Statin RX may be overprescribed in healthy people without evidence of diseased arteries

November 16, 2010 · Posted in cholesterol · Comment 

Rolling back suggestions from previous studies, a Johns Hopkins study of 950 healthy men and women has shown that taking daily doses of a cholesterol-lowering statin medication to protect coronary arteries and ward off heart attack or stroke may not be needed for everyone.

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Take Charge of Your Cholesterol

August 13, 2010 · Posted in cholesterol · Comment 

Our body has them all – the Good and the Bad cholesterol. Make no mistake, a higher than normal level of cholesterol is bad for your heart and will lead to heart diseases ultimately. Get acquainted with Cholesterol, and learn how you can battle them to good health.

What Is Cholesterol?

Cholesterol is a soft, wax-like substance found in our body system including the bloodstream and cells. Our body needs a certain level of Cholesterol for building healthy cells and vital sex hormones like estrogen and testosterone.

How Does Cholesterol Gets Into Our Body?

There are two main sources where cholesterol is derived from:

1. 25% Of Cholesterol Comes From The Food We Eat

We are what we eat! The main sources of Cholesterol are from meat, fish, dairy products and poultry. Animal fats and their organs such as liver contributes the highest levels of cholesterol to our body. After consumption, the intestines take over the digestion of fat, after which they are transported to the liver to be processed into cholesterol.

2. Our Liver Produces 75% of Cholesterol In Our Body

Our body is capable of producing up to 75% of cholesterol. A large capacity is produced by the Liver, while a smaller percentage is produced by the other body cells.

What Is The Difference Between Good And Bad Cholesterol

The Cholesterol are being carried around the body and into our blood by lipoprotein, a combination of lipids (fats) and proteins. Lipoproteins are classified into two categories.

Low-density Lipoprotein (LDL) Cholesterol

Our body can produce them naturally, or we genetically inherit them from our parents or grandparents. When we consumed food that are high in saturated or trans fat, the amount of LDL Cholesterol raises dramatically. Also known as “BAD Cholesterol”, LDL Cholesterol transport fats from our liver to other parts of the body.

When the level of LDL Cholesterol increases, our coronary arteries may get clogged up thus preventing oxygen and nutrients from reaching our heart. In the long term, cholesterol built-up formed plague and narrowed our arteries. This condition, known as Atherosclerosis may caused us to suffer from a heart attack.

High-density Lipoprotein (HDL) Cholesterol

HDL Cholesterol is called the “GOOD Cholesterol” because it helps to transport excess cholesterol from the cells in our blood to the liver for purging.

A high level of HDL Cholesterol helps lower our risk of getting coronary artery diseases as it prevents fat from building up on the walls of our heart arteries.

Controllable Risk Factors

Overweight & Obesity

Excessive fats in the body almost always equate to a high level of cholesterol. If you are overweight, start an exercise regime to lose weight and maintain a BMI of below 24 consistently. If you are obese, seek the help of health professionals to combat your weight problems.

Keep The Fats Off Food

Limit food high in saturated and trans fats. In general, cut down on red meats and eat more fruits and vegetables.

Limit Alcohol Intake

Although a small consumption of alcohol may increase your Good Cholesterol, it does nothing to lower your Bad Cholesterol. Thus, alcohol should not be used as a means to control your cholesterol levels.

Snub The Cigarettes

Time and again, the effects of smoking has been proven to increase the bad cholesterol. It’s time to snub out.

Get Out Of That Couch

Stop being a couch potato. Instead of watching TV excessively, get active and start an exercise regime. Get 30-45 minutes of exercise for 3-5 times weekly.

Uncontrollable Risk Factors

Family History

This fact cannot be altered but you can make some lifestyle changes to delay the onset. Pick up a sport and put efforts in managing the controllable risk factors.

Menopausal Women

From the start of menopause, a woman’s LDL Cholesterol level in her body raises naturally.

Age Factor

Our cholesterol level increases as we aged. Men over 45 years old and women above 55 years old have higher risk of high cholesterol.

