Cholesterol is a waxy, fatty substance that is found in every cell of the body. It is involved in the production of cell membranes, some hormones, vitamin D, bile acids, and other tissues in the body. It also insulates nerves. Cholesterol is produced in the liver, but we also get cholesterol from our diet.

The amount of cholesterol in the body depends on factors such as the rate of cholesterol production in the liver, the rate of cholesterol clearance from the body, the amount of dietary fat particularly saturated fat and to a lesser extent, cholesterol consumed.

The excess cholesterol in our body circulates in the bloodstream. High levels of cholesterol in the blood can clog blood vessels and increase the risk fro heart disease and stroke.

Different types of Cholesterol

Low-Density Lipoprotein or LDL cholesterol is a bad type of cholesterol that is most likely to clog blood vessels, increasing you risk for heart disease. High-Density Lipoprotein or HDL cholesterol is a good type of cholesterol. HDL cholesterol helps clear the LDL cholesterol out of the blood and reduces your risk for heart disease.

Cholesterol & Heart Disease

High cholesterol is one of the major contributors to heart disease. Research strongly indicates that lowering of cholesterol leads to a drop in the occurrence of heart disease. The main reason for this is because with less blood cholesterol, there is less plaque formation within the arterial walls. This will reduce the chances or an artery becoming blocked and causing a heart attack or stroke. Also, blood will flow through arteries with greater ease and this can lower blood pressure.

Reasons which lead to a Rise in Cholesterol

Poor eating habits
Smoking
Excess weight or Obesity
Heredity factor
Daily Stress
Over Alcohol consumption

Ways to control or lessen Cholesterol

Good eating habits
It is very important to follow good eating habits in order to lower your cholesterol.

Regular exercising
Experts recommend at least 30 minutes or more of moderate-intensity physical activity five days a week for at least 12 weeks for significant cholesterol reduction.

Weight loss and maintaining it
You can lower your LDL bad cholesterol and elevate your HDL good cholesterol just by dropping some pounds.

You have had a stroke. Hopefully, you went to the hospital when you developed your symptoms of weakness, numbness, altered speech or visual impairment. Your hospital care enabled you to limit the damaging effects of the loss of circulation to a portion of your brain. You’ve made it through the acute phase of stroke management. Now what?

You will want to obtain the best achievable outcome from the impairments you already have. If you have “motor” impairments weakness or clumsiness you can rest assured that randomized, controlled trials — the gold-standard method for determining a treatment’s effectiveness — have shown that physical therapy can improve your level of functioning. If you have speech impairment, then speech therapy might be beneficial, though this has never been proved by means of randomized, controlled trials.

While it is important to focus on rehabilitation following a stroke, there are also other issues to attend to. As a survivor of a stroke you are at increased risk for another.

Researchers at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine and Columbia University in New York studied 655 people who suffered first ischemic strokes. Ischemic strokes are due to plugged blood vessels and not bleeds, and comprise 85-90 of all strokes. Publishing their results in a March 2006 issue of the journal “Neurology,” the investigators found that in the first five years following the stroke there was an 18 likelihood of another. Over the same time period the research subjects also experienced a 5 likelihood of a heart attack.

Can you improve your odds? Absolutely! The process of using information from the first stroke to help prevent another is called “secondary stroke prevention.” The idea is that if there is something that can and should be done to reduce one’s risk, now is the time to do it. There is no point in waiting for yet another attack to occur before getting started.

A blue-ribbon panel from the American Stroke Association and American Heart Association reviewed the state of knowledge concerning secondary stroke prevention for patients with ischemic strokes and published their results in a March 2006 issue of the journal “Circulation.” They found that use of blood-pressure-lowering medications has a powerful effect in reducing the risk of a second stroke — ranging from 24-43 in better studies — and this benefit might even extend to patients who have normal blood pressure to start with.

If you have diabetes, then it is especially important to control high blood pressure. Using a medication from the groups of drugs known as “angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors” ACEIs and “angiotensin receptor blockers” ARBs will not only help control blood pressure, but will additionally help protect the kidneys. If you have diabetes, then it is also important to consider use of cholesterol-lowering medication, especially from the class of drugs known as “statins.” Statins can additionally benefit people without diabetes and even those without elevated cholesterol levels. Of course, in diabetes it is also important to keep the blood-sugar levels as close to normal as is humanly possible.

