Archive for the ‘Cardio & Blood-Cholesterol’ Category

TRUTH ABOUT CHOLESTEROL

Tuesday, January 25th, 2011
If you haven’t heard or seen the word cholesterol in the past month, you’ve probably been stranded on a desert island. We now can tell you what it does, how it gets into your body, how it could clog up your arteries, and how to get it out of your body.
But is all that information going to make any difference to your health?
Yes, says Dr. John C. LaRosa, of the American Heart Association. He says, “In the last decade, we have had a really substantial increase in certainty that there is a cause-and-effect relationship between cholesterol levels in the blood and heart disease. We are also certain – beyond reasonable doubt – that we can reduce heart disease.”
Data from the National Center for Health Statistics show that from 1971 to 1996, deaths from heart disease dropped nearly 50 percent. People are taking action: exercising, limiting the fat and cholesterol in their diet, and reducing other risks by quitting smoking and lowering high blood pressure.
You may have heard that cholesterol is a fatty substance. In a way it is, sort of. But cholesterol is not fat. In large amounts, fat is yellowish-white and oily; cholesterol is white and waxy.
Your body needs fat, which is a source of energy, and cholesterol, which goes into the making of hormones, digestive bile, and the “skin” of your cells. Your body can create fat and cholesterol. The foods you eat contain both, but only animal foods (including butter, cream, ice cream, cheese, meat, eggs) have cholesterol. Your body stores pounds of fat as lumps everywhere, but it stores only ounces of cholesterol, which are distributed to every organ of the body.
The kind and amount of fat you eat is linked to how much cholesterol your body makes and how much cholesterol runs in your blood. This link is the key to the cause of heart disease. If you eat too much fat from animal sources, the cholesterol in your blood rises. Each day, a little sticks to the walls of your arteries. In a few years, sacs of cholesterol pile up on the arterial walls. These sacs have been found in men as young as 19.
In a few decades, enough cholesterol can collect on the arteries’ walls to slow or block the flow of blood through them. Often this narrows the coronary arteries, which feed blood to the heart muscle. With flow slowed or blocked, heart pain (angina) signals that the heart muscle itself lacks enough blood to give it oxygen and enough energy to keep it pumping. Result: a heart attack.
If a blocked artery leads to hemorrhage or to a lack of blood in part of the brain, a stroke – with paralysis, loss of speech, or other mental functions – could result. In the legs, cholesterol-clogged arteries can so block circulation as to cause severe muscle cramps and sometimes gangrene.
*8/266/5*

TRUTH ABOUT CHOLESTEROLIf you haven’t heard or seen the word cholesterol in the past month, you’ve probably been stranded on a desert island. We now can tell you what it does, how it gets into your body, how it could clog up your arteries, and how to get it out of your body.But is all that information going to make any difference to your health?Yes, says Dr. John C. LaRosa, of the American Heart Association. He says, “In the last decade, we have had a really substantial increase in certainty that there is a cause-and-effect relationship between cholesterol levels in the blood and heart disease. We are also certain – beyond reasonable doubt – that we can reduce heart disease.”Data from the National Center for Health Statistics show that from 1971 to 1996, deaths from heart disease dropped nearly 50 percent. People are taking action: exercising, limiting the fat and cholesterol in their diet, and reducing other risks by quitting smoking and lowering high blood pressure.You may have heard that cholesterol is a fatty substance. In a way it is, sort of. But cholesterol is not fat. In large amounts, fat is yellowish-white and oily; cholesterol is white and waxy.Your body needs fat, which is a source of energy, and cholesterol, which goes into the making of hormones, digestive bile, and the “skin” of your cells. Your body can create fat and cholesterol. The foods you eat contain both, but only animal foods (including butter, cream, ice cream, cheese, meat, eggs) have cholesterol. Your body stores pounds of fat as lumps everywhere, but it stores only ounces of cholesterol, which are distributed to every organ of the body.The kind and amount of fat you eat is linked to how much cholesterol your body makes and how much cholesterol runs in your blood. This link is the key to the cause of heart disease. If you eat too much fat from animal sources, the cholesterol in your blood rises. Each day, a little sticks to the walls of your arteries. In a few years, sacs of cholesterol pile up on the arterial walls. These sacs have been found in men as young as 19.In a few decades, enough cholesterol can collect on the arteries’ walls to slow or block the flow of blood through them. Often this narrows the coronary arteries, which feed blood to the heart muscle. With flow slowed or blocked, heart pain (angina) signals that the heart muscle itself lacks enough blood to give it oxygen and enough energy to keep it pumping. Result: a heart attack.If a blocked artery leads to hemorrhage or to a lack of blood in part of the brain, a stroke – with paralysis, loss of speech, or other mental functions – could result. In the legs, cholesterol-clogged arteries can so block circulation as to cause severe muscle cramps and sometimes gangrene.*8/266/5*

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