Causes of High Cholesterol - The Causes and Tips to Lower High Cholesterol Level

Lower Cholesterol Level Presents:

Causes of High Cholesterol - The Causes and Tips to Lower High Cholesterol Level
By George Christodoulou

The causes of high cholesterol are numerous and common. If you don't have high cholesterol and your looking for a preventative measure, I applaud you and your efforts. Prevention is the best solution.

There is a tipping point at a certain level where you enter a danger zone. Although it takes years of bad habits and age to amplify the problem, cholesterol only becomes a problem at a certain point. At this high point, you have to start changing your diet and exercise in order to prevent heart disease. The problem is you are no longer allowed to have a balanced diet. People with high cholesterol are told to avoid high cholesterol foods and for some, this is the only source of protein and important nutrients.

Your job is to understand what causes high cholesterol in order to keep your levels at bay. The first aspect of cholesterol that everyone needs to know about is that their are 2 different types.

Good Cholesterol (Also known as, HDL cholesterol) - This is the type of cholesterol in the body that removes extra cholesterol from the body. You see, the body needs cholesterol to form cell membranes, produce vitamin D, produce bile to digest fat, and many other things. You don't need too much cholesterol in order to follow through on these different processes. Your body uses HDL cholesterol in order to remove all the extra.

Bad Cholesterol (Also known as, LDL cholesterol) - This is the type of cholesterol that brings cholesterol to the rest of the body. Out of all the causes of high cholesterol, this has to be one of the most prominent. This type sends cholesterol to the cells. It is more likely to be turned into plaque by free radicals. When your cholesterol turns into plaque, it builds up on the artery walls. one day when your not aware, the bubble of plaque bursts and unleashes blobs of fat that get stuck and have the tendency to cause a heart attack.

The causes of high cholesterol really have to do a lot with the different types of cholesterol.

1. Overeating Saturated Fat Foods

If you eat foods with high saturated fat content, you are at a high risk for high cholesterol. Ingesting saturated fat always increases the level of cholesterol the body produces. The liver understands that their is more fat to process so it creates more cholesterol to take care of it. Remember, cholesterol is used in the production of bile. Since bile is necessary in order to process fat, cholesterol is required in order to produce bile.

In addition, fat is also turned into triglycerides or the basic form that is stored in the body. Cholesterol is required to transport this to the cells. Again, the more fat eaten, the more that has to be stored in the body. This is an additional burden that has to be carried through the blood and increases the constant level of cholesterol.

2. Lack of exercise

This is another one of the larger causes of high cholesterol in the body. Exercise is shown to increase levels of good cholesterol in the body. If you don't exercise, your good cholesterol will ultimately me lower. If your good cholesterol level is low, there is not enough of it to transport all the excess out of your body.

3. Genetics

Studies have shown that genetics has a lot to do with different cholesterol levels. Even if you stay on a healthy diet and exercise, you can still have high cholesterol. This is one of the causes of high cholesterol that is very difficult to explain and treat.

Now that you know what it takes to reach high levels of cholesterol, try to prevent that from ever happening by keeping fit, eating healthy foods, and above all, by taking the right supplement. If you are at risk for high cholesterol, it is recommended that your daily supplement be specific for high cholesterol. Studies have shown the preventative powers of cholesterol lowering supplements. Their ingredients are a special blend of different cholesterol managing substances, vitamins, and minerals.

If you would like more information on cholesterol lowering supplements, please visit: http://lowercholesterolreview.com

Again, to prevent the causes of high cholesterol, it is recommended that you take a cholesterol lowering supplement. They are all natural and very similar to a multivitamin except they contain a few extra ingredients that comes from all natural plant sources like rice, sugar cane, and wheat husk.

Please click here for more information: Cholesterol lowering supplement

I applaud you for your effort in learning about high cholesterol. It is the leading cause of heart disease in the world. By taking the time to make a difference now, you are choosing a more healthy lifestyle.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=George_Christodoulou

Lower Cholesterol Level

Lower Cholesterol Level - Some Effective Natural Techniques

Lower Cholesterol Level Presents:

Lower Cholesterol Level - Some Effective Natural Techniques

Obesity is a topical issue that has been closely studied and research into this subject reveals that obesity is on the increase. A popular theory as to why more and more people are overweight is that the fast food industry and mass catering, especially in schools , plus a more sedentary lifestyle has contributed to this problem.