If you already have high cholesterol, be sure to take the prescribed medication to maintain it at the normal level, and have your physician review the levels on a regular basis.

You may have high Cholesterol for many years without any symptoms, visit a doctor if you have any reasons to suspect. All that’s required is a simple lipoprotein profile blood test after a 9-12 hours fast for accuracy. Be in control of your cholesterol, for heart’s sake,

Author: Christine Ang
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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Herbs and Ayurvedic Remedies for Cholesterol Treatment

July 2, 2010 · Posted in cholesterol · Comment 

Cholesterol buildup in the coronary arteries leads to the condition known as Hridaya roga in Ayurveda, which literally means heart disease. This is similar to atherosclerosis. When the cholesterol collects in the arteries leading to the heart, their lumen becomes narrow and the amount of blood entering the heart is insufficient. Due to this the heart needs to pump harder, causing several kinds of cardiovascular diseases, the worst of which is the fatal angina pectoris.

Cholesterol is present in fatty acids. Some cholesterol is needed for the proper utilization of foods in the body, formation of the hormones and the bile, etc. This is known as the high-density cholesterol, or simply, the useful cholesterol. The rest of the cholesterol simply builds up in the arteries without any apparent function. This is the low-density cholesterol, or the bad cholesterol.

The buildup of cholesterol can be reduced by several Ayurvedic treatments. Cholesterol reduction means safety from the various cardiovascular diseases, which are the leading causes of deaths in the world today.

(1) Useful Herbs in the Treatment of Cholesterol

- Alfalfa (Medicago satina) Alfalfa is effective in treating problems of the arteries. It helps in clearing arteries congested with cholesterol.

- Arjuna (Terminalia arjuna) Arjuna has been used since centuries in the treatment of heart related problems such as heart attacks. The bark of the arjuna when taken in powder form has beneficial properties. This can dissolve the cholesterol that accumulates in the coronary artery and reduce the possibility of heart attacks.

- Coriander (Coriandrum sativum) Coriander is a very good diuretic. It makes the kidneys perform their functions of excretion better. Therefore the kidneys flush out the excess unneeded cholesterols from the body.

- Garlic (Allium cepa) Garlic is very beneficial to people with cholesterol problems that affect the heart. Eating two to three cloves of garlic a day helps to reduce or even completely eliminate the harmful cholesterol in the blood. Garlic can disintegrate the blood cholesterol and hence free up the arteries.

- Guggulu (Commiphora mukul) This is a traditional Indian herb which has become very popular in the Ayurvedic treatment of cholesterol-related heart problems. It contains guggulsterones which have been proven to reduce the levels of cholesterol on regular use. 25 mg of these guggulsterones are prescribed for intake thrice a day.

- Holy Basil (Ocimum sanctum) Holy basil has the capacity to dissolve the accumulated cholesterol from the arteries into the person’s bloodstream. From here they are eliminated by the kidneys.

(2) Dietary Treatments for Cholesterol

The various dietary regimes which will help you to reduce the buildup of cholesterol in the arteries are as follows:-

- Keep a careful watch on the amount of calories you are consuming. Say no to chocolates, ice creams, red meats and all such foods that can increase the calorie count.

- Sources of fats such as fried foods are to be avoided. Groundnut oil must be strictly prohibited. But fat sources such as cow’s milk, cow’s ghee and cow’s butter are recommended. Buffalo dairy products are to be avoided.

- Consume more fresh vegetables and fruits. Green leafy vegetables are needed since they would provide roughage for the elimination of the waste materials.

- Soy and soy products are very beneficial for the proper utilization of cholesterol.

- Drink lots of water. Water will help to remove the toxic buildup in the arteries.

- Smoking and alcoholism must be avoided as they interfere with the proper utilization of cholesterol in the body.

(3) Ayurvedic Treatment for Cholesterol

Ayurvedic treatment for high level of cholesterol is to prescribe the various herbs that have properties to reduce the buildup.

