Healthy cholesterol level

Revealed… Why It Is Important To Maintain A Healthy Cholesterol Level

Cholesterol is made by our liver from the saturated fat that you will find in the diet, and it comes from meats, eggs, dairy products and others like this. You will find cholesterol in the blood vessels, circulating with the blood. When the level of cholesterol in the blood reaches a higher level than what is healthy for us, the arteries get filled up. When this happens, the arteries become narrow and as a result, the proper flow of blood is hampered. Of course this is not desirable, and so it is essential that you maintain a healthy cholesterol level.

What Happens When Blood Flow Is Restricted?

If the cholesterol level is not healthy, as earlier mentioned, your artery walls will be blocked and this will restrict the flow of blood, and this will cause health problems. For instance, when the artery carrying blood to the heart is blocked, this may lead to heart attack, and when this happens to the artery that is supplying blood to the brain, we can suffer a Stroke. Maintaining a healthy cholesterol level is therefore vitally important in maintaining a healthy body.

You should however know that there are quite a few myths here. So what you need is adequate information and some guidelines – this will help you distinguish myth from reality, and you can also find out how to maintain good health.

The Parameters Of A Healthy Cholesterol Level

What is a healthy level you should maintain? This is a critical question of course – one that can determine where you stand. The following is the ideal healthy level of cholesterol that you should try to maintain.

1. Desired: Less than 200 mg/dl
2. Borderline High Risk: 200 TO 239 mg/dl
3. High Risk: 240 mg/dl and over

The Desired Level: Here the total blood cholesterol level should be lower than 200 mg/dl. At this level, the risk of a heart attack is relatively low, unless of course there are other risk factors. However, there should be no complacency over the issue as the cholesterol level can go up if you begin to indulge in high protein diets or change your lifestyle. Regular monitoring of blood cholesterol level is strongly recommended to prevent future health hazard.

Borderline High Risk: This ranges from 200 to 239 mg/dl in most cases. Even though almost 1 in every 3 Americans fall in this category, but the fact is, not all of them run the risk of a heart attack. Women before reaching menopause or young men having other cholesterol problems tend to become a victim of coronary complications. Nevertheless, the monitoring here should be more often than those in the desired group. Borderline high risk patients should also control their intake of proteins and try to reduce weight.

High Risk: Those falling under the high risk group (240 mg/dl) obviously run a much bigger risk. According to statistics, about 1 in 5 Americans fall in this category. To minimize risks, more detailed tests are conducted for these patients that include tests to determine the types of lipids or blood-fats in the body. Tests are also conducted on the low-density Lipoprotein (LDL) count, high-density Lipoprotein (HDL) count as well as Triglycerides in the blood. Since these people are at grave risk, all available methods are applied to try and bring them into the healthy cholesterol level group.