Lower Your Cholesterol

How to Achieve and Maintain a Healthy Cholesterol Level

Cholesterol is something that most of us encounter and battle with at one point or the other in our lives. So, what is cholesterol and why do we look to increase one level and decrease the other. What role does it play in your body?

The answers to the above questions and more can be found in the following:

What is Cholesterol and What is a Healthy Cholesterol Level?

Cholesterol is an essential substance that exists in our cells and flows through our blood stream. It has a waxy texture and the good cholesterol or HDL helps build cell membranes as well as various hormones. Bad cholesterol or LDL in high levels will clog the arteries which can lead to heart attacks in due course.

A healthy cholesterol level is of a minimum of 40 mg/dL of HDL and a maximum of 200mg/dL of LDL. Any alteration from these numbers and we need to take immediate action in order to bring it back to a healthy cholesterol level.

How to Maintain a Healthy Cholesterol Level

The first step to take in order to maintain a healthy cholesterol level is to regularly check it. The best way to know to do this is through a blood test.

Watch your weight. While cholesterol is not measured by weight, obesity will often come with high levels of bad cholesterol but at the same time it does not mean that someone who is slim or even under weight has good levels of cholesterol.

Bad cholesterol is found in trans fat and saturated fats so read all food labels and ensure you don’t eat too much food which contains high levels of these. There are many other types of food, which contain cholesterol, and such as eggs, milk, butter and poultry. The fact is you cannot remove all the food that contains cholesterol from your diet but you can and should control the portions.

If you are not sure what to eat then consult your doctor or dietician in order to obtain a custom made diet plan for you containing the right amount of cholesterol.

Awareness and understanding of your body will always help to keep you out of trouble especially if it helps to diagnose a diseases in its early stages. So take action to ensure you maintain a healthy cholesterol level while. Don't leave it until its too late and you end up in an emergency or worse.

What is a Good Cholesterol Level?

There are a number of reasons why it is important to understand what is considered to be a cholesterol level. One of the primary reasons is because having a high cholesterol level can make you more prone to dangers such as heart attacks and strokes. Although obesity is one of the most obvious symptoms or reasons for high cholesterol, just because you are not overweight does not mean that your cholesterol level is good.

Good Cholesterol Level Numbers

There are many things you need to take into consideration when you are trying to learn about and understand your cholesterol level. For example, did you know that there are both good and bad types of cholesterol? There is HDL cholesterol which is considered as being the good type of cholesterol and then there is LDL cholesterol which is considered as being the bad form of cholesterol.

Basically your cholesterol level will put into one of three categories, desirable, borderline risk or high risk. If your total cholesterol is less than 200mg/dL you are considered as being in the desirable category and your risk of heart attack is relatively low assuming all other risk factors are low.

If your cholesterol is in between 200 and 239mg/dL you are considered to be in the borderline risk category and about a third of all people end up in this category. If that applies to you you should have your cholesterol checked at least once a year especially if your HDL is less than 40mg/dL and/or you don’t have other risk factors for heart disease.

Finally, if your cholesterol level is 240mg/dL or more you are considered as being in the high risk category and your risk of heart attack and stroke is incredibly heightened. Also, you will have twice the risk of other coronary problems and so you must take action to return your body to a good cholesterol level immediately.

Basically the key point to remember is that the lower your LDL cholesterol, the lower your total cholesterol level will be. And since LDL is good cholesterol you should take all the measures you can in order to keep it as low as you can. If you find that you are not able to lower your cholesterol with self help measures, medications may be prescribed in order to return you to a good cholesterol level.