One popular herb in Ayurvedic medicine is arjuna. It is prescribed in several forms such as Arjunarishta and Arjuna Ghritam. Other popular medicines are Hridayarnava Rasa and Prabhakara Vati. If the cholesterol amount is very profuse, then Mrigamadasava is prescribed.

Yoga is also very beneficial in proper circulation and elimination of the cholesterol buildup in the body. Some of the useful asanas are:- a) Ardhamatsyendrasana b) Shalabhasana c) Padmasana d) Vajrasana

(4) Home Medications

- Drinking coriander in water everyday helps in the reduction of cholesterol in the body. This regime must be continued for about a month. Then the cholesterol levels must be checked again.

- Boil a glassful of milk with a piece of garlic in it. This will reduce the cholesterol and take care of cardiac pains. It has to be continued for a few days before the method begins to show its effects.

- Have cold hipbaths twice daily. These have been shown to have positive effects in the reduction of cholesterol when taken on a regular basis.

- A simple remedy is to have a single piece of garlic every morning. This takes time to show results, but the results are positive.

- Consume some almonds and walnuts on a daily basis.

Author: Anna Hardy
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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How Does Cholesterol Cause Heart Disease? What Can Be Done to Help Yourself Avoid It

May 28, 2010 · Posted in cholesterol · Comment 

Many of those who have suffered from heart attacks, probably realize the importance of eating healthy in order to avoid repeating this very scary experience. What happens to your heart prior to the heart attack? Eating an unhealthy diet has the tendency to increase the LDL level in your blood and elevated LDL cholesterol is associated with an increased risk of coronary heart disease. LDL deposits on the artery walls, causing the formation of a hard, thick substance called cholesterol plaque.

Through years of keeping the same eating habits (including fast food dining, junk food etc.), the cholesterol plaque will cause thickening of the artery walls and narrowing of the arteries, a process called arteriosclerosis. Scary word, isn’t? The arteries that zigzag in the walls of your heart and supply blood and oxygen to the heart muscles are called coronary arteries. When coronary arteries are narrowed, they are incapable of supplying enough blood and oxygen to the heart muscle during exertion. Lack of oxygen to the heart muscle causes chest pain. The formation of a blood clot in the artery can cause a complete blockage of the artery and lead to the death of the heart muscle (heart attack). Arteriosclerotic disease of coronary arteries (coronary heart disease) is the most common cause of death in the United States, accounting for about 600,000 deaths annually. What a morbid statistic! Are you sometimes wondering if you are next in line? Well, a health club facility isn’t as far fetched as you think, so I guess you know what to do and get your butt, or legs, on the treadmill.

We all know now what LDL does to your body. Well, if there is a “bad”, then a “good” can’t be too far away. When I say “good”, I’m talking about HDL. High Density Lipoprotein (HDL) is called the “good cholesterol” because HDL cholesterol particles prevent arteriosclerosis by extracting cholesterol from the artery walls and disposing of them through the liver. It also interferes with the accumulation of cholesterol in the artery walls through the LDL cholesterol particles.
The risk of arteriosclerosis and heart attacks in both men and women is strongly related to HDL cholesterol levels. Low levels of HDL cholesterol are linked to a higher risk, whereas high HDL cholesterol levels are associated with a lower risk.

Very low and very high HDL cholesterol levels can run in families. Families with low HDL cholesterol levels have a higher incidence of heart attacks than the general population, while families with high HDL cholesterol levels tend to live longer with a lower frequency of heart attacks.
Like LDL cholesterol, life style factors and other conditions influence HDL cholesterol levels. HDL cholesterol levels are lower in persons who smoke cigarettes, eat a lot of sweets, are overweight and inactive, and in patients with type II diabetes. HDL cholesterol is higher in people who are lean, exercise regularly, and do not smoke cigarettes. Estrogen increases a person’s HDL cholesterol, which explains why pre-menopausal women generally have higher HDL levels than men do.
For individuals with low HDL cholesterol levels, a high total or LDL cholesterol blood level further increases the incidence of heart attacks.

