For years, as the obesity crisis in America deep end and worsened, we as a society heard about the importance of maintaining a watch on our cholesterol. “Low cholesterol,” the theory held, “would lead to lower chance of heart disease, cardiac arrest, stroke, diabetes and a host of other inflammatory conditions.”

But monitoring your overall cholesterol is only part of the plan to a healthier and happier, not to mention thinner, life. It’s equally important to understand that cholesterol isn’t just a monolithic measurement of your health, but can be broken down into distinct parts itself.

One part is Low-density cholesterol (LDL), or “bad” cholesterol. Generally speaking, the lower this number is, the better for you. The other part is High-density cholesterol (HDL), or “good” cholesterol. You want to get this number as high as you can.

So what, then, is there to know about your ldl and hdl cholesterol levels? Well, generally speaking your ldl cholesterol levels should be 130 or below. If, however, you’re at higher risk for an inflammatory disease such as heart disease or diabetes – both of which have grown exponentially in the United States over the past four decades – your target should be 100 or below. There are ways to achieve this, starting obviously with diet. Cut out fatty foods, processed foods, and overeating. Instead, you should aim to keep your proteins lean – fish and chicken are the standbys here – and your vegetables fresh. It’s also important to remember that we evolved over four million years, and only in the last 50 have we been able to live a lifestyle that included more than one serving of meat a day. So yes, a salad or rice and beans for lunch several times a
week is a wise choice.

With hdl cholesterol levels, it’s not nearly as easy to improve. The only thing shown to consistently raise hdl cholesterol levels is steady aerobic activity. That’s right – regular exercise. Getting your hdl cholesterol levels up above 50 (above 60 if you’re in an at-risk group) means getting on an exercise bike, going for a jog, doing Billy Blane tae bow or the like for about 20 minutes a day four times a week. This is why there are no extensive books about hdl cholesterol levels diets and the like – there are no diets that have been shown conclusively to effect hdl cholesterol levels. Exercise is the only key here.

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It seems that everywhere you turn these days, there’s another study that tells people what they should or shouldn’t eat in order to promote good health. Often, this advice conflicts with beliefs or practices that were widespread a decade or so before. For instance, bread and grains used to be at the bottom of the Food Pyramid, with experts recommending at least 5 servings per day. But now carbohydrates have become one of the most vilified food groups around, and are blamed for everything from potbellies to cavities. Give it another 10 years, and carbs will be in again!

One thing that all the experts do seem to agree on is that heart disease remains a major health hazard to Americans. Therefore, it’s important to try to lower your cholesterol any way you can. If you already have a serious problem, then your doctor probably has you on a prescription drug regimen to help regulate levels. If you’re just a bit on the high side and want to rein things in before they get out of hand, then there are lots of ways to lower your cholesterol naturally.

The best way to do this is by exercising regularly. Though doctors aren’t 100 percent sure what the connection is, current thinking suggests that exercise helps jump start the enzymes responsible for moving low-density lipoprotein (LDL) from your bloodstream to your liver, where it is subsequently turned into bile and excreted. So the more you exercise, the more stimulation those critical enzymes receive, and the lower your cholesterol becomes.

Another way to lower your cholesterol is by modifying your diet. Cutting out or greatly reducing your intake of red meat, fried foods, and other animal-based products can yield the desired effect of lowering the body’s LDL levels. You can substitute these fatty foods with healthier choices like chicken, turkey, or fish, and can also add whole grains, such as oatmeal, and nuts such as almonds, hazelnuts, walnuts, and pistachios.

If exercise and a better diet aren’t helping lower your cholesterol significantly enough, you can try taking some supplements as well. There are various herbal supplements on the market that are said to have a positive effect on LDL. Although these claims are not approved or endorsed by the FDA, many people have reported success with ingredients like garlic, turmeric, red yeast rice, artichoke leaf extract, and other herbs. In addition, fish oil supplements with EPA and DHA are widely regarded as effective products that can help lower your cholesterol.

As you can see, there are lots of things you can do to limit your risk of heart disease. By using these tips to lower your cholesterol, you can enjoy better health and a longer life. I think the tradeoff is worth it!

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People now seem to understand that high cholesterol is a bad thing, and take steps to eliminate cholesterol. Sort of. The information about cholesterol can be hard to understand. It is complicated: there is good and bad cholesterol, and people don’t seem to understand what causes high cholesterol. There are a couple of things that causes high cholesterol, and hopefully, with a few of these tips, you can avoid food that causes high cholesterol, and enjoy a happier and healthier life.

First of all, there is such a thing as good and bad cholesterol. Bad cholesterol sticks to the walls of your blood vessels (arteries) and make it difficult to pump blood throughout your body. This is why cholesterol leads to other diseases and conditions, such as heart attacks and strokes; the blood is unable to bring oxygen to certain organs, resulting in failures. When people speak with concern about what causes high cholesterol, they specifically mean what causes bad cholesterol.

