Cholesterol 101
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The holiday season can be a time when heart complications make themselves known, including high cholesterol, which goes hand in hand with the food we put into our bodies. As we enjoy our favorite comfort foods and spend time with loved ones this holiday season, it’s important to keep your health at the forefront.
The American Heart Association has a great introductory article to cholesterol as well as treatment and prevention tips.
What is Cholesterol?: An introduction
If you’re reading this, you probably care about your health and the role cholesterol can play. That’s an important first step.
So, what is cholesterol? What does it do?
Cholesterol is a waxy substance. It’s not inherently “bad.” Your body needs it to build cells and make vitamins and other hormones. But too much cholesterol can pose a problem.
Cholesterol comes from two sources. Your liver makes all the cholesterol you need. The remainder of the cholesterol in your body comes from foods from animals. For example, meat, poultry and dairy products all contain dietary cholesterol.
Those same foods are high in saturated and trans fats. These fats cause your liver to make more cholesterol than it otherwise would. For some people, this added production means they go from a normal cholesterol level to one that’s unhealthy.
Some tropical oils – such as palm oil, palm kernel oil and coconut oil – contain saturated fat that can increase bad cholesterol. These oils are often found in baked goods.
View an animation of cholesterol.
Why cholesterol matters
Cholesterol circulates in the blood. As the amount of cholesterol in your blood increases, so does the risk to your health. High cholesterol contributes to a higher risk of cardiovascular diseases, such as heart disease and stroke. That’s why it’s important to have your cholesterol tested, so you can know your levels.
The two types of cholesterol are: LDL cholesterol, which is bad, and HDL, which is good. Too much of the bad kind, or not enough of the good kind, increases the risk cholesterol will slowly build up in the inner walls of the arteries that feed the heart and brain.
Learn more about LDL, HDL and triglycerides.
Cholesterol can join with other substances to form a thick, hard deposit on the inside of the arteries. This can narrow the arteries and make them less flexible – a condition known as atherosclerosis. If a blood clot forms and blocks one of these narrowed arteries, a heart attack or stroke can result.
When it comes to cholesterol, remember: check, change and control. That is:
Check your cholesterol levels. It’s key to know your numbers and assess your risk.
Change your diet and lifestyle to help improve your levels.
Control your cholesterol, with help from your doctor if needed
High cholesterol is one of the major controllable risk factors for coronary heart disease, heart attack and stroke. If you have other risk factors such as smoking, high blood pressure or diabetes, your risk increases even more.
Prevention
Eating a heart-healthy diet
From a dietary standpoint, the best way to lower your cholesterol is reduce your intake of saturated fat and trans fat. The American Heart Association recommends limiting saturated fat to less than 6% of daily calories and minimizing the amount of trans fat you eat.
Reducing these fats means limiting your intake of red meat and dairy products made with whole milk. Choose skim milk, low-fat or fat-free dairy products instead. It also means limiting fried food and cooking with healthy oils, such as vegetable oil.
A heart-healthy diet emphasizes fruits, vegetables, whole grains, poultry, fish, nuts and nontropical vegetable oils, while limiting red and processed meats, sodium and sugar-sweetened foods and beverages.
Many diets fit this general description. For example, the DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) eating plan promoted by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute as well as diets suggested by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the American Heart Association are heart-healthy approaches. Such diets can be adapted based on your cultural and food preferences.
To be smarter about what you eat, pay more attention to food labels. As a starting point:
Know your fats. Knowing which fats raise LDL cholesterol and which ones don’t is key to lowering your risk of heart disease.
Cook for lower cholesterol. A heart-healthy eating plan can help you manage your blood cholesterol level.
Becoming more physically active
A sedentary lifestyle lowers HDL cholesterol. Less HDL means there’s less good cholesterol to remove bad cholesterol from your arteries.
Physical activity is important. At least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise a week is enough to lower both cholesterol and high blood pressure. And you have lots of options: brisk walking, swimming, bicycling or even yard work can fit the bill.
Learn more about getting active.
Quitting smoking
Smoking and vaping lowers HDL cholesterol.
Worse still, when a person with unhealthy cholesterol levels also smokes, risk of coronary heart disease increases more than it otherwise would. Smoking also compounds the risk from other risk factors for heart disease, such as high blood pressure and diabetes.
By quitting, smokers can lower their LDL cholesterol and increase their HDL cholesterol levels. It can also help protect their arteries. Nonsmokers should avoid exposure to secondhand smoke.
Learn more about quitting smoking.
Losing weight
Being overweight or obese tends to raise bad cholesterol and lower good cholesterol. But a weight loss of as little as 5% to 10% can help improve cholesterol numbers.
Learn more about losing weight.
To check your cholesterol levels, you can visit Health and Wellness Screenings in our Fourth Street Building. Talk to your provider about getting the Wellness Panel test if you have concerns about your heart health and remember that Campbell County Health has a team of premier Cardiologists available to you to keep your heart healthy.
Contact Cardiology Services at 307.688.3700