Why Is Cholesterol Important?
Your blood cholesterol level have a lot to do next to your chances of getting heart disease. High blood cholesterol is one of the leading risk factors for heart disease. A risk factor is a condition that increases your occasion of getting a disease. In fact, the highly developed your blood cholesterol level, the greater your risk for developing heart disease or have a heart attack. Heart disease is the number one killer of women and men contained by the United States. Each year, more than a million Americans have heart attacks, and in the region of a half million culture die from heart disease.
How Does Cholesterol Cause Heart Disease?
When there is too much cholesterol (a fat-like substance) contained by your blood, it builds up in the walls of your arteries. Over time, this buildup cause "hardening of the arteries" so that arteries become narrowed and blood flow to the heart is slowed down or blocked. The blood carry oxygen to the heart, and if enough blood and oxygen cannot make your heart, you may suffer chest pain. If the blood supply to a portion of the heart is completely cut stale by a blockage, the result is a heart attack.
High blood cholesterol itself does not cause symptoms, so plentiful people are insensible that their cholesterol level is too lofty. It is important to find out what your cholesterol numbers are because lowering cholesterol level that are too high lessen the risk for developing heart disease and reduces the coincidence of a heart attack or dying of heart disease, even if you already have it. Cholesterol lowering is noteworthy for everyone--younger, middle age, and elder adults; women and men; and people next to or without heart disease.
What Do Your Cholesterol Numbers Mean?
Everyone age 20 and elder should have their cholesterol measured at most minuscule once every 5 years. It is best to have a blood audition called a "lipoprotein profile" to find out your cholesterol numbers. This blood theory test is done after a 9- to 12-hour fast and give information about your:
** Total cholesterol
** LDL (bad) cholesterol--the foremost source of cholesterol buildup and blockage in the arteries
** HDL (good) cholesterol--helps hold on to cholesterol from building up in the arteries
** Triglycerides--another form of fat within your blood
If it is not possible to bring a lipoprotein profile done, knowing your total cholesterol and HDL cholesterol can give you a standard idea almost your cholesterol levels. If your total cholesterol is 200 mg/dL * or more or if your HDL is smaller amount than 40 mg/dL, you will need to own a lipoprotein profile done. See how your cholesterol numbers compare to the tables below.
Total Cholesterol Level Category
Less than 200 mg/dL Desirable
200-239 mg/dL Borderline giant
240 mg/dL and above High
LDL Cholesterol Level LDL Cholesterol Category
Less than 100 mg/dL Optimal
100-129 mg/dL Near optimal/above optimal
130-159 mg/dL Borderline high
160-189 mg/dL High
190 mg/dL and above Very high-ranking
* Cholesterol levels are measured contained by milligrams (mg) of cholesterol
per deciliter (dL) of blood.
HDL (good) cholesterol protects against heart disease, so for HDL, higher numbers are better. A stratum less than 40 mg/dL is low and is considered a crucial risk factor because it increases your risk for developing heart disease. HDL levels of 60 mg/dL or more abet to lower your risk for heart disease.
Triglycerides can also raise heart disease risk. Levels that are borderline large (150-199 mg/dL) or high (200 mg/dL or more) may entail treatment in some individuals.
What Affects Cholesterol Levels?
A variety of things can affect cholesterol level. These are things you can do something about:
** Diet. Saturated tubby and cholesterol in the food you drink make your blood cholesterol smooth go up. Saturated margarine is the main culprit, but cholesterol surrounded by foods also matters. Reducing the amount of wringing fat and cholesterol surrounded by your diet helps lower your blood cholesterol height.
** Weight. Being overweight is a risk factor for heart disease. It also tends to increase your cholesterol. Losing counterweight can help lower your LDL and total cholesterol level, as well as incline your HDL and lower your triglyceride levels.
** Physical Activity. Not human being physically active is a risk factor for heart disease. Regular physical buzz can help lower LDL (bad) cholesterol and elevate HDL (good) cholesterol levels. It also help you lose weight. You should try to be physically busy for 30 minutes on most, if not adjectives, days.
Things you cannot do anything about also can affect cholesterol level. These include:
** Age and Gender. As women and men get elder, their cholesterol levels rise. Before the age of menopause, women hold lower total cholesterol levels than men of impossible to tell apart age. After the age of menopause, women's LDL levels tend to rise.
** Heredity. Your genes to some extent determine how much cholesterol your body makes. High blood cholesterol can run within families.
What Is Your Risk of Developing Heart Disease or Having a Heart Attack?
In nonspecific, the higher your LDL rank and the more risk factors you hold (other than LDL), the greater your chances of developing heart disease or have a heart attack. Some people are at large risk for a heart attack because they already have heart disease. Other populace are at high risk for developing heart disease because they enjoy diabetes (which is a strong risk factor) or a combination of risk factors for heart disease. Follow these steps to find out your risk for developing heart disease.
