Cholesterol is one of the major substances that cause heart attacks, high blood cholesterol levels, and weight problems. Despite its ?bad guy image,? this waxy, fat-like substances made in the body by the person?s own liver serves a number of vital functions unknown to many.

Basically, there are two types of cholesterol: the Low-Density Lipoprotein (LDL) and the High-Density Lipoprotein (HDL). The former refers to the bad type of cholesterol that is known to clog the person?s blood vessels, thus, increasing the risk for a heart attack or a heart disease. Studies show that a diet that is high in saturated fat is a main dietary cause of a raised LDL cholesterol level. The latter, on the other hand, is the good type of cholesterol that helps clear LDL cholesterol out of the blood stream, thus, reducing the risk for any heart illness. Researches have shown that a diet rich in fruit and vegetables along with average levels of omega-3 from fish oil greatly helps raise HDL cholesterol levels.

Although diet is the major reason for having high cholesterol levels, experts agree that factors such as genetics, lack of exercise or regular physical activity, obesity, unhealthy lifestyle such as excessive drinking and smoking, hormones, and varying high and low cholesterol levels can trigger the sudden increase of cholesterol levels in the body.

GETTING STARTED

Indeed, cholesterol is a growing problem in the health of many people in the world. Experts say that people over 20 years of age should be more concerned about their cholesterol levels; thus, they should start doing everything they can to lower LDL cholesterol. Although it is quite hard to stick to the needed requirements and regiments to combat the growing problem, experts say that it can be controlled with the proper diet to lower cholesterol.

Studies show that a good diet to lower cholesterol can reduce a person?s risk for heart diseases while getting rid of bad fats because this diet to emphasizes on eating heart-healthy foods. But, aside from using the proper and proven low cholesterol diets available today, the most important thing is that knowing and taking in the right foods and effective cholesterol formulas to assist in lowering cholesterol levels.

Experts say that a diet to lower cholesterol includes good foods like grains?especially whole grain products and cereals?fish rich in omega3 such as salmon and tune, a variety of fruits and leafy vegetables, nuts, juices, and the like. Here are other effective means of lowering cholesterol level through diet:

1. Make sure that you visit your attending physician first before trying out any low cholesterol diets so he/she could administer the proper examinations and access your general health status.

2. You can lower your cholesterol levels by replacing saturated fat with polyunsaturated fat in meat, chicken, and whole milk products.

3. Refrain from eating refined carbohydrates contained by bakery products, pastas, and sugary or sugar-added foods.

4. When eating out, makes sure that you ask the waiter to make serving substitutions like steamed or boiled food preparations. If possible, also pick lean meat, fish, or skinless chicken that is broiled, baked, grilled, steamed, or poached instead of being fried and ask for lots of vegetable side dishes and fresh fruit desserts.

5. Cutting down on eggs, margarine, or butter out of your daily diet.

6. Use natural-based oils such as vegetable, corn, and olive oils when cooking instead of the usual cooking oil.

7. Load up on a lot of garlic when you?re preparing dishes because it contains substances that help lower HDL cholesterol.

8. Take in high quality daily vitamin mineral supplements like Vitamin E to improve blood circulation, and Vitamin C and vitamin B3 to lower your high cholesterol levels.

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Lower Your Cholesterol Level - The Difference Between Good Cholesterol and Bad Cholesterol
By Gordon Cameron

We all nowadays know the importance of trying to reduce cholesterol and many of us actively take steps to achieve a lower cholesterol level in our blood. I am frequently asked the question: “what is the difference between good cholesterol and bad cholesterol?”

So what is HDL cholesterol? (the good cholesterol) and what is ldl cholesterol? (the bad cholesterol). Read on and find out. Cholesterol circulates in our blood attached to a protein called a lipoprotein. There are two basic types of lipoprotein. High density lipoprotein (HDL) or low density lipoprotein (LDL). HDL is usually labeled as “good cholesterol” because the molecule is mostly protein and does not carry a high quantity of free fat along with it.

LDL on the other hand is a molecule that only has a small amount of protein and for the most part is made of of freely available and very easily dissolved cholesterol fat. LDL is often referred to as “bad cholesterol.”

If you have a lot of good cholesterol or HDL in your system then your heart will be quite well protected from the effects of fat. If you have a lot of LDL - or bad cholesterol - then you will be at greater risk of heart attack or stroke. This information has now been shown to be correct in countless medical studies throughout the world.

If you are having a cholesterol check or cholesterol blood test then your doctor will look at your blood test result and check the level of the Total Cholesterol count. He or she will then examine the count for the level of the good cholesterol or HDL. The ratio of the total cholesterol divided by the HDL level is thought to be a reflection of the “true cholesterol level” in your blood and as such is a good predictor of future heart attack or stroke problems.