The problem with obesity is that it carries a legacy of coronary and associated illness which could be potentially life threatening. However, preventative measures can be taken to avoid future suffering.

There is a link between obesity and high cholesterol, so both issues can be addressed by making lifestyle changes. These include maintaining a low cholesterol diet and taking some form of regular exercise.

A low cholesterol diet does not have to be bland and unpalatable. The main issue is to reduce the intake of food and to ensure that the healthier food options become a way of life.

The advice given to those who wish to lose weight and lower their level of cholesterol is to include certain foods that are rich in fiber and low in saturated fats. The best type of foods to introduce into the diet are fish, vegetables, including corn, mushrooms artichokes and garlic and to substitute full fat milk for soy milk. Whole grains, nuts and olive oil are also very effective as part of a low cholesterol diet.

Certain food groups containing fruits and vegetables are essential and the recommended daily amount of servings is five per day. The reason why vegetables are so beneficial is that they contain sterols which have been proven to prevent levels of cholesterol from rising. One advantage to this kind of diet is that everything required is easily accessible and relatively inexpensive.

It isn't just food that should be monitored but beverages also. Moderation is the key and one glass of red wine a day is actually permitted. Fluid intake is important as long as you limit the amount of alcohol to a moderate amount and include fruit juices, mineral water and non fat milk.

One type of fresh fruit juice that is particularly good for reducing cholesterol is Apple. Either bought or prepared yourself in a blender or juicer, apple juice should be regularly consumed for the best results, and is claimed to reduce cholesterol levels by fifty percent.

As previously mentioned another natural way to reduce cholesterol is to take up some form of regular exercise. You can easily incorporate this into your daily life by walking instead of using the car. Jogging and running are both excellent and don't require any equipment. There are many different types of great exercise classes offered at your local gym and most offer the service of a personal trainer who can design an exercise program that will include some resistance training with weights and a cardio vascular work out which is perfect for burning calories and thus reduce cholesterol. You might also like to consider some kind of competitive sport. It doesn't matter what you choose as long as you are disciplined and consistent.

As a last resort if your cholesterol levels are not reduced by diet and exercise your doctor may prescribe a course of drugs that are specifically created for the purpose of lowering cholesterol. The manufacturers of these medicines claims that can reduce cholesterol levels anywhere between fifteen to thirty percent, and this claim is substantiated by many studies that have shown significant reduction of cholesterol after taking these drugs.

On the negative side, drugs that are used to reduce levels of cholesterol do have certain contraindications and should never be taken unless under the advice of a physician.

You can monitor the levels of cholesterol in your system by having regular blood tests taken by your doctor, and you can ensure you are doing all you can to prevent the cholesterol levels increase by carefully choosing food that is proven to be beneficial for this condition, wherever you are.

About The Author:
Abhishek has got some great tips on Lowering Cholesterol! Download his FREE 85 Pages Ebook, "How To Lower Your Cholesterol" from his website http://www.Health-Whiz.com/506/index.htm. Only limited Free Copies available.


Lower Cholesterol Level

Seven Benefits of Elevated Cholesterol Levels

Lower Cholesterol Level Presents:

Seven Benefits of Elevated Cholesterol Levels

Elevated cholesterol levels are defined by members of the mainstream medical community as being any number over 200 mg/dl. High cholesterol levels would be any number over 240 mg/dl.

In the United States, we have been brainwashed into believing elevated cholesterol levels are harmful to your health. But consider the benefits cholesterol provides:

1. Cholesterol is essential to life. Every cell in your body requires cholesterol to maintain cell wall integrity.
2. Cholesterol is also the starting material from which your body makes vitamin D, hormones and bile acids for digestion.
3. Cholesterol helps the body fight infections and indeed they may be its most important benefit. Current research has suggested that heart disease and arteriosclerosis may be caused by infectious organisms, and higher levels of cholesterol protect the body from these inflammatory microorganisms.
4. Cholesterol acts as a protective substance against stroke and cancer.
5. Cholesterol is used by the body to repair injuries.
6. The brain uses cholesterol to build the synaptic connections between brain cells. In fact, the brain has special cells whose only job is to make cholesterol for the brain, since blood cholesterol can't get across the blood/brain barrier.
7. People with high cholesterol live the longest. There are multiple studies which support this fact. This is especially true for the elderly.

