I'm sure you know someone who's obese or someone who has a high cholesterol.Or you know someone who's on cholesterol lowering medication for their heart disease or diabetes.This blog is about the different cholesterol fractions in your blood and how your diet is affecting them.
The way to know how your cholesterol is is to do a lipid profile after12 hours of fasting.Test done after eating food is of no value as it shows falsely elevated cholesterol.
In a lipid profile you'll see three major components-Total cholesterol,LDL Cholesterol,HDL Cholesterol and Triglycerides.Triglycerides are not actually cholesterol .However they play a major role in heart disease and stiffening of arteries-Atherosclerosis,which over a long term leads to strokes and decreased blood supply to important tissues-This is called Peripheral artery disease.The major reasons for atherosclerosis are smoking and high amounts of triglycerides and LDL cholesterol.
Triglycerides are basically formed from excess sugar in the body.This can happen with consuming too much carbohydrates like rice ,sweets,bread ,potato and processed food in your diet.Uncontrolled Diabetes is a major cause of high triglycerides.The elevated triglycerides in diabetes usually respond to tight sugar control with oral medication or in resistant cases-Insulin.Untreated triglycerides in obese individuals and diabetics can seriously damage the insulin producing organ-the Pancreas
LDL cholesterol is the fraction of cholesterol that we call Bad Cholesterol.Elevated LDL Cholesterol is a leading cause of stroke,heart disease ,peripheral artery disease and dementia .
So what to do about the elevated triglycerides and LDL cholesterol?
To reduce LDL Cholesterol reduce the amount of trans fats in your diet.Vanaspathi and partially hydrogenated fats are the devil.A blanket rule is to avoid any packaged food and food sold by street vendors.Trans fats are a major cause of elevated LDL cholesterol.Trans fats are all around us.We just don't pay attention to what we're eating.Any food that has the label partially hydrogenated oil/fat for sure has trans fats in it.It's commonly found in baked goods like pastries and cakes ,cookies and biscuits and potato chips.Some packaged foods which claim to be fat-free ,may well contain trans fats and high amounts of processed starch.Sugar ,starch and trans fats are responsible for the obesity epidemic around us today
Apart from diet the biggest thing that can bring down your bad cholesterol is-MOVEMENT!You've got to move!It's been widely quoted and with good reason -that sitting is the new smoking.Spending 30 minutes a day doing some form of aerobic exercise like walking,cycling ,swimming can go a long way in keeping your heart healthy.
Choose movement wherever possible-take the stairs instead of an elevator.Catch up with friends and loved ones in a park instead of a restaurant or a coffee shop.Walk to your grocery store instead of driving there or worse ordering online!
In "Joys Of Compounding" Gautham Baid rightly says how good physical habits compound over time.The changes you make today may seem small initially with no immediate result.But over time you'll feel healthier ,more flexible and simply happier because you have so much more energy!
Stay informed .Stay healthy.