Therefore, the combination of high levels of LDL cholesterol with low levels of HDL cholesterol is undesirable whereas the combination of low levels of LDL cholesterol and high levels of HDL cholesterol is favorable. Remember to always check your cholesterol blood test for the ratio of LDL to HDL. The total cholesterol is not a good indicator of your health. You will need to obtain the split between the HDL and LDL. Thus, the total cholesterol to HDL cholesterol ratio (total/HDL) is a number that is helpful in predicting arteriosclerosis. The number is obtained by dividing total cholesterol by HDL cholesterol. (High ratios indicate higher risks of heart attacks, low ratios indicate lower risk). An average ratio would be about 4.5. Ideally, we want to be better than average. Thus, the best ratio would be 2 or 3 or less than 4.

All of this is getting pretty complicated, although I have tried my best to make it as user-friendly as possible. We all have many questions to ask our doctors, nutrition specialists, or even our dieticians. Moreover, you should pay attention to the following: Are they being clear in their explanations? This depends again on the specialist. You will need to get outside information to complement what is said between you and the medical professional. To a certain extent, books can be very helpful as well, they will allow you to know what questions to ask your doctor. For those who suffer a mild to dangerous heart attack, the first step after leaving the hospital is to get more information about the subject. Fear and ignorance can make you avoid reality. However, all the medical books available can still be difficult to comprehend when authors use medical terminology that only doctors can understand. Are there hidden secrets that they (the doctors) don’t want to share with us? They write books as if we are supposed to understand all their concepts, terminologies, and theories. Depending on how the author approaches the subject at hand, you will need to use a medical dictionary to understand the wording used in the book. It greatly confuses the reader who doesn’t know where else to turn. Although I haven’t had any heart attacks, I was curious and wanted to understand how the body works and how I can avoid such a terrible experience. A proactive approach will increase my chances of going through life without experiencing any of these ordeals. The power of information will enable me to go on and be more assertive when it comes to my health.

I am now sharing my knowledge with you and hopefully can help you understand how we can reduce the risk of becoming statistics by year’s end. Healthy eating and exercising are primary factors that will, in many cases, assure great health and reduce the LDL levels in your blood.
I’ve already mentioned some of the other factors that determine the LDL level in your blood. Some people are genetically predisposed to high LDL levels in the blood and do not voluntarily contribute (by eating at fast food restaurants) to elevated LDL levels. Others are aware of what they eat (fast food and sweets) but still go through life wondering what they did to deserve having a heart attack. Both heredity and diet have a significant influence on a patient’s LDL, HDL, and total cholesterol levels. For example, familial hyper-cholesterolemia (FH) is a common inherited disorder whose victims have a diminished number or no LDL receptors on the surface of their liver cells. The resulting decreased activity of the LDL receptors limits the liver’s ability to remove LDL cholesterol from the blood. Thus, affected family members have abnormally high LDL cholesterol levels in their blood. They also tend to develop arteriosclerosis and heart attacks during early adulthood. In order to lower LDL cholesterol, the activity level of the LDL receptors must be increased. LDL receptor activity can be increased through diets that are low in cholesterol and saturated fats and through prescription drugs.

Lowering LDL cholesterol involves losing excess weight, exercising regularly, and following a diet that is low in saturated fat. Drugs are prescribed when diet and exercise cannot reduce the LDL cholesterol to acceptable levels. Some of my acquaintances have used medication to resolve that problem. When all your options are exhausted, the use of prescription drugs can be the only alternative.

Author: Daniel A Amzallag
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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Chapter 4-HDL – The Good Cholesterol

January 31, 2010 · Posted in cholesterol · Comment 

HDL is a type of cholesterol. HDL stands for High Density Lipoprotein. It is often referred to as the good cholesterol. There are tricks to remember this, such as let the H in HDL, stands for Healthy or High. So when one sees HDL they will hopefully remember either healthy or high and this should remind you that it is the healthy kind and we want this number to be high.

