The public has become increasingly aware of the potential damage done by unhealthy diets, and concern over high cholesterol levels has increased also. Cholesterol is the body's fat, which along with triglycerides, is an important part of the cell's structure. It is also a great asset in producing energy and hormones. Thus, it is a very important part of the body, which no one can take lightly.
While people are concerned with the level of cholesterol, not many people know that cholesterol can be good as well as bad. Its level in the blood largely depends on what one eats and how much one eats. Having high cholesterol in the blood is not really an illness but it can definitely lead to a number of them, including the ischemic disease of the heart. Excessive levels of LDL (low density lipoprotein) cholesterol causes atherosclerosis, which is the hardening and narrowing of the arteries in the vascular system. As time goes by, cholesterol gradually rises. Therefore, one needs to maintain reasonable diets. Generally, women are more susceptible to high cholesterol than men. However, higher levels of HDL (high density lipoprotein) can actually be a good thing.
Cholesterol Symptoms and Cholesterol Diets
Among cholesterol causes, three main ones should be singled out that are not linked to any underlying illnesses: genes, unhealthy dietary habits (obesity ) and lifestyle (lack of physical exercise, aging, mental stress and lack of sexual activity may raise the level, and healthy sexual lifestyles, active lifestyles and moderate wine drinking can actually drop it). As far as the symptoms that cholesterol causes go, there are not really that many to let you know you have high cholesterol. You may experience sudden dizzy spells, labored breathing, and may even lose consciousness; you might feel serious chest pains and discomfort, at times accompanied by nausea and vomiting.
These and other similar symptoms may identify high cholesterol levels, and in turn, judging by these symptoms, cholesterol causes life-threatening heart diseases that can and need to be prevented at all costs. Simple cholesterol tests are easily accessible these days, and they are highly recommended. Knowing your level of cholesterol will help you identify any heart-related diseases as well as allow you to stay sharp in relation to any risk of falling a victim of heart attack, which so many do on account of carelessness and ignorance.
Cholesterol Treatment
Cholesterol causes many heart-related diseases, thus if your test indicates high cholesterol level, you must take action and do it as soon as possible. There are some drugs available to lower cholesterol levels in the blood, such as Lipitor, Vytorin and Zetia. However, drugs and medical intervention will help temporarily, but it’s up to a person to make a change in their own lifestyle. It will produce long-lasting results, and will also take care of heart diseases that cholesterol causes.
Of course, one cannot influence his genetic makeup, but as for the rest of the cholesterol causes discussed above, one can take care of them by exercising regularly, losing weight and maintaining healthy diets. It does not take that much to learn to live healthy, but some people consider it a great sacrifice to make. All of their lives they have indulged themselves by eating nothing but junk food or juicy fat foods. Significant results do not come overnight. Lowering high cholesterol to normal levels will take time, and in the end it pays off with good health and better quality of life.
