Archive for the ‘fatty acids’ Category

Take Control Of Cholesterol To Protect Heart Health

Thursday, August 28th, 2008

Heart disease is an issue that gets much attention in the media, and for good reason. It is the leading cause of death for men and women in the United States. Heart disease is a major issue, and a variety of risk factors come into play. Today I want to narrow the subject down on cholesterol, this is one of the graten still manageable-the most risk factors for cardiovascular disease.

Make it a point to discuss in depth with my cholesterol patients, because anyone can control over their health, when it comes to keep cholesterol in a healthy range. It is true that a tendency towards high cholesterol can be inherited genes, but there are also a lot of opportunities in such cases.

Making the effort is worth it: Studies have shown that lowering cholesterol decreases your chance for developing heart and Gefakrankheiten. In addition, the people who currently have heart disease can reduce their risk of suffering nonfatal heart attacks and death from heart disease by lowering cholesterol levels.

Healthy answers to lower cholesterol

To help fight heart disease, I have combed through the latest research results and the list of natural ways to start lowering cholesterol today.

Vitamins - Looking for a formula vitamin supplement that helps your cholesterol ratio in the normal range. Vitamin E and selenium are two essential nutrients for health cholesterol. Vitamin B3 (niacin) is another nutrient believed to lower LDL, the bad cholesterol.

Herbs and spices - The seeds and leaves of Fenugreek May lower total cholesterol. Make sure to increases of at least 500mg of this potent Herb. Guggulipid, the chewing gum myrrh resin of a tree in India may also lower LDL. Other studies suggest that artichoke leaf extract, yarrow, holy basil, ginger, turmeric, garlic, rosemary and cholesterol-lowering effects.

Quit Smoking - Smoking causes high cholesterol, smoking, but may good, HDL, cholesterol and reduce the risk of developing heart disease.

Dietary Fiber - foods from plants, particularly oat bran, barley, psyllium seeds, flax, apples, citrus fruits and legumes, contain soluble fiber, cholesterol favourable impact levels.

Phytosterols - These links can be found in small amounts in plant foods with intestinal absorption of cholesterol. Get them in vegetable oil spreads like Promise, Benecol and Smart Balance, on vegetable oil based salad dressing and fortified foods, such as Minute Maid Heart Wise orange juice and CocoVia chocolates.

Soy Foods - tofu, tempeh, soy milk, Edamame soy and nuts are just some of the soy products, has been shown to lower LDL cholesterol.

Omega-3 fatty acids - This cholesterol-lowering nutrients found in walnuts, flax seed and fish. The aim for 2 servings per week of salmon, mackerel, herring, tuna or sardines. Fish oil capsules are another way to your daily diet dose.

Cutting down on saturated fatty acids that LDL cholesterol in check. People with heart diseases should be to eat less than 200mg of cholesterol from animal products (meat, milk, eggs), and those who wish to maintain healthy cholesterol levels should stay under 300, according to the American Heart Association. Trans-fats, increase bad LDL, cholesterol and reduce good, HDL, cholesterol should fully exercise avoided.

Apart from the many health benefits in connection with the exercise, moderate physical activity can increase the cholesterol.

Now good that you know how many simple options for the management of cholesterol health, I am sure you are curious, they’re off! Work with your doctor and not be discouraged. As long as you practice moderation by diet, add some useful vitamins and herbs, remain active and every day, you can be well on the way to a healthy number on your next cholesterol screening.

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How to Fight Cholesterol

Monday, August 4th, 2008

Dr. Helen is having some cholesterol hell. She wants to keep her LDL cholesterol low and HDL cholesterol high, and having suffered a heart attack in the past this is of the utmost importance. The product she was using was Benecol Smart Chews, which, judging by the nutrition facts, don’t seem to have anything particularly wrong with them. It uses plant sterols, proven to lower LDL cholesterol in the human body. Yet her LDL cholesterol and triglycerides level went up. What gives?