When one goes for the classic lipid profile the HDL will be reported as a number. If one’s HDL is less than forty one is said to have a higher risk of heart disease. Values greater than fifty-nine are viewed as giving one a lower risk of heart disease. Values between forty and fifty-eight are a middle ground where risk could be high or low depending on other risk factors. These risk factors could be obesity, smoking, high blood pressure or being male. So if having an elevated HDL protects us from CAD the question should now become; how does one elevate HDL and what exactly is an HDL molecule?

As an extremely important side note male patients greater than forty-five years of age and especially patients male or female at or greater than fifty years of age who have any underlying medical problems absolutely need nuclear stress tests. A nuclear stress test is where a nuclear isotope is injected into the bloodstream. The patient runs on a treadmill, the heart is monitored while on the treadmill and then monitored again after the running is complete. This is an indirect assessment of potential blockages in the coronary arteries. It needs to be mentioned that even a nuclear stress test can miss coronary artery occlusions and even a negative stress test, that is, a stress test that does not reveal any blockages could be falsely negative. What this means is that there are blockages in the coronary arteries, but the nuclear stress test missed it. The only way around this is to perform cardiac catheterizations on everyone and to just stop performing nuclear stress tests since they can sometimes be misleading. I do not recommend performing cardiac catheterizations instead of stress tests as the catheterizations are invasive and have higher complications associated with their performance. Getting a nuclear stress is still the preferred way to indirectly assess for the presence of coronary artery disease. If the stress test is positive then one will need a cardiac catheterization.

Before I leave this side-note, if you are someone with diabetes and you are a male or female at or greater than fifty years of age you absolutely need a nuclear stress test. This is because diabetics are notorious for having what is known as silent heart attacks and even blockages, which cause no symptoms whatsoever. You could be walking around with significant CAD and not even know it. And the only chance of knowing this is through a nuclear stress test. I cannot tell you how many times a diabetic patient over the age of fifty has come to see me for a regular check-up, has had no symptoms of chest pain, difficulty in breathing, or any other symptom which might have alerted me to the existence of coronary artery occlusion; has had normal looking EKGs and I perform a nuclear stress test and find significant coronary artery blockages. The scary thing is that some of these patients had actually been seeing other docs, including cardiologists, who failed to perform a routine nuclear stress test. The bottom line is that if you have diabetes, or any other medical issue and you are at or greater than the age of fifty, you need a nuclear stress test. If you cannot walk for whatever reason there are other nuclear stress tests which can be performed to help assess for the presence of CAD. And lastly, if you are male or female at or greater than the age of sixty-YOU ABSOLUTELY NEED A NUCLEAR STRESS TEST NO MATTER WHAT!!!! This is because as we get older we can accrue plaques in our coronary arteries just from being on the planet longer. Now, let us get back to our discussion as to what an HDL molecule is made up of.

First, we will look at what comprises an HDL molecule. Well, HDL stands for high-density lipoprotein. So, it has to have some protein in it, lipo means fat, so fats there too, and it is high density; but, still, what does that mean. It simply means it is a molecule, which contains cholesterol, fat, and protein. Since there is a lower amount of fat in an HDL molecule it is called high density because fat is less dense than protein and cholesterol. The more fat the lower the density, the less fat the higher the density.

OK, now here is something very interesting. Ask your typical internist, family doc, pediatrician, cardiologist, or just about anyone who thinks they know something about HDL how to increase the HDL in the bloodstream. We all see low HDLs and we see them a lot. Usually in men, but also in women. The answer they give is almost always the same; if you want to increase your HDL, lower your fat and cholesterol intake and increase your whole grains, fruits and vegetables. This, the above docs say, will increase your HDL.

From our discussion thus far you know immediately your body will have all the things necessary to make more fat and cholesterol. But what kind of fat and cholesterol will we make? The fat part is easy; we will make more triglycerides (you know what, I am getting tired of spelling out triglycerides so for now on I am calling them TGs). As far as cholesterol is concerned, again, what kind of cholesterol will we make when we eat a diet low in fat and cholesterol?

