1. What is a normal cholesterol level? Why is lower cholesterol better?
Recommended cholesterol levels are as follows:
The reason we should care about cholesterol levels, is because we can synthesise the amount that we need to make steroids, and cell membranes in the body, all by ourselves. We actually don't require cholesterol from our diet because we can make it. So that bears the question - what happens with the excess cholesterol we get from our diet?
We get an increase in our blood cholesterol levels when we eat too many foods high in saturated fats, or when we have a genetic condition that causes it to be higher than normal (familial hypercholesterolaemia). Your cardiovascular system, is basically your heart ('cardio') and your blood vessels ('vascular'). When we have high cholesterol levels, we increase our chances of developing atherosclerosis, which is a form of cardiovascular disease.
In atherosclerosis, hardened plaques make our blood vessels narrower, like a clogged pipe - when there is a lot of water trying to flow through a narrow pipe, you can imagine this increases the pressure put on the pipe! This is just like how when we have narrower blood vessels, the blood which our heart is trying to pump around our body, is being pushed out against greater pressure - and hence we have high blood pressure, associated with high cholesterol. Having high blood pressure puts extra demands on . our heart - for a while our heart will pump harder to counter the pressure it is experiencing, but eventually the muscles in our heart essentially becomes exhausted and we get and . enlarged, flabby heart, which has less ability to pump strongly. As you can see, this is a vicious cycle that we do not want to enter - so how can we act NOW to prevent having heart problems down the line?
How to improve your blood cholesterol and heart health - 6 changes to make to your daily life
1. Eat less foods containing saturated fat, avoid trans fat:
These include: meat pies, sausages, other fatty meat, butter, lard, cream, cakes and biscuits, foods containing coconut or palm oil. Trans fats have been shown to increase total cholesterol levels.
2. Quit smoking!
If you smoke, here is reason number 100000001 to quit smoking - there is a chemical in cigarettes called acrolein, which stops HDL('good') cholesterol from 'mopping up' fatty deposits and . bringing them to the liver, which leads to atherosclerosis ( see above!)
3. Engage in regular exercise -
Engage in . 30 mins exercise, 5 times per week, or 20 mins vigorous exercise, 3 times per week. This can help raise our levels of 'good' cholesterol!
4. Consume more food containing soluble fibre -
Swap foods containing saturated fats for fruit, vegetables, wholegrains. A low-fat diet including lots of fibre, such as wholegrain rice, bread and pasta, and plenty of fruit and vegetables has also been shown to help lower cholesterol.
5. Consume foods containing unsaturated fats as part of your balanced diet.
We do need some fat in our diets, so swap saturated fat, which is in fatty meats etc as mentioned above, for unsaturated fat. Such foods include: oily fish (salmon, mackerel, tuna), nuts and seeds, olive oil, rapeseed oil, sunflower oil. These contain . omega 3 fatty acids, which were studied . when it was realised that Greenland Inuit people have a lower risk of heart disease despite consuming a high-fat diet (because the fats are healthy fats - in fish etc!)
6. Get regular check ups with your GP or pharmacist to check BMI, cholesterol levels, blood glucose levels, blood pressure... etc.
Catching symptoms suggestive of the metabolic syndrome early is key to preventing it from leading to complications such as Type 2 Diabetes and Heart Disease. Metabolic syndrome is when someone has at least 3 of these 5 medical conditions:
Abdominal obesity
high blood pressure
high blood glucose when fasting
high serum triglycerides (fats in your blood!)
low levels of . 'good' cholesterol