Health And Fitness – The Effects Of Cholesterol
December 13, 2010 by admin
Filed under CTL Contributors
Even considering there is a great deal of focus today on cholesterol being bad and how it impacts your heart, the truth is actually different. Cholesterol is an important part of your body functions. Where many get confused is the existence of good and bad types of cholesterol. The liver produces cholesterol, and normally the body does not need any assistance creating it.
Outside cholesterol is made by the foods we eat, mainly meat and dairy products, and also shellfish. Plant based foods are for the most part, free of cholesterol. The problem with health and fitness is caused when excess cholesterol builds up inside the body and causes a narrowing of the arteries. You can do a few things to reduce bad cholesterol intake and increase the good kind. Yes, there is actually good cholesterol.
There is LDL cholesterol and HDL cholesterol. Low-density lipoprotein is the type regarded as ‘bad’ cholesterol. High blood cholesterol is relatively symptom free, so most are unaware of the dangers lurking within their bodies. Cholesterol builds up in arteries when present in high levels, making you prone to heart disease, as well as other maladies, affecting health and fitness. High-density lipoprotein is the ‘good’ cholesterol. It carries cholesterol to the liver. The liver then processes the cholesterol, removing it.
Factors that increase LDL are often the same things that are advertised as bad for your health in general. This includes things like eating foods containing saturated fats,smoking, inactivity, and weight gain. The reason smoking is dangerous is that it actually lowers the good cholesterol or HDL. People that are not smokers, but are victims of secondhand smoke also develop lowered HDL. Foods high in fat, especially saturated and trans fats, cause LDL levels to spike. A contributary factor to producing high blood cholesterol is inactivity, by not just raising the bad cholesterol, but additionally reducing the levels of good cholesterol. This is all detrimental to health and fitness.
Though health and fitness can be improved with increasing HDL and reducing LDL cholesterol levels. Medication may be used, but most can follow an easy plan to lower all but the most stubborn cholesterol levels. These steps include straight forward behaviors such as consuming the right foods, taking the time to exercise, and quitting smoking. Oatmeal has been shown in studies to affect high cholesterol. This fiber rich food acts as a broom, sweeping cholesterol away. Foods such as flax seed, walnuts, and olive oil are all known to enhance good cholesterol levels due to being high in omega fatty acids. Nuts and oil are high in fat, so moderation is key. Exercise raises endorphins, but it also raises HDL levels, while minimizing LDL levels and improving heart health. Even though there are plenty of ways to ruin the body, small changes can bring about much improved health.
Think about the effects of cholesterol levels on your health and fitness and the best diet program to help.
How to Lower Cholesterol Levels To Live A Healthy Life
December 13, 2010 by admin
Filed under CTL Contributors
Instead of only hearing about the negative effects of cholesterol, we need to be educated on how to lower cholesterol levels. Studies have shown that a high cholesterol number is directly linked to a higher risk of heart attack, stroke and cardiovascular disease. In order to have a healthy heart, you need to get that number under control and for most of us that means to get it lower. Do you know how to lower your cholesterol levels? The good news is that there are plenty of options in how to lower cholesterol through lifestyle modifications and medication in certain circumstances.
You and Your Diet
Your diet does indeed have a direct correlation to your overall health, no matter what your grandfather said about how he drank and ate bacon and eggs everyday and lived until he was 100. Unfortunately, many of us don’t have the diets necessary to maintain a healthy lifestyle, because of this health conditions are on the rise, such as diabetes, obesity and heart disease. There are lots of things you can do to bring down your cholesterol levels. This can be done through good diet choices. First and foremost begin eating more fruits and vegetables. Make sure you’re getting five daily? For great overall health, the USDA recommends that you eat five to nine servings of fresh produce every single day.
If you don’t eat whole grains, then it’s time to include them in your diet. We eat lots of bread and cereal products, but most of them are made from refined sugar and flour, which is not how to lower cholesterol levels. Remember to look for breads that are full of grains and seeds in the slices; in other words, the more you can see, the healthier it is. Look for ingredients such as whole grains and whole wheat so that you can rest easy knowing that you’re getting healthy, complex carbohydrates.
For a Strong, Healthy Heart, Begin an Exercise Routine
Exercise is another essential means on how to lower cholesterol levels. The single thing you can do which will be most beneficial to you is to make sure to get daily exercise. How about a walk during your lunch hour or a bike ride around the neighborhood after work? Even a game of tag with the kids in the backyard can get your blood pumping, and that is what cardiovascular exercise is all about. In addition to helping you lower your cholesterol, regular exercise can help you to stay at a healthier body weight.
If these lifestyle modifications do not help you to get those cholesterol numbers down, your doctor also has medication options for you to consider. It is important that you know what you can do to lower your cholesterol in an effort to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Just remember the great cholesterol lie. It is not just cholesterol that affects a healthy heart. Inflammation is the biggest killer, which is where often people get confused with the real truths behind heart disease.
