Do You Need To Raise HDL Cholesterol?
December 1, 2008 | Leave a Comment
A diagnosis of high cholesterol means two things for you: first, it is important to lower your cholesterol levels to healthier ranges, and second, you must simultaneously raise HDL cholesterol. Now you may very well wonder why that is, and the answer is simply that when you have high cholesterol, the HDL cholesterol can reduce the negative effects of LDL cholesterol so you avoid the high cholesterol complications.
The occurrence of heart disease is more of a probability in people with high levels of LDL cholesterol. HDL cholesterol is needed in the body in order to send the unwanted LDL cholesterol from the arteries directly to the liver. However, if the HDL cholesterol levels are not high enough, it will cause the bad cholesterol to accumulate in the arteries, ultimately obstructing them. To counteract the effects of LDL cholesterol, you must raise HDL cholesterol.
The first thing the doctor will do when you consult him about your high cholesterol is monitor your diet. A nutritionist can help you decide your diet, so that your LDL levels are lowered and to allow you to raise HDL cholesterol levels. This will include lots of fruits and vegetables in your diet, and reduced amount of fat.
You should do plenty of research and plan out a fun, easy exercise routine targeted to reduce excess weight and bad cholesterol. This will help you to raise HDL cholesterol and thus help to unclog your arteries. Daily attention to your health, by way of proper diet and exercise, can result in a decrease in your risk of most forms of heart disease.
It is advisable to make the task of improving cholesterol a family affair. When you get the feel of the healthy diet, it will be quite simple and natural to follow the diet plan. Persuading your family members to join you will actually help in improvement of their health too. Your children should be taught the effects of nutrition on their health and the eating habits that will provide them with nutrition. If we are able to do so successfully, this will help them throughout their life to maintain health and avoid health related difficulties.
There are various sources from which you can get information on how to eat and live healthy. Eating healthy as well as tasty food is what everyone would like, and these recipes can be found in many cookbooks. With the help of these books, you can cook food which will help you lower your LDL levels and raise HDL cholesterol levels.
If you can lower your cholesterol solely by the way you eat, then you may not need to take medicine. Keep in mind however that you might not be able to decrease LDL cholesterol levels and raise HDL cholesterol with a diet only. You will need to discuss this with your physician and he will decide if you need to take medicine.
Why Cholesterol Blood Test Is Important
November 25, 2008 | Leave a Comment
The next time you go see your doctor don’t forget to request a cholesterol blood test. Everyone has cholesterol in their bodies, but if your cholesterol levels are high you will need to change your diet and lifestyle. Doctors will generally do the cholesterol and other tests more frequently after a certain age or family medical history to help you maintain your good health.
After the results of your cholesterol blood test have been reviewed by a doctor, you in turn will be notified as to what actions you may need to take, if any, in order to lower your cholesterol levels. You may be fortunate enough that your current diet or lifestyle is keeping your cholesterol level low; however if a change is needed, medication, or possibly a new diet may be prescribed.
You can have tremendous control over your cholesterol levels by controlling your diet. You can get your cholesterol levels right where they need to be by choosing to take the important step of monitoring your diet and kinds of food you consume. You can team up with a good nutritionist to create a heart healthy, low cholesterol diet plan that you can easily follow and will enjoy.
Lowering your cholesterol level doesn’t mean that you are condemned to a lifetime of bland and boring foods. With many delicious food choices available, it can be an adventure in healthy eating. Look for new, cholesterol and heart-friendly foods that you will enjoy and you will have a happy, healthy dieting experience.
There are plenty of informational resources available to you about lowering your cholesterol. They are only a click away on your computer or a trip away at the library. You will find that books and recipes that provide imaginative ways for you to prepare your favorite foods will be the most helpful. Once you start trying out new recipes and discovering new palate pleasers, you will find that making them a part of your daily diet won’t be as hard as you thought!