Whatever the reason, cholesterol is something you should try to keep in check whether young or old. Sometimes, triglycerides and LDL cholesterol come from crazy places you wouldn’t even think of. Below are my tips for getting your cholesterol under control through the use of a good diet, exercise, and supplements.

Avoid Processed Foods and Artificial Sweeteners

This is so hard to do nowadays because almost everything is processed and almost everything has corn syrup in it (even the chews!). Processed foods like corn syrup — and even white bread and white pasta — are turned into glucose (sugar) rapidly by the body. Excess sugar that your body doesn’t use fast enough will be turned into fat. In this case, most often these foods will be turned into triglycerides, a kind of fat that is easy to burn off but is detrimental to your health.

Buy truly whole grain products whenever possible to avoid this affect on the body.

Limit Your Alcohol Consumption

Certain alcohol beverages, such as beer and especially wine, have been shown to have incredible health benefits in moderation. A couple glasses of wine a day is no problem. However, when you drink alcohol, the liver prioritizes the metabolism of alcohol over other substances such as glucose. This results in even more glucose than usual being converted into triglycerides. This will happen especially when drinking cocktails that involve fruit juices and syrups. This is especially a warning to all the college students out there!

Eat Your Fiber

This can’t be stressed more. Fruits, vegetables, and legumes have so many different qualities that are amazing that they shouldn’t be passed up on. In terms of helping with your cholesterol, there are some benefits that your greens can give you that few foods can. The soluble fiber in fruits and legumes, as well as oatmeal, form gelatinous substances in the intestine and bind with cholesterol so that it is removed rather than absorbed. Eating just 15 grams of soluble fiber a day can reduce your LDL cholesterol by 10-15% over time.

Exercise and You Won’t Be Sorry

A regular regimen of exercise is extremely helpful in burning off triglycerides and reducing LDL cholesterol while boosting HDL cholesterol. There is no doubt that cardiovascular exercise as well as weight training reduces inflammation, excess fat, and LDL cholesterol. Truly, any amount of exercise is beneficial but those who do it regularly will see the most benefit. You need to remember though that the heart is also a muscle, and while it may seem strange, a whey protein shake after a jog is just what it needs to build itself stronger than ever before.

Get Acquainted with the Good Fats, Throw Out the Bad

A supplement with plant sterols alone is not going to do the trick — essential fatty acids have the most control over your cholesterol levels. Before I say anything, I just wanted everyone to know that I am extremely biased against low/no fat diets. I think they are ridiculous and led to a generation of people coming down with cardiovascular diseases. That’s because fat in your diet is so absolutely necessary that you can’t afford to cut it out. In terms of cholesterol, fat can save your life if you eat the right kinds. So what are they?

Monounsaturated fats are what you want the most of in terms of lowering LDL cholesterol. When eating a salad or some whole wheat pasta, feel free to drizzle a good helping of extra virgin olive oil. Salad dressings based on olive oil are also good. Seriously, olive oil is amazing and shouldn’t be passed up on.

You should also make sure to get a large amount of your essential oils from food sources. Fish have a lot of good fats in them, such as the polyunsaturated omega-3 and omega-6. Avocado is great. Some coconut oil, a medium-chain saturated fat, has been shown to be beneficial as well. You should also eat a decent amount of nuts, as they contain a great amount of oils that are beneficial to the body.

So what are the bad? Any kind of processed or refined oil. That giant, cheap gallon of vegetable oil should be thrown out immediately. There is no better way to raise your triglyceride and LDL cholesterol count than to cook everything in vegetable oil. When oils are heated they undergo a chemical transformation that makes them much less healthy for you. Basically, anything that says processed, hydrogenated, or partially hydrogenated should be thrown out especially if found in packaged food. These are generally trans fats — the biggest culprit in terms of bad cholesterol.