The Risks Of Bad Cholesterol
December 13, 2010 by admin
Filed under CTL Contributors
The fact, as high Cholesterol is a important contributor to cardiovascular condition, which can lead to strokes and cardiovascular attacks, the dangers of increased cholesterol is not to be taken off-hand
Cholesterol is a sticky coating found in thearteries. It’s the increased or excess numbers of cholesterol, known as “bad” LDL Cholesterol in the bloodstream that can lead to deaths.
Not all cholesterol is high. A healthy body needs it to operate. It plays an crucial part in the manufacture of a number of molecules and hormones needed in the body cell structure
But, it’s when an uneven of levels happen, is when the danger begins. There are three factors to account for.
The first Low-density lipoproteins (LDL’s) high blood fat ranges. These ranges are a great factor of cholesterol build-up in importan blood cells, and can be dangerous, as it may indicate to damage to the inside of the vessels, called atherosclerosis. begins the blocked blood flowassociated to cardivascular artery condition, ischaemic cerebrovascular disease (stroke),
The second item is; High-density lipoproteins (HDL’s) that are ‘good’ cholesterol, that removing bad debris and plaque from the arteries by way of the liver.
The third in the formula is Triglycerides; Triglycerides are blood fats and keeping these ranges low is recommended as higher triglycerides can contribute a greater risk for cardivascularattack, stroke and even diabetes.
Not all cholesterol is bad. A healthy body needs it to function. It plays an important part in the manufacture of many of molecules and hormones we need in the body cell structure
The majority of cholesterol is actually created in your own body, specifically in the liver. And most of cholesterol comes from the meat you eat. The Tran’s fats and saturated fats discovered in many convenient foods can give a rise in the ranges of cholesterol.
Heart failure claims hundred and thousands of lives each year in the USA alone. And the main culprit to these numbers has been high cholesterol levels. In short, the dangers of bad cholesterol condition is not to be taken out of hand
Unfortunately, as we age the arteries naturally start to thicken and narrow, and it is a sensible precaution to have your blood pressure and cholesterol numbers checked regularly, say ever three to five years.
Altering your lifestyle can go a big way in control cholesterol levels. You can decrease your “bad” cholesterol (low-density lipoprotein, or LDL) and even raise your “good” cholesterol (high-density
lipoprotein, or HDL) with a few lifestyle adjustments – healthy food, exercise, and weight loss – can make a great difference to cholesterol levels of bad cholesterol
LDL Cholesterol-Prevention Over Cure
December 13, 2010 by admin
Filed under CTL Contributors
Considering the harmfullresults that high LDL cholesterol (low-density lipoprotein) can inflict, LDL cholesterol prevention better than cure is the more sensible rule.
According to the World Health Organization, more than 15 million across the nation die of coronary Heart Failure (Heart Attack or stroke) every year. And the biggest contributing statistic to this figure is high cholesterol
Cholesterol is a soft, sticky substance found in the lipids in the bloodstream. These (lips) lipoproteins are either high-or low-densitydepending on how much protein and fat theycarry, and are important to the healthy functioning of our bodies.
But, all cholesterol is not the samel. There are good and bad cholesterol, and it’s this imbalance that can create the problem HDL (high-density lipoprotein) is often called “good” cholesterol, because it helps to block against heart attack. It not only prevents cholesterol from building up in the arteries, it also assists to clear LDL (low-density lipoprotein), or “bad,” cholesterol from the system.
The ‘Bad Cholesterol’ LDL (low-density lipoprotein) cholesterol , which is the problem, moves more fat and only a small amount of protein from the liver to other parts of the body. It’s this high LDL cholesterol level that falls into the ‘high cholesterol risk category’ , as it is considered a risk flag for coronary artery disease, because, under some condititions it can cause coronary seizure or stroke
High cholesterol prevention is crucial because the dangerous item of LDL cholesterol associated with coronary heart attack and stroke. come in many shapes. First and foremost, sedentary life style, bad foods, with over weight and obesity following in turn, and the social (or anti social) effect of smoking and alcohol drinking
Just getting old is a risk factor for heart disease; risk of stroke increases every year after age 55. Maybe we can’t halt the aging spiral, we can help ourselves to perhaps live longer and enjoy good health by following a few easy rules
The amount of elderly people has increased over the past ten years, so as a result the amount of deaths cause by CHD has grown according, and this upward trend is expected to continue as we live longer
High Cholesterol-Prevention better than Cure
What are normal blood Cholesterol (lipid) levels? Your lipid levels aredependent on your age, sex, genetic makeup, way of life choices, and will alter over the years. This can be quite difficult to work out, but your doctor can help
You may have heard the saying “We are what we eat”. Well there are some real strong truth behind those words. The human body creates cholesterol and we also eat it when we eat animal food and dairy produce We can also make cholesterol from foods that do not contain cholesterol, such as Trans fats, often used in processed foods, cakes and biscuits
The lack of any physical inactivity can increase the risk of heart arrack and stroke as high as 50%. A rethink of life style, and healthy diet is the first step to high cholesterol prevention and arming yourself against increased levels of bad LDL (low-density lipoprotein) cholesterol and the danger of CAD (Cardiac Heart Disease)
Food And Cholesterol The Inside Story
October 29, 2010 by admin
Filed under CTL Contributors
Diet to Lower Cholesterol: Beyond Your Food
When you want to lower your cholesterol, it’s not enough to just focus on a diet to lower cholesterol; you have to focus on your entire lifestyle. Just like any real diet, it’s not just about the food you eat; it’s about everything else you do too! So if you want to make your diet to lower cholesterol really work, you have to do more than eat the right stuff; you have to do, or not do, a few other things too.
