WHAT TO DO ABOUT HIGH CHOLESTEROL NATURAL REMEDIES TRANS FATS WHAT ARE THE BAD AND GOOD CHOLESTEROL
Natural Remedies for High Cholesterol
You hear a lot about cholesterol. Good cholesterol, bad cholesterol, triglycerides and trans fats. In general, bad cholesterol, LDL is associated with an increased chance of heart problems. HDL, "good cholesterol" is associated with less heart problems. Trans fats seem to increase the bad cholesterol, LDL.
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The Lipid Profile blood test that you take at the doctor's office provides values including:
In addition other blood tests may give more data about cardiac risk including:
The Good Cholesterol, Trans Fats and the Bad Cholesterol: HDL and LDL
Pfizer, the drug company, got a nasty shock when they discovered that a new blockbuster drug they were developing to increase HDL good cholesterol had too many bad side effects. So what is the cholesterol?
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When people talk about the good cholesterol and the bad cholesterol they are referring to HDL and LDL. HDL and LDL are lipoproteins, structures created from cholesterol and protein that travel to and from the liver carrying cholesterol..Trans fats are fats that worsen bad cholesterol. I've mentioned LDL, that is tagged with the moniker "bad cholesterol" but HDLs are called the good cholesterol because high levels of HDL seem to decrease coronary heart disease risk. Routinely doctors say that the HDL acts to carry away the bad cholesterol from the artery walls, however, there is also evidence that HDLs may interfere with LDL oxidation. Oxidation of LDL refers to a chemical process that happens on the LDL and is believed to be one of the steps in the process that leads to heart attack.
Risk Factors: More Risk Factors For Heart Disease The More You Want to Lower Your Cholesterol
You will see different numbers listed for desirable levels of cholesterol depending on where you look. What is true is that it is even more desirable to have lower levels of bad cholesterol when you have risk factors for heart disease.
Imagine if you will, a person with high cholesterol. Very high cholesterol. Recommendations for the "bad" LDL cholesterol vary but generally 100 or less is satisfactory. Now imagine a person with an LDL of 500 or 1000. Finally, imagine they are just twelve years old! That's the situation that confronts people who have a genetic problem with cholesterol disposal called Familial Hypercholesterolemia. Their bodies don't have the full mechanism for dealing with cholesterol LDL and as a result they are at very increased risk of heart attacks.
FH is less severe in people with just one gene for it but people with the homozygous (double gene dose)variety of familial hypercholesterolemia can even have a heart attack in the teens or twenties if no treatment is provided. Luckily there are ways of dealing with familial hypercholesterolemia such as medication and a blood "cleansing" procedure called LDL Apharesis. Read the story of a woman who had two angioplasty procedures and a coronary artery bypass They Wash the Cholesterol Out of My Blood.
Trans Fat Acts to Increase Bad Cholesterol: What is Cholesterol and Why The Body Manufactures Cholesterol
Cholesterol is not all bad. The body enlists cholesterol to synthesize important molecules that it needs, molecules like the male and female hormones testosterone and estrogen, not to mention Vitamin D as well as constituents of the body's cell membranes. Cholesterol is also involved with the bile that is released to help digest a meal. Because cholesterol is a lipid, it is soluble in oil but not very soluble in water so it is transported in the relatively watery blood aboard a transport molecule. Cholesterol is manufactured in the liver and travels out of the liver aboard lipoprotein particles called VLDL which are then converted to LDL, short for Low Density Lipoproteins. Our body makes most of our cholesterol but we also get cholesterol from food we eat. Foods high in animal fat and foods that are high in saturated fats, cholesterol and trans fats are likely to raise LDL, the "bad cholesterol". As of January, 2006 food labels are mandated to list trans fats. See What Trans Fat Labels Mean: Read Them and Get Healthy
Meds for Cholesterol: Statins The 500 Pound Gorilla of Cholesterol Meds and Zetia the (Not So) New Kid on the Block
Right now the most "popular" class of cholesterol meds are the statins. There are six statins on the market with the newest contender being Crestor (rosuvastatin). The others include:
Statins reduce the quantities of LDL Cholesterol. Statins block the manufacture of cholesterol in the liver by interfering with an enzyme that orchestrates cholesterol production,HMGCoa Reductase. That's why statins are called HMGCoa Reductase Inhibitors. Enzymes are chemicals called proteins that act all over the body to speed up chemical reactions. Statins work in the liver. That's why they get a blood test to check liver function when someones starts a statin and why they monitor liver function.A rare but dangerous possible side effect of statins is rhabdomyolysis characterized by muscle pain and weakness. One statin,cervistatin, was removed from the market because of problems with this phenomenon. It's the breakdown of muscle tissue and requires immediate emergency intervention. It may be the result of drug interactions between statins and other medications which result in high concentrations of the drug.