You will also want to trim as much fat off of red meat as possible as, unlike coconut oil which is a medium-chain saturated fat, these are long-chain saturated fats and do have a connection to higher LDL cholesterol. Replace some of your red meat meals with fowl and fish instead.

Some Supplements Do Wonders

There is a reason that bodybuilders and nutritionists are absolutely obsessed with certain supplement products. Their benefits are proven, visible, and effective in everyone.

Flax seeds and flax seed oil are one of nature’s best sources of omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids. Taken as a supplement or whole, these little guys do wonders for your cholesterol and heart. Cod liver oil is a good alternative, containing these fats along with vitamins A and D naturally.

Like I said, bodybuilders and nutritionists take these because they work. AI put a bit of flaxseed oil in every protein shake I make. While I’m sure the Benecol Smart Chews has had some kind of effect given the plant sterols, I don’t believe that it can have nearly the effect as supplementing with essential fatty acids.

Conclusion

There are many lifestyle changes that you can make in order to boost your cardiovascular health and tackle cholesterol problems. As a natural substance that your body needs, dietary cholesterol itself has very little impact on the cholesterol in your body. When you eat more cholesterol, your body simply makes less. The terms HDL and LDL actually refer to lipoproteins that surround the cholesterol the production of which has much more to do with dietary fat than dietary cholesterol. A good exercise regimen, but most of all a healthy diet full of unprocessed foods and essential unsaturated fatty acids, are essential to raising your HDL and LDL levels, thus preventing the kind of arterial plaque that can lead to so many cardiovascular diseases.

These tips worked for me, and I hope that by following my suggestions you can successfully achieve your goals. Good luck Dr. Helen and everyone else!

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Cholesterol Shoots Up

Sunday, July 6th, 2008

Doctors and dieticians stresses on following a special diet chart to the people suffering from cholesterol problem. And if the disease is low-density lipoprotein or LDL, that is, the worst form of cholesterol, the person has to take extra care of his health and diet. A proper diet to lower LDL cholesterol must include food that contain lots of soluble fibre, polyunsaturated fatty acids, Omega-3 fatty acids, sterols or stanols, and soy protein.

The soluble fibre mentioned in a proper diet to lower LDL cholesterol is found in high percentage in oatmeal and oat bran. Foods like kidney beans, Brussels sprouts, pears, apples, barley, psyllium and prunes are also very rich in soluble fibres. These foods reduce the absorption of intestinal cholesterol by helping the body to excrete the dietary cholesterol and excess bile.

A proper diet to lower LDL cholesterol must have five to ten grams of fibre per day to lower the cholesterol by five percent. A person suffering from high cholesterol must consume one-and-a-half cups of cooked oatmeal that contains 4.5 grams of soluble fibre. Besides fibre, polyunsaturated fatty acids help to reduce blood cholesterol. These fatty acids, mostly found in walnuts and almonds, keep the blood vessels healthy, well oxygenated and elastic.

A proper diet to lower LDL cholesterol must include one-third cup of walnuts or almonds every day. This counts to about 240 calories or 20 per cent of the total calorie intake in a day. If consumed at a regular basis, these nuts help to lower cholesterol within one month.

In a proper diet to lower LDL cholesterol, it is very important to have omega-3 fatty acids that are mostly found in fish, and whale and seal meat. Apart from these sources, the other omga-3 fatty acids enriched vegetarian edibles are flaxseed, canola oil, walnuts and Soya bean oil. However this element is best found in fishes and fish oil. The highest carriers of these fatty acids are salmon, sardines, albacore tuna, mackerel, and lake trout.

A proper diet to lower LDL cholesterol must include baked or grilled fish that reduces blood clotting and blood pressure due to their ability to reduce triglyceride. Fat, especially trans and saturated ones are a big no-no for a cholesterol patient. Beside a controlled and healthy diet, regular exercises are also important. In case the cholesterol level shoots up, one must take proper medication.

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