Posts Tagged ‘Good Cholesterol’
As we age we naturally have plaques build up in our arteries. This is called arteriosclerosis which is a hardening of the arteries. This can lead to blood clots that can cause a heart attack or stroke. Hardening of the arteries and blockage of major arteries is one of the leading causes of death by disease in the United States. In fact heart disease itself kills more people every year then the next 6 diseases combined.
The degree to which ischemic heart disease affects each individual depends on a variety of factors including age, genetics, diet and exercise habits, and smoking. For many people who are at high risk it is important to make certain lifestyle changes that will reduce this risk.
Since medical science and doctors know the causes of ischemic heart disease they also know the steps to take to prevent or reverse its effects. And the steps one can take to avoid its effects are actually quite simple. Eat a healthy diet and avoid foods high in saturated fat, get more regular exercise to strengthen the cardiovascular system, drink alcohol in moderation, and stop smoking. By making these types of simple lifestyle changes you can avoid and prevent the onset of this disease.
Saturated fats are one of the leading causes of plaque build up in the arteries. By avoiding fatty foods that contain these types of fats you can significantly reduce your risk of heart disease. In fact if you eat more fish that are high in omega 3 fatty acids you can significantly reduce the build up of plaques. Omega 3 help build up the good cholesterol call HDL which helps remove the bad cholesterol (LDL).
Exercise will significantly reduce the risk of ischemic heart disease by helping the body effectively remove excess body fat and reduce the risk posed by obesity. Any form of exercise, whether its daily walks, working around the yard, or a full on exercise program will work wonders when it comes to preventing this condition.
Just a few changes can make all the difference in the world when it comes to fighting and preventing ischemic heart disease.
By: Andrew Bicknell
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To learn more about ischemic heart disease please visit the website Understanding Heart Disease by clicking here.
According to the American Heart Association, heart disease is the nation’s single leading cause of death for both men and women. At least 58.8 million people in this country suffer from some form of heart disease. It involves the blocking, either partial or total, of the arteries that lead to the human heart. But, you can help to protect yourself from heart disease by following these simple health tips:
Maintain a healthy weight
As you put on weight in adulthood, you gain mostly fatty tissue. This excess weight can lead to conditions that increase your chances of heart disease — high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes.
How do you know if your weight is healthy? One way is to calculate your body mass index (BMI), which considers your height and weight in determining whether you have a healthy or unhealthy percentage of body fat.
BMI numbers 25 and higher are associated with higher blood fats, higher blood pressure, and an increased risk of heart disease and stroke.
Exercise
Exercise has an effect on every other risk factor for heart disease except smoking. When you exercise regularly, your heart, which is muscle, gets stronger. Stronger hearts require fewer beats to pump blood and oxygen throughout your body. Your blood pressure can be reduced as you become more physically fit. And if you burn more calories than you eat, you’ll lose body fat and weight, too.
Exercise also affects the blood itself, increasing circulation, producing more HDL (the “good” cholesterol) lowering blood sugar levels, helping prevent the formation of harmful blood clots and lowering the amount of adrenaline that your body needs.
Best of all, exercise makes you feel better. Walking is one of the best ways to control stress and prevent depression — for heart patients and everyone else, too.
Lose weight if you’re overweight. Your doctor can advise you about the best ways to lose weight.
Eat right. Lower or eliminate your intake of red meat and fats in your diet. This includes fatty foods such as whole milk, dairy products, potato chips, rich gravies, and the like. These foods can and do raise your bad cholesterol level. Switch to skim milk, eat lean meats, and just do without the chips and the other junk foods that you just do not need for good health. Put more fresh vegetables and fresh fruit into your daily diet. Eat plenty of fiber which has been shown to help in reducing the bad blood cholesterol level.
Tobacco Smoke
A smoker’s risk of heart attack is more than twice that of nonsmokers. The nicotine and carbon monoxide in tobacco smoke reduce the amount of oxygen in the blood. They also damage blood vessel walls and may trigger the formation of blood clots. Smoking also reduces “good” cholesterol, which promotes heart disease. If you do smoke, get help to quit now! There are many effective programs to help you quit. Once you stop smoking your risk of heart disease starts to drop and over time will be about the same as if you’d never smoked.