Getting support from your family members for the new diet changes will make it easier for you to follow it. If you can avoid all unhealthy food from your house with the support of your family, you will not feel tempted to eat such food to ruin your diet. Another plus is that the rest of your family can reap the benefits of eating healthier foods as well.
Your new, healthy outlook will let you know you are getting better, but don’t neglect proper testing. Verify the benefit of your lifestyle change by having another cholesterol blood test. Monitoring your cholesterol level will reassure you that you are improving, and if you do need to make adjustments, it will let you know that, too.
Exercise is Important for Weight Loss
November 24, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Americans spend billions of dollars on dieting, diet programs, diet foods, diet books, and diet pills. Billions more is spent on treating the diseases associated with obesity and being overweight. Health concerns related to being obese or overweight are epidemic in America. Too many extra pounds can have serious consequences for your health. Being obese or overweight can result in health problems like diabetes, high blood pressure, stroke, heart disease, osteoporosis and certain cancers.
Quick weight loss is not the way to go. Make a good diet program and exercise a part of your life. There are many diet programs, you need to find the one that works best for you and stick with it. There are no healthy, short-term, diet programs for solving obesity, or being overweight. Changes in lifestyle, such as more exercise or dieting, must be permanent changes.
Exercise will burn off extra calories and get your weight loss started. Combined with a healthy diet, exercise helps the body return to a healthy condition. Regularly walking, swimming, cycling, jogging, skiing, aerobic dancing, will help get the weight off and it improve heart, lung, and brain function. Exercise stimulates various brain chemicals, which can leave you feeling happier and more relaxed than you were before you worked out.
For you to stay alive your heart needs to pump blood through your body. The heart does a much better job when your body is in shape. Your cells stay oxygenated and your resting pulse will be steady and healthy.
Do you start huffing and puffing after walking a flight of stairs? That is a sure sign that your body is not getting enough oxygen to your cells. Exercise brings oxygen and nutrients to your tissues. The body learns to use oxygen more competently when we exercise regularly. It could be walking around the neighborhood block, jogging or working out at the gym. As long as you do it regularly, your body will begin to use oxygen more efficiently. When that happens, you can increase the time and intensity of the workout.
Exercise will help flush out the buildup of plaque in your arteries that can cause a heart attack or stroke. The more overweight, inactive and the worse you eat the better chance you have of having health problems. Taking preventative measures such as exercising, will help to lessen your risk of facing serious health conditions at a young age.
Don’t overdo it when you start out, go slow and get a checkout from your Doctor. If you’ve been inactive for years, big changes can cause you big problems. Small changes over time can make you a new person. Start with 10 minutes of easy exercise or a walk every day and increase gradually over time. If you have a day when the body is too sore then skip it and work out the next day. Being steady is more important than being intense. You can get intense later when you are in shape, you will enjoy it more. Exercise releases “feel good” hormones when you have had a good workout or walk. Just the fact that you have completed the workout will make you feel better about yourself. If you want to keep those good vibrations, you have to continue to exercise and make it a part of your life.
Negative health outcomes associated with obesity are accepted within the medical community, the health implications of being overweight are more controversial. It is generally accepted that being overweight causes similar health problems as obesity just to a lesser degree.
It is generally accepted that for significantly obese patients, losing weight can reduce health risks and improve quality of life. There is evidence to suggest that for merely overweight people, the health effects of attempting to lose weight may actually be more detrimental than simply remaining overweight. For all individuals, repeatedly losing weight and then gaining it back, is believed to do more harm than good. Stay away from quick fad diets that can cause the loss of more muscle than fat. This can be the cause of additional health problems.
Healthy Diabetic Menu With Diabetic Recipes
November 4, 2008 | Leave a Comment
It is true that if you have diabetes there are restrictions to what you can eat but that does not mean you will no longer be able to relish your food. A splendid method of cutting down the symptoms of diabetes is by checking what types of food you eat, this is also a good way if you want to avoid diabetes in the first place. Sorting out a diabetic diet plan is much simpler with diabetic recipes and is one of the most serious things you need to do if you suffer from diabetes.
