High Cholesterol Prevention
Maintaining healthy blood cholesterol levels is vital to healthy living. While family history makes some people more likely to get high cholesterol than others, most people end up with high cholesterol because of unhealthy lifestyles. An unhealthy diet, lack of exercise, being overweight, and smoking all greatly increase your risk of developing high cholesterol levels. By adopting a healthier lifestyle, the chance of developing high cholesterol is greatly reduced.
Unfortunately, high cholesterol is very common. It's reported that half of all American adults have a higher cholesterol level than what is considered healthy. As high cholesterol can be one of the contributing factors of a stroke or heart attack, controling cholesterol levels helps to reduce this risk. Cholesterol levels also tend to increase with age, so paying attention to diet and exercise is even more important as you get older.
Testing Your Cholesterol Levels
As high cholesterol shows no signs or symptoms, it is important to see a doctor and get a blood test that checks your cholesterol levels. The test should measure not just your total cholesterol level, but both your LDL cholesterol and HDL cholesterol levels as well as your triglycerides. It is not just the total cholesterol level that matters, but the proportion of good cholesterol to bad cholesterol. According to health care guidelines, it is recommended that cholesterol levels be checked every five years. It is also important to follow your doctor's recommendations for diet, exercise, and medication.
Dietary Guidelines
One of the most important factors in preventing high cholesterol is your diet. The National Cholesterol Education Program has recommended dietary guidelines that lists which foods to eat and which foods to avoid. Essentially, it is adopting a healthy diet that is low in saturated fat and cholesterol. With a healthy diet, total fat intake should not be higher than 30% of the total daily calories. Most of the fat in the diet should be from unsaturated fat, which doesn't raise cholesterol levels. The daily intake of saturated fat should be limited to less than 7% of your calories. Your diet should also incorporate less than 200 mg of cholesterol daily from the foods you eat.
When shopping for groceries, buy foods that are low in saturated fat and low in cholesterol. Add foods with more soluble fiber, such as cereal grains, beans, peas, and many fruits and vegetables. Get in the habit of reading nutritional labels on food so you know what's in the food and to help you make healthy food choices.
Your diet should include at least five servings of fruits and vegetables every day, six or more servings of cereals, breads, pasta, and other whole-grain products, leaner cuts of meat (good choices are fish, poultry without skin, eye of round beef, top round, sirloin, or pork-tenderloin, tuna canned in water, lean or extra lean ground beef, chicken or turkey), and choose fat-free or 1% milk and dairy products. There are also many unhealthy foods you should avoid; granola and muesli cereals, canned or frozen fruit or fruit juices with added sugar, whole-milk and whole-milk products, fatty cuts of meat, and high fat desserts.
Benefits of Exercise
In addition to eating healthy, it is also beneficial to exercise regularly. If you have not been exercising, start slowly. Ask your doctor if there are any health concerns or restrictions on your physical activities. Then find an activity or a variety of activities that you enjoy, and aim for 30-60 minutes of exercise on most (or all) days of the week.
Stop Smoking
If you smoke, your cholesterol levels will improve if you stop smoking. The amount of good cholesterol in your blood can increase when you stop smoking, which lowers your risk of having a heart attack or stroke.
Importance of Prevention
The prevention of high cholesterol should be taken seriously. Having high cholesterol is very risky and a problem for many people. Choosing to eat healthy, maintain a healthy weight, exercise regularly, and not smoke will greatly benefit your health and reduce the risk of a stroke or heart attack. Maintain a healthy lifestyle and have your cholesterol levels checked to help prevent high cholesterol.