Causes of High Cholesterol

Your diet aside, the other cause of high cholesterol can be your lifestyle, gender and your heritage.

For some of us, maintaining cholesterol at the right levels and being fit and thin still won’t prevent the development of high levels of bad cholesterol.

Due to heart risk factors apart from your diet, some people may require a very aggressive approach which includes cholesterol lowering medication. We will address this issue as we move along in this guide: “30 days to lowering cholesterol.”

Lifestyle Issues And High Cholesterol

• When we give preference to convenience in eating over real nutrition we are automatically setting ourselves up for some problems. Eating fast and convenience food results in ingesting too much fat and salt, which can raise our bad cholesterol level.

Furthermore a more sedentary lifestyle also contributes to unhealthy levels of cholesterol setting in. If you would like to see a graphic representation of this, consider renting the movie documentary “Supersize Me.”  This documentary details the attempts of one man to live on fast food and little exercise alone. The results on his cholesterol and body health in just 30 days were truly frightening.

• A visit to a good nutritionist or dietician can help you better understand eating for the right reasons and for optimal health. It is never too late to make a start on this path.

• Regular exercise will effectively lower cholesterol and will maintain your body’s strength to function to its best. Just 20 minutes of aerobic exercise, including walking, every day will help lower cholesterol. Exercise does not have to be a large time or money commitment. Simple activities that get you moving and that you enjoy enough to repeat are almost always adequate.

Diet

• An important consideration in eating is, above all else, choosing lower fat.

• Buy cooking oils that contain unsaturated fat. Use low fat cooking sprays to replace heavy oils whenever possible. Reduce your overall use of oils even more by using cooking techniques that require little or no oil.

Age and Gender

• It is known that cholesterol levels increase with age. Women generally have lower levels than men from ages 50 to 55. Once a woman starts the menopause, the cholesterol level starts to increase.

• While there is not much that you can do about your age, you can make sure that age does not threaten your heart’s health by keeping to a healthy lifestyle and diet and by getting your cholesterol levels carefully supervised.

Heritage

• Genetics also play an important role in a person's health and this includes the amount of cholesterol you might have.

• Find out if your family battles with high levels of cholesterol and then bring this to your doctor’s attention right away. If you have a family history of heart disease and high cholesterol levels, try harder and start earlier in adopting a healthy lifestyle and eating plan.

Your Arteries and Cholesterol

The role of your arteries is to pump blood. The dorsal aorta or the main artery branches out into many other smaller arteries. Each body system has arteries which are responsible in providing the oxygen rich blood that keeps us alive.

Too much cholesterol in the blood, especially bad cholesterol, prevents the arteries from working to their best capacity.

High levels of bad cholesterol even prevents the arteries from functioning at all, since cholesterol can actually lead to a blockage in your arteries. For this reason, it is critical that we keep arteries free of bad cholesterol.

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