One of the hardest things to do will be to stick with your diabetic diet to shed those unnecessary pounds as preserving your weight is extremely important when you’re a diabetic. Diabetic diets actually help you here by ensuring you only eat the right amount of food from the four main groups. For patients, having a healthy diabetic diet plan means eating in a way that reduces the risk of complications that are normally connected with their condition, including heart disease and stroke. Diabetic recipes are designed to be healthy, ensuring a low fat diabetic diet which should help with some of the familiar symptoms linked with the condition such as fuzzy vision, low energy levels and continual thirst.
Eating healthy involves eating a wide assortment of foods that encompass the whole diet spectrum with the help of the diabetic menu containing the food pyramid of vegetables, whole grains, fruits, non-fat dairy products, beans, lean meats, domestic fowl, and fish. If you are limited to a -carbohydrate diabetic diet then you may discover that the vegetables you are allowed to eat include, avocados, carrots and kidney beans along with fish, cheese, eggs, poultry and meat. Saturated fats and cholesterol are a problem if you are a diabetic so you would need to abide by diabetic recipes that cut down on foods like this and eat skinless poultry as well as fresh fruit and vegetables.
Weighing your food when you’re on a diabetic diet is as important as the nutrients you consume, so that you receive the correct amount of calories. When buying the food that are needed for a diabetic recipes, it is especially important to read the labels since most food labels show daily values based on a 2,000 calorie diet. When on a two thousand calorie diabetic diet plan, the ideal breakfast should consist of two slices of bread or two rice cakes or half a cup of pasta, one cup of skimmed milk or a cup of sugar-free yogurt, one egg in any form, boiled or poached or scrambled and surely a serving of one’s favorite fruit. However, if a lower one thousand eight hundred calorie per day has been advised for your diabetic diet plan then your diabetic recipes book might suggest something like a cup of skimmed milk, a tablespoon of cheese, a couple of slices of bread and a serving of fruit.
In the afternoon a snack might consist of a half cup of tea or coffee with artificial sweeteners a couple of crackers and some more fruit. By knowing your diabetic diet well, it is possible to replace certain foods with alternatives for instance, in the mid afternoon you could have a cup of skimmed milk or sugar free yogurt to replace the tea or coffee. A person suffering from diabetes no longer has to suffer a poor choice of diet particularly when our knowledge of diabetes has ensured that diabetic recipe formulations are designed with mixture and health in mind.
Facts Really Good, Worth Learning About Cholesterol
August 29, 2008 | Leave a Comment
There is both good and bad cholesterol which means that it is important to be able to differentiate between each type and know how it impacts a person’ s health and know the ways and means to lower it in case such is required.
The diverse types of cholesterol are LDL and HDL and the previous is a bad type because when there’s excess of it in a person’s blood it will build up in the inner walls of his or her arteries which can end up causing the blocking of the arteries and thus causes atherosclerosis that is not a desirable condition.
HDL In High Quantities Will Keep From Heart Attacks
However, the good form of cholesterol is HDL, which when present in high quantities will actually aid in preventing heart attacks, though when the level of HDL is low, it can put the person at risk of experiencing a heart attack.
There is another aspect to cholesterol and that is triglyceride, which is a type of fat that’s obtained from the food that you eat and which is also produced in the body, and when there’s a high level of triglycerides, you are at risk of having high total cholesterol in which you can get high LDL as well as low HDL, which is bad for your health.
In order to test your cholesterol level, you may require to take a test that’s aimed at measuring your lipoproteins which are sorted according to their density. In case of high density, the ratio of proteins compared to fat will be high and high density lipoproteins or HDL is the good cholesterol which does the work needed to help unblock your arteries and which also helps in getting rid of unwanted fat from the body.