Understanding what cholesterol is and what the recommended cholesterol guidelines are is essential to ensuring you achieve super heart health and a healthier life. Both high LDL cholesterol and low HDL cholesterol can lead to heart disease, therefore keeping within the cholesterol guidelines for both LDL and HDL is very important.
Cholesterol is a waxy substance, most of which gets produced by the liver, with only a small amount coming from your diet. The body requires cholesterol for several functions such as making Vitamin D, constructing and maintaining cell membranes, and balancing hormones.
LDL cholesterol is known as the bad cholesterol and high levels of it can cause a stroke or heart attack. It sticks to the walls of your arteries, creating a material called plaque. Over time, as this plaque accumulates, it generates a blockage in your arteries, leading to you having a heart attack. If the blockage occurs in the capillaries of your brain, then your brain becomes starved of oxygen, causing you to have a stroke. Following the cholesterol guidelines for correct LDL levels will help prevent this.
HDL cholesterol is referred to as the good cholesterol. It goes throughout your bloodstream collecting excess bad cholesterol, and brings it back to the liver where it gets processed and is eventually excreted. To maximise your health and ensure that this cleansing process continues, you should follow the cholesterol guidelines and get your HDL levels as high as possible.
The recommended cholesterol guidelines for good heart health are as follows:
Rest Of The World
Total Cholesterol – Less than 5.0 mmol/L
LDL Cholesterol – Less than 3.0 mmol/L
HDL Cholesterol – 1.0 – 2.5 mmol/L
USA
Total Cholesterol – Up to 199 mg/dL
LDL Cholesterol – Up to 129 mg/dL
HDL Cholesterol – No lower than 35 mg/dL
Conventional treatments like statin drugs have been used for years to treat high cholesterol. And while they are without doubt very effective at lowering LDL, they have little to no effect on HDL levels. Not to mention the dangerous and potentially fatal side effects associated with them. These side effects range from muscle aches and weakness, depression, liver damage etc., to heart failure. In fact, some statin drugs are no longer on the market following reported deaths.
The best way to manage your cholesterol, and get it within the cholesterol guidelines, is through natural means. To lower your LDL levels, cut back on foods that are high in saturated fats and trans fats. For increasing HDL and lowering LDL, foods that are high in soluble fibre and foods containing good fats, such a polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats should be eaten. Excellent sources of these would be nuts, seeds, whole grains, oats, barley, fish, avocado, cranberries, blueberries and spinach.
More people are now turning to natural treatments as they become more aware of the health benefits to be gained. Taking a natural cholesterol supplement, with ingredients like policosanol, D-limonene, lecithin, phytosterols and a whole host of others, will hep lower LDL and raise HDL cholesterol to within the cholesterol guidelines or better.
Now while each of these ingredients can be easily sourced, individually they are not as powerful at addressing the multiple causes of high cholesterol. But combined together, in the right supplement, they give you your best possible chance of balancing your cholesterol naturally, within cholesterol guidelines and without any negative side effects.
If you feel ready to bring your cholesterol levels within cholesterol guidelines, maximizing your protection against heart disease, then visit my website today, where I share what I personally successfully used, and continue to use, for excellent cholesterol levels and super heart health.
Mary Ruddy is a strong advocate of natural and safe health care and enjoys nothing more than helping others make a positive impact on their lives. To find out more about how you too can improve your health naturally visit her website today at http://www.curing-cholesterol.com/
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Cholesterol has always been considered as the number one culprit for various illnesses such as stroke, heart attack, obesity, hypertension and Alzheimer’s. Due to its adverse effects in the body, cholesterol has been considered as one of the major obstacle for a healthy life. Yet, cholesterol is hard to avoid or eradicate. In fact, cholesterol is an essential substance in the body and is vital for tissue and cell development. In order to maintain a healthy life, one must understand how cholesterol contributes to our body functions.
