What is cholesterol ?
Cholesterol is a fat-like
substance found in all cells of the body. Your body needs some cholesterol to
make hormones, vitamin D, and substances that help you digest foods. Your body
makes all the cholesterol it needs. Cholesterol also is found in some of the
foods you eat.
Risk associated with
cholesterol
1. High blood cholesterol will
make a chance of getting coronary heart disease/coronary artery disease.
2. High Cholesterol Causes Heart
Attack.
3. High Cholesterol Causes
Stroke.
4. Can cause Chest pain as
arteries that supply your heart with blood (coronary arteries) are affected.
What can cause high
cholesterol?
1. Poor diet. Consuming saturated
fat, found in animal products, and trans fats, found in some commercially baked
cookies and crackers
2. Obesity. Having a body mass
index (BMI) of 30 or greater puts you at risk of high cholesterol.
3. Lack of exercise. Exercise
boost your body's HDL, or "good" cholesterol while increasing the
size of the particles that make up your LDL, or "bad," cholesterol,
which makes it less harmful.
4. Smoking. Cigarette smoking
damages the walls of your blood vessels, making them likely to accumulate fatty
deposits.
5. Diabetes. High blood sugar
contributes to higher LDL cholesterol and lower HDL cholesterol.
How to control cholesterol
1. STOP eating foods full of
saturated fats, trans fats, and dietary cholesterol.
Saturated fat foods
include butter, red meat, full-fat and
low-fat dairy products, palm oil, and coconut oil.
Start using Omega-3-rich fish,
such as salmon, sardines, herring, mackerel, and trout. select very-low-sodium
or no-salt-added canned fish if using tin fish. Clams, oysters, mussels,
scallops also good.
2. Eat a lot more fiber-rich
foods
This include oats, oat bran,
barley, peas, yams, sweet potatoes , legumes or beans, such as pinto beans,
black beans, garbanzo beans, and peas.Vegetables such as carrots, Brussels
sprouts, beets, okra, and eggplant. Fruit such as berries, passion fruit,
oranges, pears, apricots, nectarines, and apples also good.
3. Walk daily 30 minutes
4. Take plant sterol supplements
Note: High cholesterol typically doesn't cause any symptoms. A blood test
is the only way to know if your cholesterol is too high. So it is always
advisable to have a blood test every 6 months