Step 1 Check the table below to see how copious of the listed risk factor you have; these are the risk factor that affect your LDL goal.
Major Risk Factors That Affect Your LDL Goal
*** Cigarette smoking
*** High Blood Pressure (140/90 mmHg or better or on blood
pressure medication)
*** Low HDL cholesterol (less than 40 mg/dL) *
*** Family history of early heart disease (heart disease
within father or brother before age 55; heart disease surrounded by mother
or sister before age 65)
*** Age (men 45 years or elder; women 55 years or older)
* If your HDL cholesterol is 60 mg/dL or higher, subtract 1
from your total count.
Even though portliness and physical inactivity are not counted within this list, they are conditions that necessitate to be corrected.
Step 2 How many primary risk factors do you hold? If you have 2 or more risk factor in the table above, use the risk scoring table on the back page (which include your cholesterol levels) to find your risk chalk up. Risk score refers to the providence of having a heart attack surrounded by the next 10 years, given as a percentage.
(Use the Framingham Point Scores on the backbone page.)
My 10-year risk score is -- %.
Step 3 Use your medical history, number of risk factor, and risk score to find your risk of developing heart disease or have a heart attack in the table below.
If You Have You Are contained by Category
Heart disease, diabetes, or risk score I. Highest Risk
more than 20% *
2 or more risk factor and risk score II. Next Highest Risk
10-20%
2 or more risk factor and risk score III. Moderate Risk
smaller quantity than 10%
0 or 1 risk factor IV. Low-to-Moderate Risk
* Means that more than 20 of 100 people contained by this category will have a
heart attck inside 10 years.
My risk category is --.
Treating High Cholesterol
The main aspiration of cholesterol-lowering treatment is to lower your LDL level ample to reduce your risk of developing heart disease or have a heart attack. The higher your risk, the lower your LDL aim will be. To find your LDL goal, see the box for your risk category below. There are two chief ways to lower your cholesterol:
* Therapeutic Lifestyle Changes (TLC)--includes a cholesterol-lowering diet (called the TLC diet), physical activity, and consignment management. TLC is for anyone whose LDL is above hope.
* Drug Treatment--if cholesterol-lowering drugs are needed, they are used together with TLC treatment to aid lower your LDL.
If you are in ...
Category I, Highest Risk, your LDL purpose is less than 100 mg/dL. If your LDL is 100 or above, you will inevitability to begin the TLC diet. If your LDL is 130 or difficult, you will need to start drug treatment at one and the same time as the TLC diet. If your LDL is 100 to 129, you may also need to start drug treatment together beside the TLC diet. Even if your LDL is below 100, you should follow the TLC diet on your own to keep your LDL as low as possible.
Category II, Next Highest Risk, your LDL desire is less than 130 mg/dL. If your LDL is 130 mg/dL or above, you will want to begin treatment beside the TLC diet. If your LDL is 130 mg/dL or more after 3 months on the TLC diet, you may need drug treatment along beside the TLC diet. If your LDL is less than 130 mg/dL, you will involve to follow the heart-healthy diet for all Americans, which allows a touch more saturated podgy and cholesterol than the TLC diet.
Category III, Moderate Risk, your LDL goal is smaller number than 130 mg/dL. If your LDL is 130 mg/dL or above, you will need to fire up the TLC diet. If your LDL is 160 mg/dL or more after you have tried the TLC diet for 3 months, you may involve drug treatment along with the TLC diet. If your LDL is smaller number than 130 mg/dL, you will need to follow the heart-healthy diet for adjectives Americans.
Category IV, Low-to-Moderate Risk, your LDL goal is smaller amount than 160 mg/dL. If your LDL is 160 mg/dL or above, you will need to instigate the TLC diet. If your LDL is still 160 mg/dL or more after 3 months on the TLC diet, you may need drug treatment along next to TLC diet to lower your LDL, especially if your LDL is 190 mg/dL or more. If your LDL is less than 160 md/dL, you will stipulation to follow the heart-healthy diet for all Americans.
To make smaller your risk for heart disease or keep it low, it is outstandingly important to control any other risk factor you may have such as elevated blood pressure and smoking.
Lowering Cholesterol With Therapeutic Lifestyle Changes (TLC)
TLC is a set of things you can do to help lower your LDL cholesterol. The principal parts of TLC are:
* The TLC Diet. This is a low-saturated-fat, low-cholesterol eating plan that call for less than 7% of calories from drenched fat and smaller number than 200 mg of dietary cholesterol per day. The TLC diet recommend only satisfactory calories to maintain a desirable cargo and avoid weight gain. If your LDL is not lowered adequate by reducing saturated overweight and cholesterol intakes, the amount of soluble fiber in your diet can be increased. Certain food products that contain plant stanols or plant sterols (for example, cholesterol-lowering margarines and salad dressings) can also be added to the TLC diet to boost its LDL-lowering power.