Niacin is the closest thing available to a perfect treatment that corrects most causes of coronary heart disease. Niacin blocks the release of fatty acids from fat cells. Niacin plays a critical role in energy production, gene expression, and hormone synthesis. You cannot live without it. Niacin also tends to shift LDL particle distribution to larger particle size and improve HDL functioning. The intake of 3 grams Niacin for as little as two weeks can reduce serum cholesterol by 26 percent.
Pectin limits the amount of cholesterol the body can absorb. High pectin count in apples may be why “One a day keeps the doctor away”.
By: Alien
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Read out for Alzheimer’s treatment. Check out blood pressure and stress
People began to be concerned about their total cholesterol levels and could even tell the difference between low-density lipids (LDL) or bad cholesterol and high-density lipids (HDL) or good cholesterol.Doctors militantly advocated cholesterol levels below 200 (this number has steadily dropped over the years). The LDL and HDL levels became just as important.
A high LDL and a low HDL spelled trouble. Cholesterol levels were attacked with lipid (blood fats) lowering drugs including the statins- Lipitor, Zocor, Crestor, Vytorin, and others. It is never too late to begin living healthy, but the sooner a person begins, the better. Healthy living does not demand anything that is intensive, unconventional or painful. All it calls for is moderation. A little bit of knowledge and good sense goes a long way.If you want a healthy heart, for the rest of your life,
follow the tips below.
• Watch What You Eat. Consume a good deal of fruit and vegetables.An excitable formula to check you’re eating an assortment of nutrients is to keep meals colorful. Colors will cover some of the important stable amount of nutrients from food.
• Do not smoke! It is long-known that smoking and secondhand smoke are dangerous, but most importantly smoking in front of your children could jeopardize their health. Your children future habits could also depend on your present habits, and smoking could become ingrained in their subconscious mind. It has been demonstrated that children are more than likely to smoke if they were brought up in a family where one or both parents also smoked.
• Sustain a healthy weight. Reduce the intake saturated fats and cholesterol through food. It is not just vital to be sure you are not overweight but also to check for any excess abdominal fat, which poses a far greater hazard of getting some of the life threatening heart disease
.• Restrict your alcohol uptake. Controlled alcohol consumption might in reality be healthful, particularly red wine, which supplies antioxidants for your heart. People who drink large amounts of alcohol tend to have higher blood pressure
.• Find out healthy means to cope with stress. This is crucial. We all have regular stress in our lifetime and the manner in which you deal with stress sends out powerful signals and sets up a blueprint of behavior your children will certainly copy.
• Supervise cholesterol levels.Frequent health check ups are essential, since cholesterol could be high even in people who appear to be otherwise well. Chronically elevated cholesterol increases buildup of atherosclerotic plaque.
• Monitor blood pressure. Arterial blood pressure should be kept at optimum levels in order to prevent the chance of a cerebrovascular (stroke) and cardiovascular (heart) disease.The higher the blood pressure, the higher the health risks on the heart and the brain
.• Undergo tests for diabetes. Diabetes can show no symptoms until it has already turn a critical threat to health. Type 2 diabetes is the most common type and it is associated with obesity.
• Exercise! Make it a habit to include some physical activity into your daily routine. Routine physical activity is helpful in controlling obesity. This will support your health, and add to longevity.Reduce your risk to heart disease and stroke. Start today. Delay is not an option as your health is at stake.
By: herbalremedies
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Visit Goherbalremedies Herbal Remedies, Natural Remedies Also Read About Memory Improvement, Stress Reduction and Bacopa, Treating Anxiety
That leaves the other 90 percent of the heart disease causing factors that you may be able to do something about. If you are at risk because of heredity factor then modifying your life style and taking certain precautions could substantially reduce your risk of developing heart disease.
Doctors cannot agree on the number one cause of heart disease, so you will have to evaluate the evidence yourself and determine your own risk/reward ratio. Smoking, obesity, and high cholesterol are usually in the forefront of any study.
