What Is High Cholesterol?
It means the content of cholesterol in your blood is too high. It is very essential to human’s body as it helps in functioning of the body to build new cells and hormones. Usually, 80% of the cholesterol in your body is produced by your liver and the remaining 20% comes from your diet. Many often mistaken that foods that don’t contain animal products is healthier. What you don’t know is, food without animal products can increase the cholesterol level in your body. They normally contain a harmful substance called trans fats, that triggers your body to produce more cholesterol. Foods with saturated fats, and high in sugar too cause the same.
Cholesterol is carried through the bloodstream by attaching to certain type of proteins. This combination is called the lipoprotein, and is divided into four types:
- High density lipoprotein (HDL) – good form
- Low density lipoprotein (LDL) – bad form
- Very low density lipoprotein (VLDL) – bad form
- Chylomicrons – carry a little amount of cholesterol, but a lot of triglycerides ( another type of fats)
It is important to know the amount of cholesterol you have in your blood as it is highly associated with heart diseases. The risk not only depends on the amount you have in your body, but also the type you’re carrying in your blood. Generally, LDL is the one that causes coronary heart diseases. It attaches to the walls of your arteries resulting in atherosclerosis (hardening and clogging of your arteries). This is the major condition that triggers heart attacks, stroke and any other similar heart diseases. Not only that, hardening of your articles also lead to symptoms of high blood pressure, which increases the likeliness of getting an attack. HNBT will be sharing with you some of the important things that you need to know about this condition, followed by effects of high cholesterol.
Before learning symptoms and list of foods that lower cholesterol (home remedies for high cholesterol), let us first learn the causes of it.
Causes Of High Cholesterol
Following are the causes of same:
1. Smoking
This is fairly a common cause for most diseases and illness. The smoke damages the walls of your arteries, resulting in the collection of more fatty deposits by the wall. It also lower down your HDL.
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2. Obesity
Being overweight is another general cause. When your body mass index (BMI) is higher than 30, then you’re most likely to develop this problem.
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3. Poor diet
Eating a lot of fast food, or foods that are high in cholesterol will definitely increase its level in your blood. Vegetarian foods that are high in trans fats will also trigger this problem.
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4. Lack of exercise
When you don’t exercise, you don’t burn your fat. Too much of fat accumulation will obviously result in increased content in your bloodstream.
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5. High blood pressure
When your blood pressure gets high, the walls of arteries are likely to be damaged. This will cause the cholesterol to collect by the wall of the arteries faster.
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6. Diabetes
It is usually this way, when the sugar is high, so is the cholesterol level. Too much of glucose content in the blood will increase the LDL.
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Symptoms Of High Cholesterol
High cholesterol warning signs are when you feel more tired than usual, or get an upset stomach. It is hard to feel any symptoms when you are having this disease. This is because it doesn’t make you sick or uneasy immediately, it only produces complications in the long run. Many come to know about their problems only after having a minor heart attack, or when they test their blood for a different reason.
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Complications Caused By High Cholesterol
1. Atherosclerosis
Like mentioned earlier, this is a condition in which the chol’ol and other fatty materials collect at the walls of your arteries. They then cause the hardening of the arteries over time, and results in clogging and blockage.
2. Coronary Artery Disease (CAD)
This is a type of heart disease, which is the end result of atherosclerosis. You risks of developing CAD is higher when you LDL is higher. This often is the major cause of death in most countries.
Clogging of the artery
3. Peripheral Artery Disease (PAD)
This condition is developed when your extremities don’t receive enough blood. It is caused by the accumulation of chol’ol in the arms, feet, legs or hands. This not only limits the flow of blood to your body, but also to your brain and heart.
4. Heart attack and stroke
High chol’ol normally causes the damage of the arteries walls, which then leads to accumulation of chol’ol. When the hardened chol’ol (plaque) breaks, blood clot in the artery may occur. And this later results in heart attacks and stroke.
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10 Foods That Lower Cholesterol Level (Home Remedies)
It is important that you know the list of foods to lower cholesterol level. This ensures a better living, and obviously reduces the risks of having any complications or side effects.
1. Oats
They absorb all the excessive chol’ol found in stomach and lower LDL by 5.5% in just six weeks. Hence, they key is to simply replace your breakfast with a bowl of tasty oats. You may include berries and raisins for a sinful serving.
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2. Barley
They contain high amount of fiber, and play the same role as oats in reducing cholesterol. The beta glucan in barley helps bind the cholesterol in your intestines and thus prevent it from being absorbed. Take about 2-3g of barley everyday to curb cholesterol problem effectively.
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3. Beans
Highly rich in fiber, beans lower cholesterol up to 8% when consumed half a cup everyday. They also keep you feeling full for a longer time, thus prevent you from consuming more calories. For the best results, take more of kidney, black or pinto beans.
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4. Citrus fruits
Citrus fruits contain a substance namely the pectin and are high in fiber- both lower LDL and protects the heart. Apart from citrus fruits, you may also take vegetables like okra, sweet potatoes and broccoli. These vegetables are high in fiber thereby they work wonders in preventing high cholesterol.
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5. Soy / Tofu
The protein in soy can amazingly lower LDL and absorbs chol’ol. It is proven that by consuming 15g of soya protein daily, the cholesterol level can be lowered by 6%. Make sure to always go for fresh soy products.
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6. Olive oil
Olive oil is an amazing ingredient highly used in the Mediterranean diet, and is claimed to be the way of healthy living of the Greeks. It is high in monounsaturated fatty acids, thus reduce the level of LDL effectively. However, you’re advised not to take more 3 tablespoons of olive oil daily.
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7. Avocados
Similar to olive oil, avocados are rich with monounsaturated fats. They help to lower the LDL, and along with it increases the HDL too. Avocados are also great for the heart. It is advisable for you to consume it in moderation as it has high amount of calories.
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8. Fatty fish
Fatty fish like salmon, tuna, sardine, halibut and mackerel have high amount of Omega-3 fatty acids, which is an essential substance in reducing the LDL and increasing the HDL. If you are not a fish person, you may take fish oil supplement instead. This will also keep your heart and hair healthy.
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9. Nuts
Especially walnuts, almond and cashew nuts- they do an amazing job in lowering your cholesterol level. According to a research, people who consumed 1.5 ounces of whole walnuts 6 days in a week managed to lower their total cholesterol by 5.3% and LDL by 9.4% in just a month.
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10. Red wine
According to a research conducted by Universidad Complutense de Madrid, patients who consumed the same grape supplement found in red wine lowered their LDL level by 9%. It also keeps your heart healthy.
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If you are worried of inheriting it due to a strong family history, then you should make an appointment with the doctor to get your level checked. As you can see, it affects the heart, the most important organ in the survival of a human. When your heart becomes damaged, you’re more likely to develop severe heart diseases that may result in death. Hence, you should keep your cholesterol level low, particularly if you’re aged 45 and above. Always practice healthy eating habits, healthy lifestyle and do regular checkups to make sure that your cholesterol level is doing just fine. Also, make sure to consume foods that lower cholesterol. Should there be a query or any other effective remedies that you know, do not hesitate to comment below.
