Cholesterol Levels

For years we heard that a low-fat, low-cholesterol diet would keep us healthy and help us lose weight. And many of us jumped on the bandwagon, eliminating fat and high-cholesterol foods from our diets. Well, unfortunately, we were doing it all wrong.

Cholesterol has been around for thousands of years. It’s a natural function of the human body. Unfortunately, most people aren’t even aware they have high cholesterol until they have a heart attack or stroke. It is possible to have up to 80 percent closure of the arteries without ever feeling a single symptom! Here are 5 tips you can use straight away to start lowering your cholesterol today:

1. Reduce fat in your diet.

Close to 107 million U.S. adults have cholesterol levels of 200 mg/dL or higher, a level that the American Heart Association says increases the risk of heart disease and stroke. At least 12 million of these people are taking statin drugs to lower their cholesterol levels, but there are more natural options out there.

Cholesterol. Boy, there sure is a lot of noise being made about keeping your cholesterol low. You can see ads for all kinds of drugs all over the TV to help lower your cholesterol. Go to a doctor’s office and the first thing you see hanging on the wall is a cholesterol chart.

So what exactly IS cholesterol and what’s the big deal about it? In this article we’ll try to answer some of those common questions.

Having your level of cholesterol read is very important if you have high blood cholesterol level. Cholesterol readings are the readings that consist of total cholesterol, low level lipoprotein cholesterol levels (LDL cholesterol), triglycerides and high density lipoprotein cholesterol level (HDL cholesterol). When you are having your cholesterol level checked by your doctor, it is vital that you have the cholesterol levels of the three (total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol and HDL cholesterol.) checked. The desirable total cholesterol readings are 200mg/dL with a borderline limit of 200 mg/dL to 239mg/dL. You are at risk of having a heart disease of you have a total of 240mg/dL above cholesterol readings.

Having your cholesterol level monitored is very important in preventing heart diseases. High cholesterol level is the main risk factor for heart attacks. Cholesterol monitors is very much already available on the market nowadays even without prescription and it is cheap too. It has been available over-the-counter since 1993 and is approved by the Food and Drug Administration. Home cholesterol monitors are now available on the market.

Having your cholesterol level measured is very easy and cheap.

On May of 2001, the National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP) issued new and major clinical cholesterol guidelines. Hoping to manage and prevent the increase of high cholesterol in adults. This was the last update of NCEP ten years ago.