Cholesterol Ratio
September 9th, 2007 Subscribe To Our Feed
What is Your Cholesterol Ratio?
You have probably heard your doctor or a family member mentioned the importance of your cholesterol ratio at least once. But maybe yet did not make the effort to find out what it is and why should you maintain its levels. This article will put that right.
What is Cholesterol?
Cholesterol is something which is normally present in our cells and blood stream. It is an important part of our body system which helps to produce cell membranes and various types of hormones. However, there are two types of cholesterol and they are termed good cholesterol (HDL) and bad cholesterol (LDL). While the good is essential for our body the bad can cause fatal heart stokes by clogging the arteries.
The only way to find out your cholesterol ratio levels is to conduct a blood test. The normal levels of cholesterol are of a maximum 200mg/dL of LDL or less and a minimum of 40mg/dL or more of HDL.
Some doctors calculate the cholesterol ratio in order to make it easier for the patients to understand the cholesterol level.
How to Calculate the Cholesterol Ratio
In order to obtain your cholesterol ratio you first need to obtain the total cholesterol levels and then divide the HDL cholesterol level by the total cholesterol. Personally I always found it easier to calculate the HDL and LDL separately as well as monitor them in that fashion without working with the cholesterol ratio. However many find it easier to calculate and work with their cholesterol when they are aware of their cholesterol ratio.
Managing Your Cholesterol Levels
Besides the large amount of drugs available on the market for lowering and controlling cholesterol levels you can also play a big role by monitoring your food intake closely. Items that contain cholesterol and trans or saturated fats should be avoided. You can be helped with this by reading labels carefully before you purchase.
Exercising and eating healthily goes a long way towards staying fit and well and everyday practice will bring you a better and longer life. Also regular visits to your doctor will help you keep informed of your cholesterol levels as well as enable you to act before it becomes an emergency situation.
Cholesterol is not calculated by your weight. You can be slim and yet have high levels of cholesterol. Therefore watching the ingredients in your food becomes doubly important to maintaining a good cholesterol ratio since putting on weight is not a sufficient sign that you are at risk. Educate your self and lead a richer, healthier life.
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Related Tags: LDL cholesterol, bad cholesterol, choesterol ratio, cholesterol diet, cholesterol levels, cholesterol ratio, good cholesterol, lower cholesterol
Cholesterol HDL Ratio
September 7th, 2007 Subscribe To Our Feed
Why Improving Your Cholesterol HDL Ratio Is RecommendedThere are quite a few studies pointing to the fact that HDL cholesterol (which is the good cholesterol), when maintained high levels, protects us from heart disease. The same effect is possible from lowering the LDL cholesterol (bad cholesterol) but to a much lesser measure. So we need to keep an eye on our LDL to HDL cholesterol ratio.
A rather disturbing and recently found result from recent studies is that low HDL cholesterol levels would be indicative of a high risk of heart disease. In other words even if the total cholesterol and the LDL levels are normal, if the HDL cholesterol is low, then the risk of heart attack stays high. This indicates that somehow the HDL cholesterol is able to protect the heart from disease. So it’s the HDL Cholesterol ratio to LDL that is most important. Studies are now being carried out to find learn what the main ingredients are in HDL cholesterol that protect the heart from harm.
Properties Of HDL Cholesterol
Some preliminary studies have been conducted which show that HDL cholesterol contains a very complex molecule made of protein, lipids, and cholesterol. This molecule’s role seems to be to “clean” the walls of the arteries, thus removing the bad cholesterol from it and depositing it within the liver for cleansing. The HDL cholesterol here is performing the role as the ‘cleaner’.
Nowadays doctors whose patients have low HDL cholesterol are recommending that they try to increase it immediately and the treatment prescribed will be aimed at this goal. This means that even if the person has been found to have normal levels of cholesterol in the blood, but reduced good cholesterol, efforts are made to increase it and to get it to above the normal levels, thus changing the cholesterol’s HDL ratio.
Methods to Increase Good Cholesterol
Lose Weight – it is now well known that obesity is one of the leading causes of heart attack. Loosing weight not only results in increased HDL cholesterol and decreased LDL cholesterol (i.e. a change in the ratio between them) but also in good overall health.
Exercise Regularly – it has been proved time and again that aerobic exercise can increase the levels of the good cholesterol in the body.
Cut out Smoking and Reduce Consumption of Alcohol – smoking and drinking can aggravate heart disease and cause heart attacks.
Improve Your Diet - add plenty of fiber to your diet such as that found in oats, legumes, fruits, etc which should be consumed on a daily basis for increasing the good HDL cholesterol ratio.
Choelsterol HDL ratio to LDL is very important to your overall health and both should be looked at in conjunction with each other. Attending to one without the other won’t be as effective to your health as working to improve the levels of both.
Technorati Tags: cholesterol diet, cholesterol ratio, good cholesterol, HDL cholesterol
Related Tags: LDL cholesterol, bad cholesterol, choesterol ratio, cholesterol diet, cholesterol levels, cholesterol ratio, good cholesterol, lower cholesterol