For example - a total cholesterol count of 6.0 and an HDL count of 1.5 will give a ratio of 4.0. This is a healthy level and will usually indicate good cardiovascular health. A total count of 6.0 and an HDL count of 0.5 will give a ratio of 12.0: very bad news indeed from the point of view of stroke and heart attack risk.

(Note - these are UK values for typical results - US values will be different but the ratios will be the same: the UK and the US use different units to measure cholesterol levels.)

If you have a high cholesterol then get focused and take steps to change your lifestyle now. If you don’t know what your cholesterol level is then make plans to speak to your doctor about whether you need it checked or not.

Dr Gordon Cameron is a doctor based in Edinburgh, Scotland. He has a special interest in blood pressure treatment.
You can discover how to lower blood pressure and about the problems of low blood pressure by visiting Dr Cameron’s websites.

He has also written about using acupuncture for high blood pressure.

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“Good ” and “bad ” cholesterol
By Groshan Fabiola

How many of you know that besides the cholesterol that causes many medical conditions there is also a “good ” cholesterol. In your body there are two types of cholesterol: HDL, which is the good cholesterol and LDL, the bad cholesterol. For many years now, having a high level of HDL was thought to be very beneficial to your health. This high level of cholesterol was thought to give you some kind of protection against heart conditions. However, lately there have been some attention to lowering all cholesterol levels, not only the LDL cholesterol level, known as the bad cholesterol.

In spite of their intial believes that said that HDL cholesterol levels which are high can protect you from heart problems, recent studies have shown that this cholesterol level is actually a risk of heart disease. But this risk is only if you have a low HDL cholesterol level. So the advice that you were given, to lower both cholesterol levels was wrong. This was discovery that shook a little all the knowledge about cholesterol that people had. Furthermore, it was also discovered that even if the LDL cholesterol level was in normal limits, people that had the good cholesterol levels a little lower were very much at risk of developing an artery problem. A normal HDL cholesterol level is when you have minimum 35 mg/ Dl. There was also another cholesterol question that has found it’ s answer. Why is the HDL cholesterol “good ” ? Well, it seems in fact that not the actual cholesterol is beneficial, but the work that it does. This cholesterol, HDL cholesterol is actually a very complex molecule.

This type of
cholesterol is the combination of lipids, protein and cholesterol. What this cholesterol molecule does is to clean out the walls of your
blood vessels. The HDL cholesterol actually takes out the cholesterol excess that is found in your blood. Yes, this means that actually the “god ” cholesterol cleans out the “bad ” cholesterol that is found in your blood. This LDL cholesterol is then taken back to your liver for more processing. This is the reason why, one cholesterol must be risen: to help the other cholestrol level to lower and thus protecting you from heart conditions.

The most common thing that one can to rise their HDL cholesterol levels is exercise. Jogging, riding a bike, even walking can rise your “good ” cholesterol levels.

For greater resources on cholesterol please review http://www.cholesterol-info-guide.com/low-cholesterol-recipe.htm or http://www.cholesterol-info-guide.com/low-cholesterol-food.htm

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Good Cholesterol Versus Bad Cholesterol - Is HDL Good Or LDL Good?
By Hope Pope

I am sure you have heard of both good and bad cholesterol… but I am guessing you don’t know whether HDL is the good cholesterol or LDL is the good cholesterol, do you? Or vice versa… which one is the bad cholesterol?

The way I remember it is LDL starts with L… and L is for “lousy”… so obviously LDL would be the bad cholesterol.

HDL starts with H… and H is for “healthy”… so HDL is the good cholesterol.

Ok, now that you know which is the good cholesterol… and which is the bad cholesterol, here are some other facts you should know about cholesterol…

You might be wondering why your “total cholesterol” is not the same number as when you add up your LDL (lowsy cholesterol) and your HDL (healthy cholesterol) together.

To get the total cholesterol, they do add the HDL cholesterol and the LDL cholesterol together… however, they also add 1/5th of your triglycerides as well.

So, for instance, if your HDL is 80… and your LDL is 90… and your triglycerides are 100, your total cholesterol would be 190 (80 %2B 90 %2B 20)… or HDL %2B LDL %2B 1/5^th of 100.

Now you may think that having a cholesterol score of 190 is good… since it is under 200. However, in rare instances, 190 may not be a healthy cholesterol score.

You need to take into consideration all of the parts.

For instance, research shows the optimal LDL should be below 100… and anything above an LDL score of 160 is considered too high.

And in the case of HDL, anything under 40 is considered bad.

Triglycerides should be less than 150.

So if your cholesterol score is under 200, you may not want to jump for joy until you make sure your LDL is below 100… your HDL is above 40… and your triglycerides are less than 150.
If they are, then by all means… jump for joy!

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