Total Cholesterol, which is the number that doctors usually talk about, is a combination of three different numbers, your LDL, or “bad” cholesterol, HDL or “good” cholesterol, and triglycerides. Triglyceride level is essentially a measure of the amount of fat in your bloodstream. While too high of a total cholesterol level can lead to multiple health problems such as heart attack, stroke, and clogged arteries, cholesterol is not your body’s way of punishing you for being too fat.

In fact, studies have shown that too little total cholesterol, less than 160 mg/dL can be harmful just as too much total cholesterol over 200 mg/dL can lead to cardiac and circulatory problems. The body uses cholesterol as a component to build other biochemical substances that strengthens bones, provides lubrication for joints and maintains skin health. In addition, it is believed that insufficient total cholesterol levels weakens the immune system and thereby makes it harder to fight infections. Worse, abnormally low levels of total cholesterol may indicate other serious illnesses such as cancer.

A healthy level of cholesterol can be maintained by proper diet, regular exercise and keeping your weight within bounds. Until something bad happens there is no real way to know if you are within the proper range of total cholesterol levels, which is why regular checkups and testing is so important. However, good exercise and diet habits can’t hurt.

The Original Post is Located Here: Home On The Cholesterol Range

Like a motorcar, too much pressure over too long a time and the system will spring a leak. Vital parts are not supplied with enough lubrication or fluid and the motor seizes up and a mechanic is called in and one’s bank manager usually has to be called out to pay the bill. However, in the case of the human body the leak often results in strokes, heart attacks or even death. Like one’s car, good preventive maintenance for your body can lower your blood pressure and lessen the risk of such problems even happening.

While high blood pressure medication can quickly reduce blood pressure, fast results can often be had with lifestyle changes. No amount of medication is going to do one much good if one smokes like a chimney, drinks to excess, and believes no amount of money on the ground is worth trying to bend over and pick it up. Obesity and high blood pressure often go hand in hand. Poor diet itself can also cause an increase in blood pressure with a lot of salty and fatty foods. Doctors suggest at least thirty minutes a day, five days a week of vigorous exercise, such as walking, along with cutting back to two alcoholic drinks a day. Women should drink no more than one alcoholic beverage a day. Smoking? Forget it.

Readers at this point may be deciding that life is not worth living without beer and cigarettes. Others may point out that it’s impossible for them to lose weight and quit smoking at the same time. Moderation is the key to lowering blood pressure. All these things take time. Cutting back smoking over time is the best way to quit and the money one saves can go to other things. Exercise starts with a little at the start and builds up to thirty minutes a day. Changing the way one eats is not going to happen overnight either. Exercise tends to cut down on appetite, so needing a cigarette to stave off hunger is no excuse. Another good thing about steady exercise, it that studies have shown that it can quickly and significantly lower your blood pressure. Cutting out some salt in the diet can do the same.

Reducing ones high blood pressure can keep the body running well and trouble free for all the miles you go in life. Sure you may have to cut back a little, but think of all the extra years you have to enjoy all the things that you cut back on.

The Original Post is Located Here: Quick ways to lower your blood pressure

The human body needs cholesterol to help with building cells, transporting nutrients and conducting nerve impulses. So some level of cholesterol is necessary for good health. Attempting to excise cholesterol completely from your life can do more harm than good. On the other hand, unless you are a world-class runner, swimmer, or cyclist, it is far more likely that your concern should be cutting out cholesterol rather than ignoring it. Like everything in life, the message here should be moderation in diet, and not an excuse to pull out the deep fryer.

Assuming a normal diet and exercise regimen, low cholesterol levels should be an indication to your doctor or medical professional that something else about your body is not quite right. Studies have indicated that there is some connection between your mental well-being and cholesterol levels although how that interaction works is not well understood as yet. This is why it is important to talk to your doctor about any feelings of depression or anxiety that you might have. Your doctor would also be alerted to run additional tests to rule out other issues such as cancer.

A low cholesterol level is usually a good thing. But like diets, you have to have enough to stay healthy or you could wind up with more problems than you expect.

The Original Post is Located Here: Cholesterol: How Low to Go