HIGH BLOOD CHOLESTEROL LEVELS ARE DANGEROUS

Avoiding high blood cholesterol is easy if you know how.  This everyday substance, vital for body processes including making hormones and vitamin D, can cause problems if the body makes too much.

When people are told that they have high blood cholesterol, it means that they have too much cholesterol in the blood. High blood cholesterol does not cause any direct, noticeable symptoms, however, meaning that you may be unaware that your cholesterol levels are elevated - despite this lack of symptoms, it can still increase the chances of getting heart disease, with up to 65% of all those who suffer heart attacks also having elevated cholesterol levels.

Cholesterol is carried through the blood stream by small packages called lipoproteins, and there are two different types:

Low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, sometimes called bad cholesterol

High-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol sometimes called good cholesterol

We need healthy levels of both, but under certain circumstances, your body can produce too much LDL. When this occurs, the excess builds up in your arteries, causing narrowing or hardening of the arteries, or arteriosclerosis, which increases the chances of heart attacks and strokes.

HDL, on the other hand, is beneficial, working to carry excess cholesterol from around the body back to your liver, where it can be processed and removed. Unlike LDL, the higher your HDL cholesterol level, the lower your chance of getting heart disease.

Clearly it is beneficial to reduce your levels of LDL cholesterol. This can be done by making changes to your lifestyle, in particular your diet.

While there are some foods that contain cholesterol, such as prawns, eggs, liver and kidney, these actually make very little difference to your body's levels of cholesterol - the cholesterol in these foods is digested, and does not find its way into your blood stream. The biggest factor in controlling or reducing your body's levels of blood cholesterol is the amount of saturated fat that you eat.

When we eat saturated fat, it triggers the body to produce and release cholesterol into the blood, elevating the cholesterol levels. Therefore by reducing your intake of foods that contain saturated fats, you can reduce your cholesterol blood levels.

The main culprits in raising cholesterol levels are all types of fast food, desserts like cookies, cakes, pastries and ice cream, fatty cuts of meat, hard cheeses and butter, and full fat milk. By cutting down on these foods you can reduce the amount of cholesterol, particularly LDL, that your body produces.

There are other steps that you can also take to reduce your cholesterol levels.

• Increasing Exercise:  Regular exercise has been found to increase HDL levels and decrease LDL levels, making it highly effective as a tool for managing your cholesterol levels.
• Lose Weight:  Over 65% of American adults are overweight or obese, but this is a prime factor in increasing cholesterol levels.   By losing weight, you can lower your cholesterol levels, as well as reducing your chances of cancer, heart disease, and diabetes.
• Alcohol:  Drinking excessive amounts of alcohol will raise cholesterol levels.  Reducing alcohol consumption can therefore play an important role in lowering cholesterol levels.
• Quit Smoking:  Smoking also raises cholesterol levels. It is therefore recommended that smokers with raised cholesterol quit smoking.

By making these key lifestyle changes you can do much to reduce your cholesterol levels and thus your risk of heart disease.