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What is cholesterol? Cholesterol is a waxy, fat-like substance that your body needs to function normally. It is naturally present in everywhere in the body, including the brain, nerves, muscles, and heart Your body uses cholesterol to produce many hormones, vitamin D, and the bile acids that help to digest fat.
Why cholesterol is important? High blood cholesterol is one of the major risk factors for heart disease. . Heart disease is the number one killer of women and men in the United States. Each year, more than a million Americans have heart attacks, and about a half million people die from heart disease.
How Does Cholesterol Cause heart disease?
If you have too much cholesterol in your blood stream, it builds up in the walls of your arteries that supply nutrients and oxygen to your heart. Over time, this buildup causes "hardening of the arteries" so that arteries become narrowed and blood flow to the heart is slowed down or blocked. you may suffer chest pain. If the blood supply to a portion of the heart is completely cut off by a blockage, the result is a heart attack.
What are the symptoms of high cholesterol?
High blood cholesterol itself does not cause symptoms, so many people are unaware that their cholesterol level is too high. It is usually discovered on routine screening and has no symptoms. It is more common if you have a family history of it. It is important to find out what your cholesterol numbers are because lowering cholesterol levels that are too high lessens the risk for developing heart disease and reduces the chance of a heart attack or dying of heart disease, even if you already have it. Cholesterol lowering is important for everyone--younger, middle age, and older adults; women and men; and people with or without heart disease.
What Do Your Cholesterol Numbers Mean?
Everyone age 20 and older should have their cholesterol measured at least once every 5 years. It is best to have a blood test called a "lipoprotein profile" to find out your cholesterol numbers. This blood test is done after a 9- to 12-hour fast and gives information about your:� Total cholesterol � LDL (bad) cholesterol--the main source of cholesterol buildup and blockage in the arteries
�HDL (good) cholesterol-helps keep cholesterol from building up in the arteries �Triglycerides-another form of fat in your blood.
If your total cholesterol is 200 mg/dL* or more or if your HDL is less than 40 mg/dL, you will need to have a lipoprotein profile done.
What makes your cholesterol high or low ?
Your blood cholesterol level is affected not only by what you eat but also by how quickly your body makes LDL ("bad") cholesterol and disposes of it. In fact, your body makes all the cholesterol it needs, and it is not necessary to take in any additional cholesterol from the foods you eat.Many factors help determine whether your LDL-cholesterol level is high or low. The following factors are the most important:�
Heredity
�What you eat
Weight
Physical activity/exercise
Age and sex
Alcohol
Stress
Heredity. One specific form of inherited high cholesterol that affects 1 in 500 people is familial hypercholesterolemia, which often leads to early heart disease. What you eat. Two main nutrients in the foods you eat make your LDL ("bad") cholesterol level go up: saturated fat, and cholesterol, which comes only from animal products. Weight. Excess weight tends to increase your LDL ("bad") cholesterol level. Physical activity/exercise. Regular physical activity may lower LDL ("bad") cholesterol and raise HDL ("good") cholesterol levels. Age and sex. Before the age of menopause, women usually have total cholesterol levels that are lower than those of men the same age. Alcohol. Alcohol intake increases HDL ("good") cholesterol but does not lower LDL ("bad") cholesterol. Doctors don't know for certain whether alcohol also reduces the risk of heart disease. Drinking too much alcohol can damage the liver and heart muscle, lead to high blood pressure, and raise triglycerides. Because of the risks, alcoholic beverages should not be used as a way to prevent heart diseaStress. Stress over the long term has been shown in several studies to raise blood cholesterol levels.
What affects cholesterol level ?Risk factors are conditions that increase your risk for developing heart disease. Some risk factors can be changed and others cannot. In general, the more risk factors you have, the greater your chance of developing heart disease.
Risk factors you cannot control
Age (45 years or older for men; 55 years or older for women)
Family history of early heart disease (father or brother affected before age 55 years;
mother or sister affected before age 65 years)
Risk factors you can control
High blood cholesterol
Low HDL (good) cholesterol Smoking
High blood pressure Diabetes: Obesity/excess weight
Physical inactivity
What is your risk of developing heart disease or having a heart attack ?
Calculate your 10-year risk of having a heart attack. The risk assessment tool presented at this link is from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute�s National Cholesterol Education Program
Treating high cholesterol
The main goal of cholesterol-lowering treatment is to lower your LDL level enough to reduce your risk of developing heart disease or having a heart attack. The higher your risk, the lower your LDL goal will be. There are two main ways to lower your cholesterol:
Therapeutic Lifestyle Changes (TLC)--includes a cholesterol-lowering diet (called the TLC diet), physical activity, and weight management. TLC is for anyone whose LDL is above goal.
Drug Treatment--
--if cholesterol-lowering drugs are needed, they are used together with TLC treatment to help lower your LDL.To reduce your risk for heart disease or keep it low, it is very important to control any other risk factors you may have such as high blood pressure and smoking.
Therapeutic Lifestyle Changes (TLC)
TLC is a set of things you can do to help lower your LDL cholesterol. The main parts of TLC are:� The TLC Diet. This is a low-saturated-fat, low-cholesterol eating plan . The TLC diet recommends only enough calories to maintain a desirable weight and avoid weight gain. Certain food products that contain plant stanols or plant sterols (for example, cholesterol-lowering margarines and salad dressings) can also be added to the TLC diet to boost its LDL-lowering power.
Weight Management. Losing weight if you are overweight can help lower LDL
� Physical Activity. Regular physical activity (30 minutes on most, if not all, days) is recommended for everyone. It can help raise HDL and lower LDL and is especially important for those with high triglyceride and/or low HDL levels who are overweight with a large waist measurement