Cholesterol is so important to your body that it will make it if you don't eat enough. This self regulation makes it very difficult to use a low fat diet alone to lower your cholesterol. The less fat you eat, the more cholesterol your body makes.

Given all the evidence which confirms that cholesterol is protective and necessary for good health, I find it bizarre that the US government and most physicians work very hard to get people to lower their cholesterol levels as much as possible. The message that cholesterol is harmful is embedded deeply in the American psyche, and so the public doesn't question this misguided and harmful agenda.

But make no mistake, the drive to lower cholesterol is big business. Billions of dollars, thousands of jobs, and a multitude of agencies are involved in the overall goal of lowering American cholesterol levels. Huge amounts of money are spent to educate patients on the false benefits of a low fat, low cholesterol diet. Big pharmaceutical companies spend millions on developing and marketing drugs that lower cholesterol, often with injurious or lethal consequences.

For example, statin drugs, which cause serious nerve, muscle and kidney damage, are being prescribed in mind boggling numbers. Between 2000 and 2005, the total prescriptions for statin drugs nearly doubled, bringing the 2005 yearly total to 174 million.

And there are individual perks for physicians who participate in this cholesterol lowering business too. Pharmaceutical companies pay doctors huge amounts of money to "educate" other doctors about the benefits of drugs. In a story from New York Magazine, one doctor speaks of the addictiveness of the $750 he was paid each time he briefly mentioned a particular drug to colleagues during a lunch break.

That's a great deal of money and effort being spent on a goal that in the end, is extremely harmful to the patient.

And here's the real kicker: the cholesterol cut off level of 200 mg/dl wasn't set by doctors using scientific trials and medical results. In classic American political style, it was chosen by three men trying to get funding from Congress to continue cholesterol trials at the NHLBI. (National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute). They reasoned that cutoff of 200 mg/dl would provide the largest population for use in future studies.

So, as you can see, elevated cholesterol levels are actually a cause for celebration, not a dire health problem about which you should worry. If you have elevated cholesterol levels, and have been targeted for statin drug use, please spend some time researching the alternative facts on cholesterol and statins. You may save your own life in the long run.


About the Author
Ellen Davis researches nutrition and health issues and shares that information with other health conscious consumers. You can find more alternative information about nutrition and health at her website Healthy Eating Politics. The URL is http://www.healthy-eating-politics.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Ellen_L._Davis

Lower Cholesterol Level

High Cholesterol Foods - What to Eat and What Not to Eat

There's only two ways our body can have cholesterol. The first one is through our own production of cholesterol, which is produced by the liver. The cholesterol level produced by the liver is not the same in every people.

The second one is from the foods that we eat. Just like the cholesterol that’s produced by the liver, the cholesterol level that we get from the food that we eat is different for each person.

Certain level of cholesterol is needed by our bodies to live, however our cholesterol production from the liver can meet that demand without any problem. This makes all the cholesterol that we get from the food will be the excessive cholesterol that can endanger our health. Therefore to keep a lower cholesterol level and live a healthy life it is important to know what to eat and what not to eat.

There are a lot of foods that contain cholesterol and there are a lot of food that don't have the cholesterol. Mostly the food from animals; like beef, chickens, meat, they are contain cholesterol, while food process from plants; like veggies or fruit, they do not have cholesterol.

Not all the food that contains cholesterol is bad for the health. Some food; like the egg yolk is contain a very high in cholesterol, however egg yolk is the HDL cholesterol (read: good cholesterol) therefore egg yolk is good for you heart.

However, fried food like fried chickens or French fries usually contain a high level of LDL cholesterol (read: bad cholesterol) which are bad for you heart.

Therefore, to lower our high cholesterol level, it is advisable that we should reduce or even avoid meat, fat and dairy product in our diet. And we should increase fruits, vegetables and grain in our diet. Another thing, it’s better not to eat deep fried food, as well as fried food as they contain a high cholesterol level.

Familial Hypercholesterolemia Explained

FAMILIAL HYPERCHOLESTEROLEMIA

Familial Hypercholesterolemia is a condition where you have a disorder inherited from your parents that cause you have a high cholesterol level, therefore it increases you chance of having the heart attack in early ages. Usually a man can get heart attack when they are 40 to 55 years old and 50 to 65 years old for woman. but if you got Familial Hypercholesterolemia, you can get heart attack even when you are still in your mid twenties.