Get a good amount of excercise every day. Exercise is a great way to diet to lower cholesterol for a couple of reasons. First, and most obviously, it burns fat and calories which means that there is less junk clogging your system and so less cholesterol in your arteries since you’re burning everything out. Excercise can raise your metabolism and get your cholesterol down. Exercise also makes you feel better which leads you to being more willing to make food changes necessary to your diet to lower cholesterol. For example, you’ll want to drink more water and less pop since water quenches thirst better and you’ll be more attracted to whole grains and fruits since they’ll give you energy over a longer period of time.
If you want successfully diet to lower cholesterol, you have to take a hard look at your lifestyle and be willing to cut some things out there too. Stop smoking and drinking. It only makes your cholesterol higher. Drinking, Smoking and Junk food all go hand in hand. High Stess is the number one issue with poor health. No Sleep and Stress will weaken your body and make your cholesterol rise.
It’s very important when you are considering a diet to lower cholesterol that you think of more than the food you eat. Lower your cholesterol by changing your lifestyle. The best diet to lower your cholesterol will not only have the best foods, but also exercise, plenty of rest, and quitting smoking and drinking. Only when you combine several healthy things into one diet to lower cholesterol will you see optimum results and be healthy again! It’s well worth making these changes to make your life better.
Means to Control Cholestrol
November 18, 2009 by admin
Filed under CTL Contributors
To reduce the level of cholesterol is necessary because its high levels in the bloodstream increase the danger of coronary heart disease. In case the cholesterol level in your bloodstream is abnormally high, follow the below mentioned guidelines to reduce it.
Step 1: Cut down on your fat and cholesterol consumption
The first and the most elementary step to lower the cholesterol levels in your blood is to control the excessive intake of cholesterol and fats. Use more of monosaturated oils, including olive and canola oils, in your diet rather than butter and oils high in saturated fatty acids.
Similarly, stop consuming high cholesterol food items like eggs, polyunsaturated oils, butter, margarine or any other type of fatty dressing. Instead, include a lot of dietary fibre and full cereals into your diet.
Step 2: Alter Your Lifestyle
Give up an unhealthy lifestyle and opt for healthier habits. For instance, if you are the ons who gorge on junk food and keep on lying around all day, you must give up this habit for good. Instead of junk food, go in for sensible foods like fruit and fruit. Also, you need to be physically more active and partake of some type of exercise. Play, run or just go for cycling. Exercising increases your metabolism and enables you to ward off calories quicker.
Step 3: Switch to cholesterol lowering medication if lifestyle changes don’t help
If lifestyle changes are not working or if there is an insistent duty to lower LDL cholesterol levels and the level of triglycerides, then don’t hesitate to take medications. Medicines for lowering cholesterol can be divided into a few categories based upon the intended component of cholesterol- Cholesterol, LDL cholesterol or Triglycerides.
Medicines such as Statins and Vitamin B [ niacin ] are helpful to lower LDL cholesterol. However, you should not over-consume Vitamin B as it could have significant side-effects. You should adhere to your doc’s recommendation on its intake plan. You should be also be wary of over-consuming other cholesterol-reducing medicines as they can also have side-effects.
Step 4 : Raise the Intake of HDL Cholesterol
Yes, you read it right. This cholesterol can help you bring down overall cholesterol levels in your body. That is why it is called good cholesterol levels in your body. Its optimum level in the body should be 60 mg/dL [ 1.55 mmol/L ]. Any level below it is considered perfect level in the body.
In case your body HDL Cholesterol falls below the formerly discussed levels, you can raise it thru the consumption of monosaturated oils [ olive oil ] and other items high in Vitamin B. However, you should not consume too much Vitamin B as it may have serious side-effects. You can also enhance the level of this cholesterol in the body if you control the intake of alcohol.

