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Heart Disease and Cholesterol |
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For years, the medical community has held that a high level of cholesterol causes heart disease. While few will dispute this belief, there are other factors that may lead to severe and even fatal heart conditions.
Experts taking part in the Framingham Heart Study determined that high blood cholesterol is one of the factors of coronary heart disease or CHD. The results of their study showed that people have higher cholesterol levels are most likely to have coronary heart disease. It is unusual for people with low cholesterol to suffer from CHD. The connection between high blood cholesterol and heart disease was also confirmed by another group of experts, whose studies showed that lowering the total LDL cholesterol (bad cholesterol) level could drastically reduce coronary heart disease. A recent series of cholesterol trials using statin drugs showed that lowering both total and LDL cholesterol levels could greatly reduce the chance of experiencing heart attack, angioplasty (a surgical bypass) or death due to coronary heart disease-related causes.
In addition to high cholesterol levels, there are other risk factors that can increase the risk of developing heart disease.
Even though some risk factors can be lowered with diet, medication or lifestyle changes, others cannot be altered. The more combined risk factors you have, the higher your chance will be of experiencing heart disease.
The greatest unchangeable risk factors are as follows:
* Age (55 and over for women, 45 and over for men)
* Family history (parents or sibling who died from heart disease at the ages stated above)
There are some risk factors that you have the power to change. They are:
* High total cholesterol and high LDL or "bad" cholesterol
* Low levels of HDL or "good" cholesterol
* High blood pressure
* Smoking
* Diabetes (diabetics face a higher risk of developing heart disease)
* Little or no physical activity
* Obesity or excess weight
If you possess one or more of these high-risk factors, see your physician for ways to take action and reduce the risk of heart attack.
Some experts insist that high blood cholesterol and heart disease are somewhat connected. Others, on the other hand, hold that too much animal fat resulting in high cholesterol contributes to heart disease. These experts argue that there is no such thing as "good" and "bad" cholesterol. They believe that mental stress, physical activity and a change in body weight may influence the level of the blood cholesterol, and that high blood cholesterol is not dangerous but simply a reflection of an unhealthy condition.
Experts may disagree on the factors of cholesterol and heart disease. The one thing everyone agrees on, however, is that we all need to reduce the risks and increase our quality of life.
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