Cholesterol is something that we all have. This fatty substance found in every cell in your body and plays an important role in a variety of vital functions, including maintaining cell membranes, hormone synthesis, and production of vitamin D.

However, the body naturally produces adequate amounts of cholesterol to sustain optimal body and so any extra cholesterol added to our diet is unnecessary and when levels become too high in cholesterol becomes potentially dangerous.

The body manufactures two types of cholesterol – LDL (bad form of cholesterol) and HDL (good form of cholesterol).

When LDL levels are too high, fat, or plaque, can begin to accumulate on the walls of your arteries, reducing the amount of blood that can go through and putting a greater risk of heart attacks, arteriosclerosis or heart disease.

Healthy levels of HDL cholesterol help clear this up in the arteries before I have a chance to build. To maintain healthy levels, we need to maintain low levels of LDL and HDL levels up.

Being diagnosed with high cholesterol can be a scary thing and something that can not be ignored. The good news is that cholesterol can be controlled and many people use this as an opportunity to make positive life changes.

Diagnosis of high cholesterol:
To measure cholesterol levels, your doctor will collect a blood sample is sent to a lab for a profile or lipid analysis. This analysis can tell you what your total cholesterol, LDL (bad cholesterol), HDL (good cholesterol) and triglycerides (a type of blood fat).

What are the symptoms of high cholesterol?
Like high blood pressure, often referred to as the silent murderer, high cholesterol has no symptoms and is usually discovered only during a routine checkup. If your cholesterol levels are too high, you may notice small yellow nodules beneath the skin of his eyes, eyebrows or elbows.

However, a blood test is the only way to measure cholesterol levels and according to the American Heart Association, all adults over the age of 20 should have their cholesterol levels checked every 3-5 years, especially if you are overweight have a cholesterol problem or if there is family history of heart disease or high cholesterol.

Cholesterol is measured in milligrams per deciliter of blood and there are some standard guidelines that will help you determine if your cholesterol levels are too high.

Note that cholesterol levels change from person to person depending on the presence or absence of a number of factors that may put you at increased risk of heart disease. These factors include smoking, age, family history, blood pressure and HDL cholesterol levels. For the most accurate measurements, do not eat or drink anything (except water) for nine to 12 hours before the blood test.

What causes high cholesterol?
There is a definite link between high cholesterol and a diet high in dietary cholesterol and saturated fat, although genetic factors also play an important role. Smoking, diabetes, lack of exercise and fat can also contribute to high cholesterol levels.

Help for high cholesterol:
It is very important to take steps to control their cholesterol levels. If untreated, high cholesterol can have serious medical consequences such as heart disease.

The good news is that high cholesterol can be controlled by combining a healthy lifestyle with proper medical treatment. Treatment can include synthetic prescription medication, natural remedies or a combination of both.

Combination of natural remedies, regular exercise and dietary changes can make a significant difference to LDL levels and reduce or even eliminate the need for prescription drugs.

Natural remedies and red rice yeast are well known for their beneficial properties to reduce LDL (“bad”) and triglyceride levels while increasing HDL (good). With some changes in lifestyle and a little help from nature, cholesterol levels can be managed.

Read more on Cholesterol Lowering Supplements and How should Guggul be used for high cholesterol problem

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What can I do about my cholesterol?

If your body has too much cholesterol, it isn’t good for you. You have the power within you however to take control. Failing to take control only leads to problems. The problems will accumulate; wear you down until finally abnormal aging takes your life. You can gain control by exercising each day and eating the right foods. Visit your doctor regularly. Your family doctor will give you medication to take to help lower your cholesterol.

When you have high cholesterol, you have to eat right and exercise daily. Learn more about exercising and diet in my website below. You also want to take time out for self, activities, socializing etc to keep your cholesterol at bay. When cholesterol is out of control, the cause comes to focus, which is arteriosclerosis. If you lower your cholesterol by taking action now you can avoid strokes, heart attacks, and even death.  You can also avoid smoking to lower your cholesterol. In addition, you can lower your risks of diabetes, heart attack, and obesity and so on by controlling your cholesterol.

Keep in mind that high cholesterol problems include the worst case scenario and the not so bad. The worst type is the LDL. HDL cholesterol at higher levels is a good thing. If these levels combined with triglycerides increase, thus your chances of stroke or heart attacks are high.

What kind of foods has cholesterol?

There is cholesterol in all foods in less it has cholesterol free on the package.  Some food has more in it than others. Like your cooking oils and grease has a lot of cholesterol in it, some of your bread has cholesterol. Eggs are very high cholesterol foods and so are your butters. You have to read the back of the packages to determine the level of cholesterol.

