Apanemia Health Centre

Posts Tagged ‘cholesterol’

The only way to keep track of your cholesterol levels is by having regular medical check-ups. It is because there is no symptom that will let you know that your cholesterol levels are above normal. You can find out about your abnormal cholesterol levels only through a blood test.

High cholesterol levels have terrible consequences, such as heart disease and stroke. The most common symptoms of coronary heart diseases are chest pain, difficulty in breathing, nausea, sudden lightheadedness and excessive sweating. Arteriosclerosis is another major problem caused by high cholesterol. It happens when the artery gets clogged and blood cannot flow normally through it. If the artery burst, it is the condition that is called stroke.

With more and more people falling prey to heart diseases every day, people finally have increasing awareness about high cholesterol levels and start looking for ways in which they can reduce it. The extra busy lifestyle we have nowadays gives us less and less time to look after ourselves.

However, we must try our best to ensure that we lead a healthy life so we can avoid the deadly heart diseases that claim millions of lives each year. A healthy diet is a must for anyone who wants to avoid deadly diseases. Another great way to control your cholesterol levels is to exercise regularly.

The research was done on a community of monkeys which recorded that they were subordinate in the social scale, were assaulted and were not included in the grooming sessions that develop these animals.

The subordinate monkeys in this study developed more abdominal fat than the others. The study also indicates that all the monkeys were fed a typical Western diet with excess fat and cholesterol.

Again we see that obesity and many other diseases, are caused by many causes. In this case, bad food there is also an important factor of social stress.

I have said repeatedly that the biggest risk factor is a sedentary lifestyle, in other words: no physical activity whatsoever. With the practice of regular exercise will automatically protects two risk factors: stress and physical inactivity.

This latter is obvious that physical activity addresses the risk of non-exercise training, but also a pleasure to move about and systematic activity releases hormones called endorphins that provide a sense of wellness in the body.

That welfare acts positively on stress, changing the behavior of the person and allowing a social relationship more harmonious and balanced. Do not lose anything by trying instead to fight your stress with drugs and chemicals.

Usually no symptoms

If you have elevated cholesterol in your blood, this in itself NO symptoms. As a rule, discovered the value of a cholesterol blood test, often randomly measured on a health check, one company control or because the doctor still taking blood tests for something else.

Visible signs

Highly elevated cholesterol levels can cause cholesterol deposits visible on the body:

* As a white ring on the cornea, along the outer edge of the cornea. This is called Arcus senilis cornea.
* As a white cushion-shaped skin lesions, often at the eyes. This is called xantelasmer.
* As a thickening cholesterol nodules under the skin or along hælsenen (achilles). This is called xantomer. Read the rest of this entry »

To reduce high cholesterol levels and keep them in the appropriate level, the first step is to establish a proper diet.

Dietary recommendations that then we are useful both for the patient with high cholesterol levels and for anyone who wants to follow a healthy diet even though their cholesterol levels are normal.

1. Reduce fat intake to no more than 30% of total calories from the diet. Fats can be of several types:
* Saturated fats: They are those that favor the deposition of LDL cholesterol in the arteries. It is found mainly in the animal kingdom, fatty meats, sausages, milk, cheese, butter, etc. And in some vegetable oils such as coconut and palm.
* Polyunsaturated fats: They are those that protect against atherosclerosis because they produce significant decreases in total cholesterol l and that of LDL and HDL. They must be supplied by the diet because the body is unable to synthesize them. Found in some vegetable oils and oily fish special.
* Monounsaturated fats: Increases HDL cholesterol and is found in olive oil.

2. Low in cholesterol, must contain less than 300 mg of cholesterol per day. Some foods are high in cholesterol and relatively low in total fat, such as liver, seafood and eggs. Read the rest of this entry »

The balance of cholesterol levels has now become a global struggle, to the kind of modern or industrialized food, which stimulates its practical abandonment of natural foods, balanced nutrient-rich, for that reason and a set external factors, we are now in the midst of a great challenge for our health, that only with adequate information and advice, we can beat, so we offer the following tips provided for information:

1. Limit sugar and alcohol. They provide few nutrients but many calories and therefore contribute to high cholesterol levels by increasing body weight. An overweight body contains too much saturated fat and type of LDL or bad cholesterol, high.
2. Bad habits such as smoking and a sedentary lifestyle may increase the risk of heart disease and smokers should quit, regular aerobic exercise (20 to 30 minutes, 3 times a week) can lower levels and help prevent the buildup of cholesterol plaque. It can also reduce stress that can cause high blood pressure, another risk of heart disease.
3. Fish should be eaten often, 3 or more times a week, since research indicates that some deep-sea fish such as mackerel, salmon, herring, albacore tuna, lake trout, contain an oil called Omega – 3 or fatty acids, which owns the property proven to lower cholesterol in blood. The fish oil supplements, however, are not recommended because adding too many calories.
4. Avoid high sodium content in foods. Some patients with high cholesterol also have high blood pressure and sodium reduction, can help keep blood pressure within normal limits and should take into account that it is also an ingredient in many commercially processed foods.

Just as common medications such as antacids, laxatives, and cough remedies can contain large amounts of sodium, our recommendation is to read the product labels.

The fats that make up our diet can be saturated or unsaturated, an easy way to remember the difference is that saturated fats are solid at room temperature and unsaturated instead are liquid.

To reduce cholesterol levels in the blood, is especially important to limit saturated fats, found mainly in meat and dairy products made with whole milk.