Zetia Ezetimibe: The New (Not So) Kid on the Block
Ezetimibe is a whole different ball game when it comes to lowering cholesterol. Zetia works in the intestine to block cholesterol absorption, not in the liver like statins. So potentially it may have fewer side effects. The downside is that so far it seems to be a mild cholesterol reducer. A combo ezetimibe/statin is Vytorin.
Niacin
Niacin is a B vitamin. It can lower cholesterol and triglycerides and raise HDL. The trouble with niacin is the side effects. Hot flashes are a big problem for niacin users and sometimes they are so unpleasant that people just won't use niacin.
Niacin can also interact with other drugs and it can raise blood sugar. Always talk with your doctor if you are contemplating using niacin.
Also check out Heart Attack Counterattack: Fighting Back
David Letterman Atherosclerosis and How Unstable Plaque May Lead to Heart Attack
The popular entertainer, David Letterman, who has had coronary artery bypass was apparently aware of high cholesterol levels. See the story Heart Scare for Letterman. High levels of the "bad cholesterol" LDL in the coronary arteries increase the chances of atherosclerosis. Atherosclerosis refers to a process that occurs in the inner lining, the endothelium, of the arteries where complexes of cells and cholesterol called plaques develop within the artery walls. Arteries are the blood vessels that carry the oxygenated blood away from the heart to the body. The heart muscle has it's own arteries, coronary arteries, that feed it a steady flow of oxygen rich blood. Doctors often say that high cholesterol can "clog an artery" but the reality is probably more complex. Cells have receptors on their surfaces that trap LDL in the bloodstream and then internalize them for cellular use. LDL particles are major actors in an intricate process where LDL particles accumulating within the inner walls of the coronary arteries are possibly the linchpin of an intricate dance that can lead to a heart attack. The story of the relationship between cholesterol, atherosclerosis and heart disease has been built over the decades..See Cholesterol A Century of Research
Coca Cola Launches Minute Maid Heart Wise Juice: Foods to Lower Cholesterol: Margarine and Salad Dressing Too!
David A. Jenkins, of the University of Toronto and colleagues tested a vegetarian diet to lower cholesterol. See Diet May Cut Cholesterol As Much As Drugs Do.
Plant sterols are molecules found in plants that resemble cholesterol and compete in the intestine with cholesterol for absorption. They have been demonstrated to lower cholesterol.Coca Cola has Minute Maid Heart Wise Juice containing Cargill Corowise phytosterols.
See also the
Does Garlic Lower Cholesterol and What Impact Do Oats Have?
It's not hard to figure out how garlic prevents infection. You eat it and nobody will come within 10 feet but what about reports that garlic can lower cholesterol? According to an analysis reported here Garlic and Cholesterol there was a mild cholesterol lowering effect attributed to garlic but apparently it's not very dramatic. Read FDA Allows Whole Oat Foods to make Health Claim On Reducing Risk of Heart Disease
Plaque in Coronary Artery Wall Seems to be Linchpin of Coronary Artery Disease: Inflammation
In the classic explanation of the dangers of high cholesterol, high cholesterol leads to the narrowing of the coronary arteries and a plaque may break off and block or occlude the artery. The result is little or no blood flow to the part of the heart being supplied by that artery and a heart attack. As Dr. Peter Libby points outsometimes a plaque grows so large that it virtually halts the blood flow in an artery and generates a heart attack or stroke. (he means a stroke caused by a blockage, a thrombotic stroke, but there's also another kind called a hemorrhagic stroke which is due to bleeding) Yet only 15% of heart attacks happen in this way. By carefully examining vessel walls of people who died from heart attacks, pathologists have demonstarted that most attacks occur after a plaque's fibrous cap breaks open"
attracting a blood clot that leads to the blockage of the artery.
See the fascinating and instructive article by Dr. Libby Atherosclerosis The New View.
Dr. Libby, a professor at Harvard Medical School, has pointed out that the cholesterol lowering drugs seem to decrease the number of coronary events such as heart attacks even though angiograms don't necessarily show a decrease in the stenosis or narrowing of the artery. See the more technical article Molecular Bases of the Acute Coronary Syndromes
Cholesterol Was Molecule of the Month in 1997
Tired of centerfolds? Check out the vital statistics of this sexy molecule from when
Risk factors for heart disease include:
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