What can happen to me if my cholesterol is high?

The only way that you can tell if your cholesterol is high is to go to your family doctor and get a blood test.  However, some of the things that can happen to you if it’s high are that your arteries will harden. This means your body is building fats and too much cholesterol. The normal or average reading should be 140 or 130 over 200 mg/dl. If you can maintain this level, you will be ok.

If the cholesterol gets out of hand, it hardens the arteries. This means the blood will not flow through to the heart, making it to pump naturally. The heart will pump at unnatural rates, working harder to keep you alive.

High diastolic is high cholesterol that increases risks of heart attacks, since your heart doesn’t get any blood to it due to clotting or breaking of blood vessels, then there is stroke which is when the brain don’t get enough blood due to oxygen decrease to it because of clotting or broken blood vessels. High-cholesterol puts you at risk of diabetes also, since it affects the hemoglobin.

To lower your cholesterol take action now. It will take some time to get your cholesterol at bay, but it will happen if you take action now.

To learn more, visit http://curvid.bezoogle.com/pp/weight-loss/ or http://vida-healthy-aging.blogspot.com / where you will find very useful information about exercising, dieting and access to a personal trainer.

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If you have high cholesterol, I have the prescription to help you lower it.

Exercise lowers blood pressure and improves cholesterol levels

These days it takes more than an apple a day to keep the doctor off your back.

The good doc is going to pester you about your blood pressure and cholesterol levels – apple or not. And who can blame him?

According to the American Heart Association, 105.2 million adults have borderline to high risk blood cholesterol levels. In addition, nearly one in three adults suffers from high blood pressure. And these numbers grow every year.

So what do you do? Pop a pill and try not to think about it? Or maybe you don’t even bother to have your blood pressure and cholesterol checked – what you don’t know can’t hurt you, right?

Have you had your cholesterol and blood pressure checked lately? You should. If they are high, these conditions can be deadly and can sneak up on you.

What’s so bad about high blood pressure and cholesterol levels? In a nutshell, these conditions raise your chances for having a stroke, kidney failure, heart disease or heart attack. Here’s the lowdown:

Blood Pressure is recorded in two numbers. The first describes your systolic blood pressure. This is the pressure when your heart is squeezing blood out. The second is your diastolic blood pressure. This is the pressure between heartbeats, when your heart is filling with blood.

The ideal blood pressure to have is 120/80 or lower. Blood pressure that falls between 120/80 and 140/90 is considered to be prehypertension – meaning that your blood pressure is higher than normal. If your blood pressure is 140/90 or higher then you officially have high blood pressure.

Cholesterol is also recorded in two numbers – high – density lipoproteins (HDL) and low – density lipoproteins (LDL). The distinction between HDL and LDL is actually quite important – LDL delivers cholesterol to your body while HDL removes cholesterol from your bloodstream. In other words, HDL cholesterol is good and LDL cholesterol is bad.

When there is extra cholesterol in your bloodstream it lines your arteries, causing them to narrow. These deposits can block an artery that flows to your heart – resulting in a heart attack, or they can block an artery that flows to your brain – resulting in a stroke.

The ideal cholesterol level to have is a number less than 200. Between 200 and 239 you are considered to have borderline high cholesterol, and 240 or higher puts you in a danger zone.

Will exercise really help lower your high blood pressure and improve my cholesterol levels? It sure will – and here’s how:

When your heart muscles are weak, it will pump less blood with greater effort. When you exercise, you will strengthen you heart and its muscles and as a result, train your heart to pump more blood with less work. If you exercise, and increase the strength of your heart muscles, then less pressure will be exerted on your arteries.

Exercise Increases HDL levels in some people – this means a decrease in your risk for heart disease. Other heart disease risk factors such as weight, diabetes and high blood pressure all show improvement with regular exercise.

Let’s be totally honest for a moment. Even if you are taking medication, the better solution is to fix the problem, and rather than hold

the condition off.

If exercise isn’t currently part of your lifestyle you will be amazed at how it will improve your health once you start. I’m sure your doctor could share a myriad of success stories involving people just like you who dramatically improved their blood pressure and cholesterol through exercise.

Health. Isn’t that what we all ask for in the New Year?

Exercise is the answer.

The benefits of a consistent and challenging exercise program are numerous – did you know that exercise will even improve your sleep?

I am in a unique position to assist you in grabbing onto the good health that you deserve. Call or email me today to schedule your fitness assessment and get started on an exercise program that will change your life.

Are you ready to get into the best shape and best health of your life? Join the efit-today team today!

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