed living a healthy lifestyle. A diet of mostly fruits and vegetables can work wonders for anyone afflicted with cholesterol. Once the nutritionist prescribes the food on daily basis, the list for the whole week should be finalized and each week can add a few variants so the food does not become monotonous. Saturated fat is usually found in foods that come from animals, such as egg yolks, chicken and beef; a low cholesterol diet must be low in fatty foods. Cholesterol levels can be lowered and kept that way provided one follows the doctors advice and takes the drugs as prescribed.
what is a triglyceride
Next time you sit down to eat your double cheeseburger and fries you might want to think twice about how much harmful cholesterol is contained in that one meal. Elevated cholesterol within the blood stream is caused by eating foods that contain too much cholesterol and saturated fat. Also, every increase of 1 mg of good cholesterol reduces your risk by two to three percent; those may seem like small numbers but they add up in the long run. Between 100 and 130 mg/dL is the near-optimal LDL level. Smoking and alcohol can also increase the blockage in your arteries; part of the cholesterol diet includes no smoking and no drinking.
The waxy, fatlike substance known as cholesterol is necessary for the body to function properly. Cell walls or membranes everywhere in the body naturally have cholesterol including the brain, nerves, muscles, skin, liver, intestines and heart. Cholesterol helps your body to produce many hormones such as Vitamin D and the bile acids that are required to digest fat. However, only a small amount of cholesterol is necessary to achieve these results. Too much cholesterol in your bloodstream can cause the excess to be deposited in the arteries which narrows and blocks the arteries causes the signs and symptoms of heart disease.
When cholesterol is deposited in the walls of the arteries that supply your heart with nutrients and oxygen it results in coronary heart disease. The heart depends on these oxygen and nutrients just like any muscles. When the coronary arteries harden or calcify and narrow then it can cause chest pain. There are less severe cases of narrowing with is caused by a fatty plaque. Although this unstable plaque can rupture which can cause a clot or no blood flow and result in a heart attack.
You can check for high cholesterol with a simple blood test. It is not enough to just know your total cholesterol level. Rather you need a complete lipid profile which measures your LDL, total cholesterol, HDL and triglycerides. It is recommended that individuals have these blood tests performed every five years since a fluctuation in levels can occur rapidly. This way you can catch high cholesterol early enough and begin treatment through lifestyle changes to improve your heart condition.
Causes
High cholesterol can be caused by several drugs and diseases but most of the time high cholesterol results from a high-fat diet and inherited risk factors. A doctor can help rule out causes such as under active thyroid, kidney or liver disease. Then once you know what causes the problem you can focus on reversing it if your high cholesterol is related to a drug or disease.
Your genes play a large part in determining how high your LDL or bad cholesterol is by affecting how fast this cholesterol is made and removed from the blood. Familial hypercholesterolemia is one type of high cholesterol that is inherited and affects about one in every five hundred individuals. Even without a specific genetic condition, genes play are large role in influencing high cholesterol.
High cholesterol can be affected modestly when it comes to excess weight. You can lower your cholesterol level by losing weight. Weight loss is very beneficial to help with lowering triglycerides and raising your good cholesterol levels. This is why regular exercise or activity is important.
Women will generally have a lower total cholesterol before menopause when compared to men of the same age. Blood cholesterol levels raise as women and men age until they reach about sixty to sixty-five years of age. Women often have higher cholesterol levels than men after about the age of fifty.