Health and Fitness

You keep hearing about the dangers of high cholesterol levels. People with high cholesterol have a higher risk for heart attacks, heart disease and strokes. Keeping normal levels of cholesterol can help reduce these health risks.

Cholesterol is measured in milligrams. Adults are classified with cholesterol levels. Your levels can also be based on other factors like your race, health, gender, age, family history, whether or not you smoke, if you have high blood pressure, overweight or obesity, if you have diabetes and your exercise regimen.

LDL is low density lipoprotein also known as ‘bad’ cholesterol. HDL is high density lipoprotein also known as ‘good’ cholesterol. Your doctor will give you a test that releases the information of your LDL and HDL levels.

If your total cholesterol level is less than two hundred milligrams you are at lower risk for heart diseases. A level of two hundred to two hundred and thirty nine is borderline high. If your level is two hundred and forty or above you have high cholesterol giving you twice the risk of a heart disease.

Your HDL level will also play a factor in your risks for medical problems. A low HDL cholesterol level will you put at risk whereas a high HDL level is considered protective. You want to understand what each of these mean to better take care of your health and prevent any medical problems that could occur.

The normal levels of cholesterol depend on many different factors such as your age, genes and even culture. The ideal level is below two hundred milligrams according to certain health officials.

The normal level of total cholesterol is below two hundred and is considered high if over two hundred and forty. The normal level of LDL is below one hundred and thirty and is considered high if above one hundred and sixty. The normal level of HDL is above thirty five and the best if above sixty milligrams. The normal level of triglycerides is below two hundred and considered high if above four hundred.

A great way to watch your cholesterol level is to watch what you eat. Eating more fats can result in your cholesterol increasing. Read the labels on your food to look for how many calories, calories from the fat, the total amount of fat, saturated fat and of course cholesterol.

Foods with hydrogenated and partially hydrogenated oil are good to avoid. Try to eat plenty of fruits, vegetables and grains. Reason being because they have little fat and no cholesterol. That means less for you to watch out for.

Buy lean meats and try to only have 3 ounce servings when eating meat. Stick to broiled and baked foods instead of fried. All the fat of fried foods will have a major effect on your cholesterol level. This is one of the many main reasons for people with high cholesterol. Eating too many fried foods will do that to a person. Along with watching what you eat, the best way to keep your cholesterol levels normal is to exercise regularly along with your diet.

If you have a high cholesterol reading for any length of time then there is an increased risk that you will get thickening of the artery walls. This can ultimately lead to other cardiovascular problems, in particular heart disease. Heart disease is a leading cause of death of people in many developed countries thus there is plenty of information on how to lower cholesterol. In general, it involves eating foods with less cholesterol and taking on regular exercise. There is another approach to reducing cholesterol that involves taking foods and supplements that can combat cholesterol. One such foodstuff that can help is niacin. This article will discus how niacin can be used to control cholesterol.

Niacin is also known as vitamin B3 or nicotonic acid. It is soluble in water and can be found in a range of foods. It can be found in leaf vegetables, avocados, broccoli and many other foods. Most people that eat a balanced diet will get enough niacin for it to be effective within the body.

Niacin is believed to be effective in lowering cholesterol in two ways. However, before covering this we need to understand how cholesterol is transported throughout the body.

The nutrients, sugar and other elements of food, including cholesterol, are absorbed into the bloodstream from the intestine. However cholesterol cannot be moved throughout the body because it is not soluble in water (or blood). Thus it is attached lipoproteins. They act as cholesterol transporters.

There are various types of lipoproteins that are responsible for different parts of this transport. Very low density lipoproteins (or VLDL cholesterol) transports cholesterol from the liver. Low density lipoprotein (LDL cholesterol) transports cholesterol throughout the body but often bind with the artery walls. This leads to thickening of the artery walls or atherosclerosis (which is bad for the body and is dubbed bad cholesterol). High density lipoproteins (HDL cholesterol) transports cholesterol back to the liver where it is removed from the body (this is good for the body and therefore is called good cholesterol).

Niacin is believed block the breakdown of fats in the body. This causes a decrease in free fatty acids in the blood. This means that the levels of VLDL and cholesterol produced by the liver are decreased. By decreasing the level of VLDL, niacin also causes the level of HLDL cholesterol to be increased. By reducing VLDL cholesterol and increasing HDL cholesterol niacin is effectively reducing the bad cholesterol in the body.

Niacin supplements are sometimes prescribed when a person has low levels of HDL cholestrol but in most cases a person can get their daily requirement of niacin by eating a balanced diet that includes fresh fruit and vegetables.