The medical community has long believed that high cholesterol levels
are linked to heart disease. Few will dispute this belief, but there
are other factors that can lead to severe and even fatal heart
conditions.
Medical experts who took part in the Framingham Heart Study determined
that high blood cholesterol is one of the factors leading to coronary
heart disease or CHD. Results of this study showed that people with
higher cholesterol levels were also more likely to have coronary heart
disease. In fact, it's unusual for people with low cholesterol to
suffer from CHD.
The connection between high blood cholesterol and heart disease was
also confirmed by another group of experts, whose studies showed that
lowering the total LDL cholesterol (bad cholesterol) level could
drastically reduce coronary heart disease. A recent series of
cholesterol trials using statin drugs showed that lowering both total
and LDL cholesterol levels could greatly reduce the chance of
experiencing heart attack, angioplasty (a surgical bypass) or death due
to coronary heart disease-related causes.
Aside from high cholesterol levels, there are other risk factors that
can increase the chances of developing heart disease. While some risk
factors can be lowered through diet, medication and lifestyle changes,
others cannot be altered. The more combined risk factors you have, the
higher your chance of experiencing heart disease.
The leading unchangeable risk factors are as follows:
* Age (55 and over for women, 45 and over for men)
* Family history (parents or sibling who died from heart disease at the ages stated above)
Fortunately, some risk factors can be changed:
* High total cholesterol and high LDL or "bad" cholesterol poses a
risk. You can also lower your HDL or "good" cholesterol levels
* High blood pressure
* Smoking
* Manage your diabetes. Diabetics face a higher risk of developing heart disease
* Little or no physical activity
* Lose excess weight
If you possess one or more of these high-risk factors, see your
physician for ways to take action and reduce the risk of heart attack.
Some experts believe that high blood cholesterol and heart disease are
indeed connected. On the other hand, there are those who hold that too
much animal fat resulting in high cholesterol is the contributing
factor to heart disease. These experts argue that there may or may not
be "good" and "bad" cholesterols. They also believe that factors such
as physical activity, mental stress and a change in body weight may
influence the levels of the blood cholesterol, and that high blood
cholesterol is a simply reflection of an unhealthy lifestyle, but not
dangerous.
While the experts may disagree on the factors of cholesterol and heart
disease, everyone can agree that we all need to reduce our risks and
increase our quality of life.