Quitting smoking is also pivotal in preventing another stroke, and it is never too late in the game to benefit from this difficult but important change. Consumption of more than two standard drinks of alcohol per day also increases the risk of stroke and should be avoided. If you are obese, then it is in your best interests to lose weight through a combination of calorie reduction and sensible exercise.

If your hospital studies showed that a carotid artery is 70-99 narrowed severe stenosis and your recent stroke was downstream from this blood vessel, then you are much less likely to have another stroke if you have a surgical clean-out endarterectomy by an experienced surgeon whose complication rate is less than 6. If you have severe narrowing, but because of some medical or surgical problem the surgery is considered too risky, then insertion of a stent into the narrowed artery can serve as a substitute for endarterectomy.

The carotid arteries are pulsating blood vessels in the front of the neck that carry blood to much of the brain. If the carotid artery on the same side of the stroke is 50-69 narrowed moderate stenosis, then an endarterectomy can be considered, but the benefit of surgery in these circumstances is much less clear-cut. If the narrowing is less than 50 mild stenosis, then you are better off leaving the artery alone.

The above recommendations are based on studies in people with atherosclerosis hardening of the arteries which is the most common cause of strokes and, for that matter, heart attacks. But not every stroke is caused by atherosclerosis. That’s why medical testing is important in stroke patients — so that treatment can be tailored to individual circumstances.

What about blood-thinners? If you have atrial fibrillation a specific pattern of irregular heartbeats then you are at particular risk to have a stroke due to a blood clot being thrown into the circulation from the heart. In this case warfarin Coumadin is the blood-thinner of choice. If for some reason the warfarin cannot be tolerated or is considered too risky, then aspirin is a second-best choice.

If your stroke was due to atherosclerosis, then studies support the use of an “anti-platelet” drug. Platelets are the building blocks from which blood clots are made, and anti-platelet drugs interfere with the ability of the platelets to clump together to form a clot. Antiplatelet drugs of first choice include aspirin by itself, aspirin in combination with extended-release dipyridamole Aggrenox, and clopidogrel Plavix.

It’s important to realize that patients who address every risk factor for a second stroke are likely to have the best outcome and the lowest chances of another attack. Handling some risk factors and not others is better than doing nothing at all, but in fighting off a second stroke, you want to use every weapon in your arsenal.

C 2006 by Gary Cordingley

Cholesterol is a fatty substance produced by the liver. This substance has many important roles inside the body and in small amounts it is very important in helping the activity of the organism. In the presence of cholesterol, the body is able to synthesize vitamin D and hormones testosterone and estrogen. The liver also uses cholesterol in producing bile, a substance used for the digestion of fat. Cholesterol covers the exterior membrane of blood cells and protects them from damage.

Although in normal amounts cholesterol is benefic for the organism, excessive amounts of this substance inside the body can lead to serious illnesses. High blood cholesterol levels are the main factor of risk in cardio-vascular diseases and can even cause heart failure. The surplus of cholesterol inside the body enters the bloodstream and deposits in different places of the body arteries, soft tissues, organs. When cholesterol adheres to the inner walls of arteries, it obstructs the normal blood flow and prevents the oxygenation of the body organs.

Age, gender and internal dysfunctions are all considered to be factors that enable the accumulation of cholesterol inside the body. However, inappropriate diet also has a great contribution to blood cholesterol build up. A low cholesterol diet can help the body eliminate excess cholesterol and can prevent the accumulation of the substance in the bloodstream. A low cholesterol diet can also help you lose extra weight and improve your overall physical condition.

There are two main types of fat saturated and unsaturated fat. Saturated fat facilitates the accumulation of cholesterol inside the body, while unsaturated fat reduces blood cholesterol levels and therefore minimizes the chances of developing cardio-vascular diseases. A low cholesterol diet should exclude foods that are rich in saturated fat and include more foods that contain unsaturated fat. Simple carbohydrates contained by sweets should also be excluded from your low cholesterol diet. In order to improve your digestion, you should increase natural fiber and complex carbohydrate intake.

