Heart Disease: Blood Pressure, Cholesterol, and Heart Disease

The most important information you need to improve your health

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• Publisher: Adams Media
• Year: 2012
• eBook ISBN: 9781440548055
• Topic: Medicine
• Subtopic: Diseases & Allergies

Understanding heart disease is your first step in reversing or preventing a potentially life-threatening condition. The Everything® Healthy Living Series is here to help. These concise, thoughtful guides offer the expert advice and the latest medical information you need to manage your heart disease and lead a healthy life.Inside you'll find useful information on the causes and effects of high blood pressure and high cholesterol and their affect on heart health. You'll also learn about various treatment options and lifestyle changes that can help minimize your risk of heart attack.

Cholesterol

You don’t need to be a scientist to understand what cholesterol is and how to effectively manage your levels for better health. You just need to care about your health. Cholesterol is an essential part of this life process — it keeps you going and can stop you dead in your tracks. The better you understand cholesterol, the better you can choose which of these results will occur.

What Is Cholesterol?

Cholesterol is a necessary and natural part of each and every cell in the human body and in the bodies of other animals. Cholesterol helps maintain the structure of the walls of cells and works to keep the brain healthy. The liver uses cholesterol as raw material to create important hormones and manufacture digestive enzymes. Cholesterol is integral to thinking and sexual activity as well as innumerable other bodily functions.

Fact

Most gallstones formed in the gallbladder are composed primarily of cholesterol. The liver responds to the presence of dietary fat by producing cholesterol to synthesize bile to digest the fats. If you eat too much fat, the liver may overproduce cholesterol, leading to the formation of gallstones.

A healthy liver makes cholesterol, a waxy lipid or fatlike substance. In addition, you also acquire cholesterol from the food you eat. The big picture, however, is not quite so simple; many other factors influence your cholesterol levels. Even if you are a vegetarian and don’t eat foods that contain cholesterol, you will still have plenty of cholesterol in your body. Depending on the type of cholesterol and how much of each type, this can be a good or a bad thing.

Factors Affecting Cholesterol

Total cholesterol is the sum total of all the cholesterol in your bloodstream at a given time. There are different types of cholesterol, such as high-density lipoproteins (HDLs) and low-density lipoproteins (LDLs), which make up the total amount. Density refers to the weight of the lipoprotein. If cholesterol is HDL, that means it is very compact; if it is LDL, that means it is less compact and more loose. In general, HDL is good cholesterol and LDL is bad cholesterol.

Several factors affect the total cholesterol levels in your bloodstream. These factors include the following:

• What you eat: Foods that come from animals, such as meats and eggs, contain cholesterol that you absorb as well as saturated fats, which can convert into cholesterol in your body. Trans fats, contained in processed foods, are also converted into cholesterol.
• Whether you are overweight: Generally, the more fat you have the more cholesterol you have. Therefore, weight loss can often lead to cholesterol loss.
• Whether you smoke: Smoking both raises your cholesterol and makes the cholesterol you have more harmful.
• Whether you consume alcohol: For years, scientists have noticed that moderate amounts of alcohol consumption can actually help your cholesterol levels. This comes with caution, as alcohol can worsen many other aspects of your health.
• Whether you are inactive or active regularly: People who are physically active on a regular basis not only have better levels of cholesterol, they have more of the type that helps the body.
• Whether you effectively manage stress in your life: Research studies show that mental and emotional stress can raise your cholesterol and make the cholesterol you have more harmful to the body.
• Your genes: Your genes influence all your traits, including your cholesterol. If your parents had high cholesterol, you are more likely to have high cholesterol. In fact, there are certain common genetic disorders that will give you extremely high cholesterol, which can be incredibly harmful.
• Your gender: Before menopause, women have a natural advantage over men, as female hormones help maintain better cholesterol levels.
• Age: With time, cholesterol levels tend to worsen, causing cumulative harm, which after years can become life threatening.
• What type of medications you take: For certain individuals, medications can help effectively manage cholesterol levels, while other medications can actually make cholesterol worse.
• You may not be able ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Contents
• Introduction
• Blood Pressure
• Cholesterol
• Also Available
• Copyright Page