The chemicals in cigarettes can damage artery walls, thereby making it easier for cholesterol deposits to build blood-blocking deposits on the artery walls. Smoking also makes platelets, the component of blood that causes clotting and carries oxygen, to be more active, thus increasing the risks of blood clots that cause heart attacks and storks.
A body needs cholesterol and can actually produce all it needs, so when we ingest foods high in cholesterols, like dairy and meat products, our bodies get a lot more cholesterol than they need. The body saves cholesterol instead of excreting it, and that cholesterol gets stored along the walls of the arteries. Too many cholesterol deposits lead to artery blockage and clots.
Having a large numbers of large HDL particles correlates with better health and it is commonly called “good cholesterol”. Having a large number of LDL particles in the blood is commonly called “bad cholesterol”. However, as today’s testing methods determine LDL (”bad”) and HDL (”good”) cholesterol separately, this simplistic view has become somewhat outdated.
High blood pressure is also thought to be a major cause of heart disease. Give this a try. Plug you nose and breath through you mouth. No problem right? Now put something about the size of a garden hose in you mount and breath through that. It is harder to get enough oxygen but it is still not unreasonable. Not try breathing through a straw. You will not be able to do this for every long before you have to give up.
Your arteries are narrowed because of all that cholesterol stored on the walls of the arteries. But your body needs the same amount of oxygen that is supplied by the blood that is always has. Your heart has to pump harder and faster to give the body what it needs. As you arteries become narrower and narrower your heat has to work harder and harder. Sooner or later something has got to give.
Obesity is another factor that can cause heart disease. Often obesity comes with high cholesterol and high blood pressure, which can increase the risk of heart disease and stroke. Since there are more areas that need blood because of the increased size of someone suffering from obesity the heart must work harder to supply the needs of the body.
Stress is also associated with heart disease. But unless your parents are stressing you out enough to cause a heart attack, they are not the cause of heart disease.
Common Vitamins and over the counter products can help with Heart Disease such as Vitamin C, Lecithin, Pectin, Garlic, EPA, Niacin and Phytosterols.
Vitamin C has been shown to combat the development of cholesterol deposits in the arteries. Within a few hours after receiving vitamin C patients showed a sharp decline in the cholesterol levels of the blood.
Lecithin has the potential to protect against fat clogged arteries when take daily.
Pectin limits the amount of cholesterol the body can absorb. High pectin count in apples may be why “One a day keeps the doctor away”.
Garlic counteracts the usual result of high fats in the diet and to help reduce high blood pressure.
Studies of the Greenland Eskimos lack of heart attacks have show that Eico-Sapentaenoic Acid (EPA) lowers blood cholesterol considerably, even more than polyunsaturated fat does. It also triggers a major drop in triglycerides. Salmon Oil is one of the best-known sources of natural EPA.
Niacin is the closest thing available to a perfect treatment that corrects most causes of coronary heart disease. Niacin blocks the release of fatty acids from fat cells. Niacin plays a critical role in energy production, gene expression, and hormone synthesis. You cannot live without it. Niacin also tends to shift LDL particle distribution to larger particle size and improve HDL functioning. The intake of 3 grams Niacin for as little as two weeks can reduce serum cholesterol by 26 percent.
Phytosterols is found in flax seed and peanuts, which are suggested to help lower serum cholesterol.
If you are at risk of developing heart disease then find a good health care professional prior to starting any type of home treatment.
Always consult your doctor before using this information.
This Article is nutritional in nature and is not to be construed as medical advice.
By: David Cowley
About the Author:
David Cowley has created numerous articles on heart disease. He has also created a Web Site dedicated to heart disease and how to treat them. Click on Heart Treatment
CHF can come from many sources, but insulin resistance is an independent causative factor which does not depend on lack of exercise or obesity to cause its damage to the heart and circulatory system.
How does insulin resistance affect heart health? The answer is difficult, as it is tied to complex interactions between various hormone levels and the reaction of organs to chronically higher levels of insulin in the blood. Those who have insulin resistance tend to have other factors (or ‘co-morbidities’) which, taken on their own, also increase the dangers to the heart and circulatory system.
