High Cholesterol And Its Reasons

What is cholesterol?
Cholesterol is a fat like substance that circulates in our blood. If you could take it in your hand it would look like semi solid wax. Some of it is produced by the body and rest comes from the food we eat. It is used to form cell membrane, hormones and even helps in digesting fats and other body functions.

There are two types of cholesterol:

LDL: Low density lipoprotein or LDL is known as “bad cholesterol”. It can slowly build up in the inner walls of the arteries and can result in a heart attack or stroke.

HDL: High density lipoprotein or HDL is also known as “good cholesterol”. It helps against heart attack and also removes excess cholesterol from arteries.

Risk:
As your blood cholesterol raises, so does your risk of coronary heart attack and stroke.

Reasons:
There are a number of reasons that increase the level of cholesterol. For instance:

-Diet:
Intake of foods that are high in saturated fats like palm and coconut oils or foods containing high levels of cholesterol like eggs, meat, lard and shrimp can increase the level of cholesterol.

-Age:
This problem is more in adults. More than half of the adult population has blood cholesterol levels higher than the desirable range. This problem often begins in childhood. Hence, its necessary to cultivate healthy habits as early in your life as possible..

-Weight:
People who are overweight are more prone to high cholesterol. Furthermore, the risk increases if the weight is centered in the abdominal region.

-Gender:
Before menopause, women have lower cholesterol levels than men but after menopause women often have higher levels than their opposite sex of the same age.

-Genetics:
Genes influences the levels of HDL and LDL. People who have family history of premature heart disease should go for a regular checkup.

-Sedentary Jobs:
People who are in sitting jobs and lack physical exercise are also prone to high cholesterol.

-Lifestyle:
Stressful lifestyle brings you in the risk bracket. Smoking, drinking, lack of rest add on to the probability.

To bring your cholesterol level under control you need to change a lot many things in your life. Don’t be disappointed if you don’t see results immediately, just keep working on living a healthy lifestyle.