September Is National Cholesterol Education Month

Online, September 12, 2011 (Newswire.com) - This month is National Cholesterol Education Month, a time when we focus our energy into learning what is the cause of cholesterol, where it's found in our diet and how to bring our cholesterol to a healthy level.

Cholesterol is a fatty, wax-like substance that is made by the liver, adrenal glands, reproductive organs and intestine. We need a certain amount of cholesterol in our body. It is the main component of many of our hormones and an essential component of our cellular structure. It is absolutely essential for certain hormones and vitamin D.

The cholesterol itself is actually insoluble in water and by itself, is exceptionally rare in our blood. It takes a special type of protein, known as lipoproteins, two fat around her body through the bloodstream. Once these proteins wrap around the cholesterol they can easily ruin our blood to places where they are needed for building blocks of our bodies.

There are five different kinds of lipoproteins; high-density lipoproteins, low-density lipoprotein, intermediate density lipoprotein, very low density lipoprotein and chylomicrons.
HDL, high density lipoprotein, is the cholesterol in our blood that removes many of the fats and the cholesterol in our body and takes them back to the liver for elimination. Having a high number of HDL in your body is considered a sign of health.

The rest of the proteins take cholesterol's from the liver, intestines and other organs and transports them to other muscles and tissues to be used for building blocks. We want the other types of lipoproteins remain at a low level source not to induce heart disease, a high enough so that we have adequate healing and regenerative strengths. LDL, low-density lipoprotein, if the main carrier of cholesterol in our body.

There's one other number that factors into our total cholesterol number and this is triglycerides. Triglycerides are a combination of three fats that are attached to each other. They are carried by the vLDL and chylomicrons to be used for energy or fat storage.
When you go to the doctor, make sure you get all of your cholesterol types broken down. You actually need to request the specifically since most laboratories will only run your HDL LDL and triglycerides.

The sign of heart disease is shown when high LDL cholesterol combined with a high vLDL cholesterol. Recent studies have shown that high vLDL cholesterol is more indicator of stroke and heart attack then just LDL alone. This is because the VLDL can be oxidized more quickly and is more apt to forming arterial plaque. Without knowing the vLDL number, it is difficult to know what your risk of heart diseases is.

While most doctors are not sure what causes high cholesterol, they do know a couple of contributing factors. Not surprisingly, diet is the number one factor. People who eat too much and poor quality foods have a higher cholesterol than people who don't.

Those who eat a diet high in vegetables, quality meats and 100% whole grains obtain a good spectrum of healthy fats and none of the unhealthy fats. Boxed food and prepackaged foods contain many trans fats and high amounts of saturated fats, both of which are known to raise your cholesterol levels.

Genetics only predisposes you to having a high cholesterol level, it does not doom you to a life of medication. In fact, people who have high cholesterol can reduce their cholesterol enough with the medications using a combination of healthy diet and lifestyle choices.