CAUSES OF FAMILIAL HYPERCHOLESTEROLEMIA

Receptor). You got two genes that making the LDL Receptor, and they were being inherited from your parents, one from your father and the other one from your mother. If one of the genes you inherited is not working properly or in worst case it is not working at all, which mean that it cannot dissolves cholesterol as much as it should be, then the amount of excess cholesterol stored in the bloodstream will be increased at lot more than normal as well. This will resulting that your have a lot of chances to get a heart attack in an early age.

HOW YOU GOT INHERITED

If your father or your mother inherits Familial Hypercholesterolemia, there is a 50 percent chance that you are going to inherit Familial Hypercholesterolemia too, then you should be checked by your doctor as early as since your two years old. However if your cholesterol level is normal at birth then you will never develop Familial Hypercholesterolemia in your life and you will never pass it to your children either.

High Cholesterol Level

Cholesterol is needed by our body to produce vitamin D, to produce many hormones and to digest fat. However we don't need too much cholesterol in our bloodstream in order to make those production function normally.

The problem with high cholesterol arise went we have too many unused cholesterol in our bloodstream. The excess cholesterol will be left unused in the blood vessel and will be contributed to the narrowing and blocking the bloodstream.

CAUSE OF HIGH CHOLESTEROL

>	Family History
	Your chances of having high cholesterol increase if you have a family history of high cholesterol. The most common type of this high cholesterol is called Familial hypercholesterolemia.
>	Overweight
	If you are overweight or you eat too much fat, it will certainly increase your cholesterol level. One irony of life is that the more tastier the food, the more likely it contain more fat.
>	Age and Gender
	When we are still a baby, our blood vessel is like a highway for the bloodstream to flow. As we grow older, our cholesterol level is increasing depending on our lifestyle.
	Women before menopause, will tend to have a lower cholesterol level than men with the same age. However women after menopause, will tend to have higher cholesterol level than men.
>	Mental Stress
	In some cases, when you stress mentally, your chance to have a high cholesterol level increase. This is due to the stress affecting habits, that stress people will likely to eat fatty foods.

HIGH CHOLESTEROL SYMPTOM

It would have been nice to know the high cholesterol symptom, so that you will know when your cholesterol level is start increasing for too much. Unfortunately there is no symptom at all that can alert you in any state. The only prevention step that you need to take is to have a blood test.

Cholesterol Level

CHOLESTEROL LEVEL

What is a good cholesterol Level ? How do you know if your cholesterol level is a normal cholesterol level, a healthy cholesterol level or even a high cholesterol level.

Your cholesterol level is shown in millimoles per liter of blood (mmol/L) in the world standard or in milligrams per deciliter of blood (mg/dL) in the US standard.

The only way to know your cholesterol level is by having a blood test.

NORMAL CHOLESTEROL LEVEL

You are considered to have a healthy cholesterol level if you have a total blood cholesterol level below 200mg/dl or 5 mmol/L, in condition that your LDL cholesterol level, HDL cholesterol level and triglyceride level also at healthy level, and you don't have other risks (eg. smoking or have a family history of heart disease or diabetes).

However if you do smoke and have family history of heart disease, the Joint British Societies (a group of the main UK expert societies involved in cardiovascular disease) recommend the good cholesterol level is to have the total cholesterol to be less than 4.0mmol/L

BORDERLINE HIGH CHOLESTEROL LEVEL

You are in borderline high cholesterol level if you have a total blood cholesterol level between 200 - 239 mg/dL (5 - 6.21 mmol/L). if your cholesterol level is in this category, does not mean that you in the risk of heart attack. it is possible to be in this category with your LDL cholesterol level desirable and your HDL cholesterol level high.

What is important if you are in this category is that you need to work with your doctor to evaluate the LDL cholesterol level, HDL cholesterol level and triglyceride level, monitoring them and create a prevention and treatment plan that works for you (eg, lifestyle changing, dietary, or medication), to bring the level to normal cholesterol level.

HIGH CHOLESTEROL LEVEL

If you have your cholesterol level of 240 mg/dl (6.21 mmol/L) or more, you are in the high cholesterol level category which also can put you into twice the risk of getting heart attack than those of people who have their cholesterol level normal.

You must act fast in this category, stop smoking, change to a healthy dietary, exercise at least 30 min a day, and the most important things is to work closely together with your doctor to create a prevention and treatment plan that works best and fast for you.