Thursday, March 25, 2010

Can You Lower Cholesterol Naturally? Cholesterol Management Solutions For Everyone

Do you need to lower your cholesterol? Is it possible to lower cholesterol naturally? Hmmm, a perplexing question. And one which a huge number of people need an answer to as so many people have high cholesterol and need to lower their levels.

The question "can you lower cholesterol naturally" is one which needs to be preceded by another question. When you ask can you lower cholesterol naturally what do you mean by "naturally"?

Lowering cholesterol isn't easy, and there are a number of options to lower cholesterol and achieve better overall heart health. Some involve risks.

You can try drugs, statin drugs are the common cholesterol lowering drugs that are regularly prescribed by doctors. Or you can try a diet to lower cholesterol. Or you can try other methods like natural nutritional supplements and natural products which utilize active ingredients that are not "drugs", that are naturally occurring and are known to be safe.

Thursday, March 4, 2010

Managing Your Cholesterol - The Best Way To Prevent Hearth Attacks

Cholesterol is one of the most familiar medical words today. Everyone knows "something" about it , but mostly cholesterol is associated in our mind with something "bad" and "unwanted" that happens to old and overweight people.The facts show that about 20 percent of the U.S. population has high blood cholesterol levels.

Actually holesterol is a waxy, fatlike substance (lipid) that your body needs for many important functions, such as producing new cells , some hormones, vitamin D, and the bile acids that help to digest fat.. It is present in cell walls or membranes everywhere in the body, including the brain, nerves, muscle, skin, liver, intestines, and heart.

In fact our bodies need cholesterol to function normally, but too much cholesterol can be bad for our health. Why ? Cholesterol and other fats can't dissolve in the blood. They have to be transported to and from the cells by special carriers. Cholesterol travels through your blood attached to a protein. This cholesterol-protein package is called a lipoprotein. Lipoproteins are high density or low density depending on how much protein there is in relation to fat.

The Truth About Cholesterol

Cholesterol is considered a type of fat, a sterol to be precise. Its production starts with sugar molecules. Please read the preceding sentence a thousand times again and again. Yes, cholesterol production begins when the cells of the body see sugar molecules. These sugar molecules can be glucose (found in starches, processed and un processed foods and all vegetables), fructose (found in fruit and berries) and galactose (found in lactose which is comprised of glucose and galactose). These sugar molecules will be modified within the cells of the body with the end result being the production of cholesterol.

One may ask, "Why would our bodies make such a deadly substance?" Our bodies make cholesterol because our cells, each and every one of them, need cholesterol to survive. Cholesterol is found in our cell's membrane, is the starting point for the production of hormones like testosterone, estradiol, progesterone, cortisol and bile acid salts and the list goes on. Without cholesterol in our cell's membrane and without the other things we make from cholesterol; we will die. The cell membrane is what makes a cell, a cell. Without a cell membrane we have no cells and there is no us. Without the other stuff we make from cholesterol we could not survive either.

Cholesterol - All You Need to Know!

When you go to the doctor and he tells you your cholesterol level, you typically are told your TOTAL blood cholesterol level. Ever wondered how cholesterol gets into your blood? The body's liver makes most of the cholesterol it needs - yes, NEEDS. Some cholesterol is absorbed from the food you eat.

Why does the body NEED cholesterol?
The body needs cholesterol to make several important hormones including estrogen and testosterone. In addition, cholesterol is part of the protective covering that surrounds nerves and other cell membranes.

Why is having a high blood cholesterol level bad?
Elevated cholesterol levels are associated with heart disease. For a better assessment of your risk of heart disease, it is important to know not only your total cholesterol but also your HDL. The total cholesterol consists of HDL (high-density lipoprotein), LDL (low-density lipoprotein), and VLDL (very low-density lipoprotein). LDL is the bad guy. HDL is the good guy. Why? LDL cholesterol sticks to your the walls of your blood vessels and can cause blockage. VLDL is the precursor to LDL cholesterol. HDL goes around in the blood stream, collects bad cholesterol, and carries it back to the liver where it is broken down.
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