* Weight Management. Losing weight if you are overweight can give a hand lower LDL and is especially important for those next to a cluster of risk factors that includes soaring triglyceride and/or low HDL levels and human being overweight with a hulking waist measurement (more than 40 inches for men and more than 35 inches for women).
* Physical Activity. Regular physical stir (30 minutes on most, if not adjectives, days) is recommended for everyone. It can help lift HDL and lower LDL and is especially important for those next to high triglyceride and/or low HDL level who are overweight with a generous waist measurement.
Drug Treatment
Even if you get going drug treatment to lower your cholesterol, you will need to verbs your treatment with lifestyle change. This will keep the dose of pills as low as possible, and lower your risk in other ways as economically. There are several types of drugs available for cholesterol lowering including statins, bile acid sequestrants, nicotinic tart, and fibric acids. Your doctor can help prefer which type of drug is best for you. The statin drugs are very efficient in lowering LDL level and are safe for most family. Bile acid sequestrants also lower LDL and can be used alone or surrounded by combination with statin drugs. Nicotinic acerbic lowers LDL and triglycerides and raises HDL. Fibric acids lower LDL somewhat but are used on the whole to treat high triglyceride and low HDL level.
Once your LDL goal have been reach, your doctor may prescribe treatment for high triglycerides and/or a low HDL rank, if present. The treatment includes losing weight if needed, increasing physical stir, quitting smoking, and possibly taking a drug.
Foods low in saturated flabby include fat free or 1% dairy products, lean meat, fish, skinless poultry, whole particle foods, and fruits and vegetables. Look for soft margarines (liquid or tub varieties) that are low in saturated corpulent and contain little or no trans fat (another type of dietary butter that can raise your cholesterol level). Limit foods giant in cholesterol such as liver and other organ meat, egg yolks, and full-fat dairy products.
Good sources of soluble fiber include oats, certain fruits (such as oranges and pears and vegetables (such as brussels sprouts and carrots), and dried peas and beans.
Men
Estimate of 10- Year Risk for Men
(Framingham Point Scores)
Age Points
20-34 -9
35-39 -4
40-44 0
45-49 3
50-54 6
55-59 8
60-64 10
65-69 11
70-74 12
75-79 13
Points
Total
Cholesterol
Age 20-39 Age 40-49 Age 50-59 Age 60-69 Age 70-79
<160 0 0 0 0 0
160-199 4 3 2 1 0
200-239 7 5 3 1 0
240-279 9 6 4 2 1
[greater than or
equal to] 280 11 8 5 3 1
Points
Age 20-39 Age 40-49 Age 50-59 Age 60-69 Age 70-79
Nonsmoker 0 0 0 0 0
Smoker 8 5 3 1 1
HDL (mg/dL) Points
[greater than or
equal to] 60 -1
50-59 0
40-49 1
<40 2
Systolic BP (mmHg) If Untreated If Treated
<120 0 0
120-129 0 1
130-139 1 2
140-159 1 2
[greater than or
equal to] 160 2 3
Point Total 10-Year Risk %
<0 < 1
0 1
1 1
2 1
3 1
4 1
5 2
6 2
7 3
8 4
9 5
10 6
11 8
12 10
13 12
14 16
15 20
16 25
[greater than or [greater than
equal to] 17 equal to] 30
10- Year risk -- %
Women
Estimate of 10- Year Risk for Women
(Framingham Point Scores)
Age Points
20-34 -7
35-39 -3
40-44 0
45-49 3
50-54 6
55-59 8
60-64 10
65-69 12
70-74 14
75-79 16
Points
Total
Cholesterol
Age 20-39 Age 40-49 Age 50-59 Age 60-69 Age 70-79
<160 0 0 0 0 0
160-199 4 3 2 1 1
200-239 8 6 4 2 1
240-279 11 8 5 3 2
[greater than or
equal to] 280 13 10 7 4 2
Points
Age 20-39 Age 40-49 Age 50-59 Age 60-69 Age 70-79
Nonsmoker 0 0 0 0 0
Smoker 9 7 4 2 1
HDL (mg/dL) Points
[greater than or
equal to] 60 -1
50-59 0
40-49 1
<40 2
Systolic BP (mmHg) If Untreated If Treated
<120 0 0
120-129 1 3
130-139 2 4
140-159 3 5
[greater than or
equal to] 160 4 6
Point Total 10-Year Risk %
< 9 < 1
9 1
10 1
11 1
12 1
13 2
14 2
15 3
16 4
17 5
18 6
19 8
20 11
21 14
22 17
23 22
24 27
[greater than or [greater than
equal to] 25 equal to] 30
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