Bad cholesterol causes high cholesterol, and this is found almost exclusively in trans fat and saturated fat foods. It is these foods that cause high cholesterol. Some examples of foods that are high in saturated fat (and therefore, high in bad cholesterol) include red meat and dairy (specifically, butter and whole milk and cream). Trans fats are even worse, and these are found in the variety of hydrogenated oils in packaged foods, such as cookies and frozen dinners, as well as fried foods, such as french fries and chicken fingers.

Good cholesterol, on the other hand, helps your body remove bad cholesterol from your arteries. Good cholesterol can be found in such foods as nuts and legumes (think beans), as well as avocados and egg whites. In addition to good cholesterol, regular exercise is imperative to keeping your arteries free from bad cholesterol. For this regular exercise to have a positive effect on your arteries, you should exercise for thirty to forty minutes, three or four times a week. This exercise should be at least a light jog, anything to build a light sweat, for a continuous period of time. This causes your blood to pump a little harder, clearing out the bad cholesterol from clogging up your arteries.

Fatty foods and a lack of exercise are what causes high cholesterol, but it is simple and easy with to avoid bad cholesterol, as well as simple to begin an exercise today to help your arteries stay healthy.

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Everyone seems to understand a few things about cholesterol. Certainly, just by reading the newspaper, watching TV or browsing the Internet, you’ve learned that cholesterol is bad for you. But how much do you really know about cholesterol? Perhaps you’ve heard of good and bad cholesterol, but do you really know what that means? And while you might know that cholesterol is bad for you, do you happen to know why? And how to reduce the amount of cholesterol in your diet? Here is a primer about cholesterol that will help improve your knowledge, and hopefully your health, immediately.

Cholesterol is bad because it hardens and clogs your arteries, the main pathways that your heart uses to distribute blood throughout your body. An abundance of cholesterol in your diet will stay in your blood, blocking the arteries and making it difficult to pump blood through. This is actually how strokes happen; the cholesterol build-up blocks the oxygen that blood carries to your brain. Similarly, this is how heart attacks happen.

But what is cholesterol exactly? It is a waxy, fat-based substance that is found in a variety of high-fat foods. Some examples of food that is high in cholesterol include butter (the highest per serving), other diary products, such as ice cream and whole milk, and red meats. What most people aren’t aware about cholesterol is that your main source of cholesterol is… you. Your liver produces most of the cholesterol in your body, which is needed to create cell membranes. However, your liver more or less produces the “perfect” amount, and so a diet that is out of control with cholesterol will quickly cause problems in your blood.

So what is good and bad cholesterol all about? Good cholesterol will actually remove the levels of bad cholesterol in your blood. Some example of food rich in this good/HDL cholesterol include oils, such as olive oils and a variety of nuts. Also, your body produces more HDL cholesterol when you exercise, so this is crucial in lowering the amount of cholesterol in your body.

To summarize about cholesterol, bad/LDL cholesterol will clog your arteries and lead to a myriad of health problems, many of them fatal. While your body produces cholesterol, health problems result in eating foods with high LDL cholesterol, such as fried foods, processed foods, and red meat and diary products. You can ingest more HDL cholesterol to help lower cholesterol levels by eating more oils and nuts and, most importantly, regular exercise.

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According to neurologists, the brain is the most delicate organ of the body. Weighing at only 2 percent of the total weight of the body, it is responsible for every thought, sensation and movement of the human body. In order to function, it needs to have a constant supply of glucose and oxygen which is handled by an intricate web of arteries. If any part of the brain does not receive enough oxygen, these functions are impaired and may eventually cause permanent brain damage. When artery blockage occurs, we say that a person has had a stroke. In some cases, a stroke may occur when the blood vessels rupture in the brain flooding it with blood and thus causing damage to brain tissue. Before we can see how to go about stroke prevention, let us look at the effects of a stroke.

Every stroke is different and its effects can range from mild to obvious results. This is because the effects are determined by what part of the brain is affected and as a result the bodily functions that are impaired may vary. A common affliction is limb paralysis. When the left side of the brain is affected, it results in the right-sided paralysis and when the right side of the brain is affected it results in the left-side paralysis. Sometimes though a victim may retain the use of limbs, but he or she may have lost the sensation of the limbs. They usually look like novice skaters trying to keep their balance. 15 percent of stroke survivors suffer from seizures. Any of the five senses can be affected and victims may sometimes experience numbness of feet and hands and such indignities as drooling. So can one undertake stroke prevention measures?

As one doctor said about stroke prevention, “the best way to deal with stroke is to attempt to prevent it.” The number one factor associated with strokes is blood pressure. In order to prevent dangerous blood pressures that carry the risks of strokes, it is important to watch one’s diet. A diet rich in potassium and low in salts, cholesterol and saturated fat will help keep the blood pressure in check. Regular exercise is also another prerequisite to good health. One who exercises sheds excess pounds and reduces the chances of artery blockage. Stroke prevention measures also go hand in hand with prevention of heart diseases. Also on the list is diabetes. People with diabetes run a higher risk of getting a stroke and thus the need for caution. Other preventive measures include a regular intake of fresh fruits, vegetables and grains and minimum alcohol consumption. Indeed, there is no better solution to stroke problems than a healthy, moderate lifestyle.

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