Unsaturated fats are divided into polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats are found mainly in the plant world and are less likely to increase levels of blood cholesterol.

In fact, there are tests on monounsaturated fats (olive, peanut, rapeseed oils) may even help reduce blood cholesterol, few saturated fats, but among them we can mention coconut oil, oil palm and cocoa butter (the last building block of chocolate), which act like saturated fats in the body, so it should be avoided.

The term hydrogenated vegetable oils that frequently appears on labels of foods, resulting from the hydrogenation is an industrial process for the manufacture of vegetable oils solid at room temperature, are therefore driven to saturation through this process despite being vegetable oils.

Hydrogenated oils are frequently used in bakery products, snacks, and to make margarine, it is very important to know that for more coming from the plant world are not recommended for diets designed to lower cholesterol, and neither are for general health therefore reduce is the smart choice when looking for a balanced diet or healthy.

There in the general population myths about caffeine, of which some are true, but many others, fortunately, are not:

“A coffee after a meal aids digestion”

Caffeine stimulates the secretion of saliva and gastric juices and helps digestion, but there is something more interesting: the consumption of coffee reduces the appearance of gallstones, according to a study released in June 1999 in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

According to researchers at Harvard University, adults who drink two to three cups of caffeinated coffee are 40 percent less likely to suffer from that ailment. It appears that caffeine can prevent crystallization of cholesterol, the main component of gallstones. However, specialists have refused to recommend increasing coffee consumption because of the negative consequences that may have on other aspects of health.

“Caffeine interferes with the activity of drugs”

Some compounds, such as contraceptives and drugs for the heart or ulcers, reduce the body’s ability to eliminate caffeine by the kidneys, this can cause insomnia, irritability and palpitations. Caffeine reduces the sedative effect of certain tranquilizers and, if taken with certain antidepressants, can cause a serious crisis of hypertension and heart rhythm disturbances.

“Parents should stop their children drink coffee”

According to the statement by Dr. Judith Rapoport, chief of child psychiatry at the National Institute of Mental Health in the U.S., almost any child reacts adversely with lots of caffeine consumed so typical. She advises parents “to apply common sense to give their children normal servings of caffeinated foods and beverages, including soft drinks and tea,” and adds: “I remain skeptical of any statement to the effect that caffeine causes hyperactivity in children, based on our own research and the weight of scientific evidence. ”

“Expectant mothers can not consume caffeine

Research indicates that moderate consumption does not cause adverse health effects for pregnant women, and does not affect fertility. Dr. James Mills, chief of pediatric epidemiology section at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development U.S., says: “We have a large database on caffeine in pregnancy from different studies.

Overall, the data reinforce the safety of moderate consumption of caffeine during pregnancy. ” In the case of pregnant women who wish to consume foods and drinks containing it, Mills recommends 300 milligrams daily as a safe level of caffeine, the amount in three to five cups of coffee or more cans of soda.

“Caffeine causes disease in the breast”

Both the Council on Scientific Affairs American Medical Association and the NCI (National Cancer Institute) concluded that there is no relationship between caffeine intake and fibrocystic breast disease -benign disease presenting as lumps, so says Dr. Laurie Green, Gynecological Pacific Medical Center in California.

“Caffeine is dangerous as drugs become addicted”

While cocaine and heroin are highly addictive drugs and cause serious health effects in the social and psychological level there is evidence to suggest that caffeine leads to similar results, says Dr. Charles O’Brien, chief of psychiatry at the Center Veterans Administration Medical and professor of psychiatry at the Medical Faculty of the University of Pennsylvania.

In the strict medical sense, the “addiction” to caffeine would consume in an abusive way. Once people reach their normal daily level of caffeine, usually do not want to eat more, and almost nobody has problems when it reduces its consumption in the course of several days rather than all at once, says O ` Brien.

“Caffeine raises blood pressure and damages the heart”

It has been shown that moderate intake is an increase in tension, but for a short period, and that does not increase the risk of stroke and heart disease. But according to a study published in the American Journal of Hypertension, caffeine, along with stress raise blood pressure and those with hypertension experience greater risk. Like any stimulating substance, which must not be abused, resulting in a state of hyperactivity body at all levels, including cardiovascular, by the secretion of catecholamines.

Adverse effects of caffeine

Excessive consumption of caffeine can lead to dependence, although withdrawal symptoms much milder than in other cases, headache, irritability and pathological sleepiness. At high doses produce arousal, anxiety and insomnia, tremor, increased overall sensitivity and diminished reflexes. It can also cause gastritis by stimulation of gastric secretion.

In the sport is considered a restricted substance, ie that they are allowed provided they do not reach a concentration in the urine of 12 micrograms per milliliter. As this data may say little, you should know that two coffees at a time or taken a row virtually produce this level of caffeine in urine up to two or three hours after ingestion. Exceeding these values is considered doping, because it improves physical performance.

Caffeine is found in many influenza prepared in association with other drugs. It can be used in the treatment of migraine because it produces vasoconstriction in pericranial vessels dilated.

Given the varied and extremely powerful effects of caffeine, and its extensive use in all social strata, may someday be considered the more general restriction of its use as a home to preventive health care. Indeed, increase public education to aid recognition of substances frequently consumed and socially accepted as tea, coffee, alcohol and recreational drugs snuff contain important to help the public distinguish between the types and patterns of consumption.