A WORD ABOUT ELEVATED CHOLESTEROL LEVELS
Cholesterol. It’s one of those words everyone automatically labels as bad while, in fact, the jury is still out deliberating. Somewhere along the line, you’ve probably noticed that less ink is being spilled in books and magazines on the word diet and more on heart disease and cholesterol.
Frequently connected with the topic of cholesterol are words such as monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats, lipoproteins, HDL, LDL, and triglycerides. No matter how many times we hear them, many people are forever confused. What do they all mean, and what relationship do they have to the health of your heart and cardiovascular system?
Let’s start with the easy part, the definitions. Cholesterol is a waxlike, fatty substance that is natural to all animals. It is necessary to the working of our bodies, which make and use it, for example, to manufacture substances in our cell membranes and nerves. We ingest cholesterol by eating food products obtained from animals. The cholesterol we eat is called dietary cholesterol. The cholesterol in our blood is called serum cholesterol. When you are tested for cholesterol, your serum cholesterol will be measured and you will be given a number that represents a certain number of milligrams of cholesterol per 100 milliliters of blood. Anything under 200 is considered to be healthy. From 200 to 240 is considered to be borderline high, 240 to 300 is high risk, and over 300 is dangerous.
Though cholesterol is a natural and necessary component of our bodies, too much serum cholesterol is dangerous. It clogs up the bloodstream by sticking to the walls of the arteries. As cholesterol clings to the arterial walls, it eventually becomes hardened with calcium. This condition is called arteriosclerosis. Arteriosclerosis clogs arteries everywhere: the carotid arteries feeding the brain, the coronary arteries supplying the heart, the femoral arteries supplying the legs—you get the picture. Arteriosclerosis is one of the causes of stroke, heart attack, and the advanced form of poor circulation called peripheral vascular disease. If arteriosclerosis becomes severe enough, it is treated surgically with a bypass operation in which the surgeon creates a tubular pathway for blood to flow around the clogged obstruction or, sometimes, scrapes the clot out of the artery. A bypass operation improves a deteriorating situation when someone is having a heart attack or losing a limb, but nothing works as well as prevention.
That’s why everyone is taking a mean look at cholesterol, which is turning out to be the buzzword of health in the 90s. You can significantly decrease the likelihood of developing arteriosclerosis by monitoring your serum cholesterol and keeping it within a healthy range by eating the right foods and participating in a regular exercise program.
Sounds easy, but it’s not. The American Heart Association recommends that to keep our cholesterol down we reduce our total fat intake to 30% or less of our daily calorie intake. We should also avoid foods high in cholesterol such as lard, butter, and eggs.
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