In this article, you will finally understand all about cholesterol levels, specific cholesterol numbers, and what they mean. I have had personally a high cholesterol level of more than 200, which I lowered successfully with natural methods.
Before you learn anything about cholesterol levels, you must understand:
Total Cholesterol Levels vs Cholesterol Ratio
Probably you already know that having high cholesterol levels above 200 is dangerous to your health, as it can lead to cholesterol build-up in your arteries and as a result a higher risk for heart attack and stroke.
However, what you will discover is that the total cholesterol level is not as important as the cholesterol ratio. Cholesterol ratio is simply your total cholesterol and LDL numbers divided by your HDL number.
In Protein Power, Michael and Mary Eades write that this ratio of HDL to LDL and total cholesterol, is actually more important then total cholesterol in predicting heart attack, heart disease, stroke, arteriosclerosis, coronary heart disease, coronary artery disease and other cardiovascular diseases.
If you are looking to learn what are cholesterol levels that can be considered normal, high and very high, then you will find a full explanations of the cholesterol level scale & cholesterol numbers here, or at this other articles that talks about normal levels of cholesterol. (both links open in a new tab/window, so reading this page will not be interrupted)
About cholesterol levels and what affects them?
- Diet.
Saturated fat and carbohydrates in the food you eat make your blood cholesterol level go up. Reducing the amount of saturated fat and carbohydratesl in your diet helps lower your blood cholesterol level.
- Weight.
Being overweight is a risk factor for heart disease. It also tends to increase your cholesterol. Losing weight can help lower your LDL and total cholesterol levels, as well as raise your HDL and lower your triglyceride levels.
- Physical Activity.
Not being physically active is a risk factor for heart disease. Regular physical activity can help lower LDL (bad) cholesterol and raise HDL (good) cholesterol levels. It also helps you lose weight. You should try to be physically active for 30 minutes on most, if not all, days.
- Age and Gender.
As women and men get older, their cholesterol levels rise. Before the age of menopause, women have lower total cholesterol levels than men of the same age. After the age of menopause, women’s LDL levels tend to rise.
- Heredity.
Your genes partly determine how much cholesterol your body makes. High blood cholesterol can run in families. As such if you have high cholesterol levels you might want to check out you children as well.
About cholesterol levels and how to lower them?
It is common sense that if you chose the type of food that you eat, lose weight and exercise you are going to lower your cholesterol levels. It is a fact that only with these changes you can lower cholesterol from 7 to 10 percent.
Personally I’m not much disciplined to watch my diet carefully. I’m saying “not much disciplined” because I do watch and chose what I eat, but not to be fanatical and avoid all fats etc. So what I have found is that using supplements is a way that helps with the diet.
I used this supplement -Lipi-Rite – and it lowered my cholesterol naturally. I believe one of the reasons is because it contains policosanol and guggulipid, which are two natural substances, proven in clinical trials to lower cholesterol.
They have lowered total cholesterol by 14 percent, and raise HDL cholesterol (the good one that cleans the arteries from the bad cholesterol build up) by 7.5 percent, without side effects.
So there’s 2 things you can do right now:
One is to check out Lipi-Rite.
All the Best
Artin Vaqari
Founder
All About Lowering Cholesterol
Other pages to look at are:
Normal Levels Of Cholesterol
What are normal levels of cholesterol? How to lower high cholesterol levels, naturally, safely & without side effects?
Cholesterol Level Scale:What’s the meaning?
What is the cholesterol level scale? What do LDL, HDL, total cholesterol numbers, such as 200 etc. mean? How to explain cholesterol charts?