Well, cholesterol is cholesterol is cholesterol, so the short answer is; just plain ole cholesterol is formed. But is it HDL, LDL, VLDL or IDL, which I will now call the DLs? Guess what, if you focus on those three letter cholesterols you start to forget that they are simply carrier molecules of cholesterol. That is correct, all these DLs do is carry cholesterol around in the body and exchange it with other DLs. So viewing cholesterol as a good or bad type of cholesterol totally confuses the picture.

Another side note: HDL is known for carrying away cholesterol after a cell dies. After the HDL molecule picks this cholesterol up it shuttles it away and gives it to other DLs. But why is it considered the good cholesterol? Well, that is because HDL is also known to take cholesterol back to the liver for its removal from the bloodstream

Now the confusing part begins. Exactly how do our bodies actually get rid of cholesterol? There are certain medications that are referred to as bile acid sequestrants. Bile is a substance the liver makes, it gets stored in the gallbladder and is released to help with the digestion of fats and cholesterol. Bile acid itself contains cholesterol so the drug companies developed a medication which binds with these bile acids, does not let them go and when you poop out comes the cholesterol. Pretty clever.

Only thing is these specific types of meds can only lower the cholesterol number by a small amount. Anyone with a high cholesterol number will need another med, assuming the proper diet is not revealed to the patient to help lower the cholesterol number further. It may appear as if we have come off our topic of HDL, but we really have not.

You would think that if HDL was a good cholesterol it would somehow get rid of the cholesterol from the body so it could not bind to our arteries and kill us. But this does not happen. HDL quickly takes and gives its cholesterol to other DLs. One of which is the LDL transporter, which everyone mistakenly believes is the bad cholesterol. But if HDL is quickly giving its cholesterol to LDL, I am still confused. Would that not make HDL a bad cholesterol too, since it is aiding and abetting the LDL cholesterol? I will discuss more about LDL cholesterol below, but for now understand that LDL is considered the bad cholesterol.

OK, so let us get back to our typical internist, family doc, pediatrician, or cardiologist. When we ask them how to raise the HDL they will answer exercise, follow a low fat, low cholesterol diet, which means we need to eat more whole grains, fruits and veggies. After sixteen years of practicing medicine I can tell you that this does not work. Some docs will be thinking that, “Of course it works.” And my reply is that in sixteen years of caring for patients I have rarely seen this diet/exercise approach work to significantly elevate the HDL.

Well what have I seen work you might ask? The only thing I have seen work to substantially increase HDL, doubling it, sometimes increasing the HDL by two and a half times its value; is increasing one’s consumption of fat and cholesterol, coupled with a dramatic lowering of one’s carb intake.

That is correct, as crazy as it sounds: increasing one’s consumption of fat and cholesterol in the diet will substantially raise your HDL values. This process can take up to a year, but it works and it works every time. Every time! When patients of mine increase their fat and cholesterol consumption their HDLs oftentimes double. That’s right, double! The best the drug companies can offer is somewhere around a thirty-five percent increase in HDL, but if one increases their consumption of fats and cholesterol and lowers their carb intake, one can increase the HDL by 100%.

To put this in perspective, a thirty-five percent increase means that if your HDL is thirty, not an unusual number to see, the most you can expect as an increase if you are using meds will be from thirty to forty. Sounds impressive until you realize that you are still at increased risk of heart disease even with an HDL in the forty range. How about we take that HDL of thirty and change it into a sixty or seventy, this can be done if you follow the correct diet.

I really am not sure why the HDL doubles. I have read the books, but cannot figure it out. Only thing I can come up with is since the body is not making as much cholesterol, it chooses to make HDL and the good LDL preferentially over the others. So now one may wonder, what happens to the LDL thing, you know, that thing we doctors mistakenly call the bad cholesterol. I will show you in Chapter Six. Before we can talk intelligently about LDL we need to discuss some basic math and I mean really basic math, that is, the math used to calculate all the typical LDLs in our country.

“Nothing is more difficult than competing with a myth”

-Francoise Giroud

Author: James Carlson
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