For example, patients with insulin resistance also have lower levels of HDL (high-density lipids), the ‘good’ cholesterol which is associated with fewer heart attacks, and higher levels of LDL (low-density lipids), which are associated with artery-clogging plaque. They also tend to have higher blood pressure, another heart risk factor.
What lies behind these greater co-morbidities, and resultant risk for patients? Androgen levels were found to be higher in patients with insulin resistance, and androgen is the male hormone that is associated with stress and increased heart disease. Just as estrogen seems to have some heart-helping qualities, androgen has some inhibitors to heart health, both by diminishing estrogen levels and increasing stress-related inflammation.
In addition to the hormonal effects, high insulin levels in the blood over a longer period of time can lead to breakdowns in organs, particularly those sites in the body where changes arteries and capillaries can result in food and oxygen starvation. Diabetics are generally known to have higher incidences of heart disease, but they are also much more likely to have problems with lower leg circulation (because the blood circulates particularly slowly in the legs), vision (because of the network of small capillaries in the eyes, which are subject to blockage) and peripheral vascular systems, such as kidneys and the carotid arteries.
Recent work in Canada points to the effect of insulin resistance on inflammation and associated plaque production. Plaque is implicated in a number of diseases, including that which causes ’silent’ heart attacks in individuals who seem healthy. The effect of insulin resistance on plaque formation could be a primary one, or a secondary effect from other hormonal and metabolic changes in the body related to cholesterol levels and inflammation.
The overall conclusion in early research is clear. Insulin resistance poses problems to the body directly, through influence of high levels of insulin to critical organs, and indirectly, through influence on the secretion of other hormones and inflammatory substances which can lead to heart disease. While many diabetic patients are insulin-resistant, and diabetic patients tend to have much higher rates of heart disease, insulin resistance in itself poses an increased risk of complications for patients.
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By: Scott Meyers
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Scott Meyers is a staff writer for Its Entirely Natural, a resource for helping you achieve a naturally healthy body, mind, and spirit. You may contact our writers through the web site. Follow this link for more information on Insulin Resistance.
So what do the studies have found out about cholesterol and heart disease?
The link between the two is explained on the notion that high level of cholesterol in the body may lead to heart disease. The question is how high exactly must the cholesterol be in the body to lead to heart disease? Well, this is what many studies have found out:
Cholesterol is highly needed in the body for the organs to function properly. It is a fat-like substance that serves a number of useful functions. For instance, the liver needs it for its proper functioning. It also helps to maintain the cellular structures on the body and cholesterol is highly capable of transmitting the nerve impulses. However, it is important to note that all of these mentioned useful functions can only be performed with an exact level. If the amount of fat exceeds from what the body needs to function properly, the tendency is certain complications like heart disease may occur.
Note that the fat substances travel around your body in tiny clumps of fat and protein known medically as lipoproteins. There are two kinds of this though: the HDL or good cholesterol, and the LDL or bad cholesterol. The LDL is the one that carries cholesterol where it is needed, and the HDL is the one that carries leftover cholesterol back to the liver. Now, the connection between the two occurs when a high level of cholesterol is carried around your system. Heart disease will occur once the LDL cholesterol exceeds on its normal amount. It will travel through the arteries and since the LDL is high, it tends to build up in the coronary arteries forming hard lumps known as plaques. The plaque is actually what makes the arteries rigid and narrower. If this happens, the flow of the blood and oxygen to the heart will be altered. Chest pain can be felt, and if the arteries are completely blocked, heart attack develops.
For such reasons, people who are afraid to develop risks of heart disease are advised to lower their cholesterol level. According to certain studies that address the link between cholesterol and heart disease, the best way to reduce cholesterol and prevent heart disease is to adopt a healthy diet. Note that the link between the two is made possible with poor diet. So it is then wise to eat a healthy diet and maintain a healthy weight. Just eat foods that are good to the heart, such as vegetables, legumes, and certain types of fish, low fat dairy milk, and a lot more. Also, stop smoking as it will only contribute to unhealthy high cholesterol values. Finally, do some healthy exercise to allow your heart to pump more blood with less effort. That way you can break the link between cholesterol and heart disease.
By: Joann Cheong
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