A low cholesterol diet should minimize the intake of animal products. Fatty meats pork, lamb, organ meats liver, heart, kidneys and some dairy products fat-rich milk, cheese, butter should be excluded from your low-cholesterol diet. Animal products not only contain a lot of cholesterol, they are also very rich in saturated fat! Eggs, bacon, salami, sausages are rich in saturated fat and they should also be excluded from your diet too. Replace fatty meats wish fish, as it is low in cholesterol and saturated fat. Your low cholesterol diet can include some dairy products, if they contain small amounts of cholesterol and saturated fat skim-milk, light yogurts.

Your low cholesterol diet should contain plenty of vegetables and fruits, as they are cholesterol free and a rich source of vitamins and minerals. Consume plenty of green vegetables, soy, carrots, cabbage, beans, dried peas and potatoes and fresh fruits like apples, pears, oranges, nectarines, lemons.

The best thing to do is cook your own meals. A low cholesterol diet should include plenty of home-cooked meals like vegetable soups, mashed potatoes and salads. Avoid fried meals and consider grilling or boiling your food. Also, make sure that you drink enough water, as it helps in the elimination of body cholesterol.

High cholesterol is a big and invisible danger. Because of the invisible nature of high cholesterol, many people tend to ignore the dangers associated with it. Because they can’t really tell what’s going on, people don’t worry about it as they should. However, having high cholesterol can lead to serious health problems if left untreated. It is important to do everything that you can to keep your cholesterol levels at a healthy level and get your cholesterol checked regularly.

To get your cholesterol checked, your physician will tell you that you cannot eat twelve hours or so before the blood test, which is the way your physician will test your cholesterol levels. During this test, your HDL, LDL, and triglyceride levels will be checked. Your HDL is typically referred to as “good cholesterol,” as this form of cholesterol prevents artery blockages. It is your LDL level that you should really be concerned about, as this type of cholesterol is what builds up and creates blockages in your arteries.

While anyone can suffer from high cholesterol, ultimately a patient’s background will be the deciding factor on whether or not they will be at risk for more serious health complications. A patient that has high blood pressure, smokes, is overweight, or has a background that might lead to a possibility of heart trouble might increase the risk of heart problems due to high cholesterol. This is why this test is so important.

The blood test, known as a lipid panel, is sent to a lab, and the results are given back to your physician, who will then inform you of the results. You will be advised of your LDL, HDL, triglycerides, and the total cholesterol levels. While the acceptable numbers for each vary by individual, only your physician will be able to tell you what the appropriate levels should be and how your results compare. Your physician will then be able to help you come up with a plan to assist in lowering your cholesterol should it be high and potentially dangerous to your health.

If you find that you have been diagnosed with high cholesterol, you should work with your doctor and make some significant changes to your lifestyle. Cutting out bad habits that might be assisting in your high cholesterol can be the first step in lowering your cholesterol levels. When paired with a diet that is cholesterol-friendly and proper exercise, your health will show a great change. Don’t let high cholesterol be a silent killer – take steps to protect yourself.

Obesity is an imbalance between fat intake and energy expenditure. Now day obesity is a problem of health and mind in many people. The stimulating factors of obesity is social environment, advertising of many food products induce the consumers want to eat more than the energy use. The rush hours working lifestyle make many people take junk food and fast food more than nutritionists. The important factor is Generic, it is found that one obese patient has a 40 chance of obesity and both obese patients have 80 chance of obesity.

There is no truly direct way to measure how fat you are or how much the body fat. Common way is calculate BMI Body Mass Index.

BMI Weight kg Height x Height m x m

If the BMI 27 means now you have severe problem of obesity and may increase risk for morbidity, developing a number of chronic disease and health.

The chronic diseases that are developed from obesity are diabetes, high blood pressure, stroke, heart attack, cancer, gout and sleep apnea. So control the weight is the best way to void health problem.

There are many ways to control and reduce the weight. Exercise and should low calories foods are the best way. The other way is using weigh control products.

