Cholesterol

Whether you’ve just been diagnosed with high cholesterol or just want to learn more about cholesterol, you’ve already taken the most important first step

Cholesterol is found in every cell of the body and has important natural functions when in building block for cell membrane, digesting foods, producing hormones, and generating vitamin D. It is manufactured by the body but can also be taken in from food. It is waxy and fat-like in appearance.

There are two types of cholesterol: "good" and "bad." Too much of one type — or not enough of another — can put you at risk for coronary heart disease, heart attack, peripheral artery disease or stroke.

A cholesterol screening measures your level of HDL and LDL. HDL is the "good" cholesterol which helps keep the LDL (bad) cholesterol from getting lodged into your artery walls and carries cholesterol from other parts of the body to your liver. In addition to formatting hard thick substance called plague. A healthy level of HDL may also protect against heart attack and stroke, while low levels of HDL (less than 40 mg/dL for men and less than 50 mg/dL for women) have been shown to increase the risk of heart disease and premature vascular disease.

 

Where does comes from?

Liver production

Diet: cheese; egg; yolk; meat; fish (shrimp); dairy products & saturated fats

Why increased cholesterol is dangerous?

Heart diseases

Stroke

Peripheral artery disease & others

Lower your Cholesterol levels

Now what? You can lower your cholesterol by exercising more

Life style intervention:

-          Healthy eating - more fruits, vegetables and whole grain cereals.

-          Limit alcohol & salts.  

-          Eating plenty of soluble fibers

 Most people would immediately start cutting down on foods that have high cholesterol content (meat, eggs, liver, whole milk, butter cream, certain shell fish – shrimp etc).

Restricting cholesterol intake alone is not enough to lower blood cholesterol levels. You also may need to take medicine to lower your cholesterol.