There are 2 kinds of weight control products.
1. Potential dangerous diet products, this group working as appetite suppression, interference food absorption and laxative. Taking this group you have to consult the pharmacist or doctor.
2. Questionable safety efficacy products, this groups more safety than the first group. Normally, weigh control products are from natural such as Garcinia cambogia, Konjac, or Spirulina.

Garcinia cambogia the active ingredient is Hydroxyciric acid HCA. It works as inhibit fat and cholesterol accumulation by slowing down the enzyme. And may be suppression of appetite so can reduce food intake and promote weight loss. Dosage of Garcinia cmbogia, beginning from 750 mg to 1,500 mg, takes 2-3 times in individual dose before meals.

Chitosan It is product from shells of shell fish. The mechanism of chitosan is binds to fatty acid and reduces cholesterols levels. Dosage of chitosan is 1 gram with each meal. However you should be careful lacking of vitamin A, D, E and K during taking chitosan.

Konjac The active ingredient is Glucomanan Polysaccharide that is soluble fiber. It works by absorb water in the stomach, make bulk and you will feel fullness. So the customers do not want to eat much. This product is more safety than other. It does not interference the body mechanism. Recommend dose is 1 gram per a glass of water about 1 hour before meal.

Spirulina It is unicellular blue-green algae. It contents essential amino acid and Gamma Linoleic Acid GLA. GLA could promote loss of body fat but however there is no research to support the role of spirulina and weigh reduce.

Chromium It works by maintain the blood sugar and cholesterol and control appetite. The recommended dose of chromium is 50-200 mcg a day.

Conclusion
Control the body weight helps you against the chronic diseases and make good looking. There are many ways to reduce and control the weight. Using weight control products is not the best way, especially use potential dangerous diet products without consult from the doctors or the pharmacists. Balance the energy expenditure and fat intake is an important point. If you eat more you have to exercise more. Other ways are break bad habits such as alcohol intake, watching T.V. during eating, or ignore vegetables. You have to realize how much the fat in each menu and should the low cholesterol with high nutrition.

Good health has always been a subject of great concern for everyone. We always talk about exercise, living a healthy lifestyle and eating healthy. But it was not always like this.

Decades ago, the concept of health was quite different from how we perceive it right now. Yes, the value of exercise was still very much mentioned but the concept of healthy eating was vastly different. As late as the 1960s, the tenets that surround healthy eating was quite different from what it is now. Just look at the popular media in those days. The Brady matriarch Marcia Brady would constantly feed her family red meat, specifically beef, in her belief that meat ensures that her kids need red meat to grow up healthy.

Fast forward to the present and the what used to be the bible truth before is now considered as one of the worst health mistakes one can take. We now know that red meat is not really a healthy option because of the large amount of fat that it contains. The same with a lot of processed foods. We are now more conscious about the stuff that we consume and let into our system.

An integral part of this new health consciousness is the increased awareness about cholesterol. With advances in nutrition research and medicine over the last few decades, cholesterol has been identified as the culprit in a number of diseases most notably cardiovascular disease. This non-soluble waxy substance is a vital part for the maintenance of ones health. It is used by the body to make hormones, cell walls and nerve sheaths. But even though cholesterol plays an important role in the body too much of one type of cholesterol can actually be bad for the health.

People might wonder why there is a reference to types of cholesterol. To better understand this, it would be good to know how cholesterol works in the body. The liver produces while your diet provides cholesterol. This is then transported by the LDL or bad cholesterol though the whole body as a way of maintaining vital body functions. The HDL, the good cholesterol, then brings back the cholesterol to the liver so that it can be recycled. This is done so that cholesterol does not build up too much in the blood stream. Health problem crop up when there is too much LDL and not enough HDL to carry the cholesterol back to the liver. This imbalance increases the cholesterol in the body, which can lead to heart disease.

From the way body works and handles cholesterol, we know that there are two different types of cholesterol in the body, the bad cholesterol LDL and good cholesterol HDL. It does not take much thinking to realize that what nutritionists and physicians want us to do is to lower bad cholesterol and increase good cholesterol.

How exactly do you do that?

Fortunately, because of developments in nutrition and medical research there are ways of increasing the good cholesterol in your body. With proper nutrition and a healthy lifestyle you can exactly do that and be on the road to good health and low cholesterol. For more details, please visit