What is the Relation Between Cholesterol and Heart Health?
Cholesterol and heart health are interlinked and keeping an eye on your cholesterol levels is necessary otherwise you will have to deal with health problems. For your information, high cholesterol levels can result in giving your heart attack, stroke, and other cardiovascular diseases, which can prove fatal. These health problems don’t give you any alert and prove to be silent killers and that’s why it becomes crucial to get your cholesterol levels tested at least once in six months.
To build healthy cells, insulate nerves, and produce hormones, your body needs cholesterol and your liver produces the cholesterol required to complete the above processes. However, some foods give your body cholesterol and sometimes, it goes beyond the required levels causing health problems. This means that you should avoid eating foods that can raise your cholesterol levels. You can’t stop eating food because every food item contains some quantity of cholesterol, but what you can do is limit the quantity and avoid foods that only grow your cholesterol levels.
How does Cholesterol Affect Your Heart Health?
Cholesterol is a waxy substance that travels in your bloodstream in high-density lipoproteins (HDL) and low-density lipoproteins (LDL). Before going any further, let’s first understand what HDL and LDL are:
High-density lipoprotein (HDL) is the good cholesterol that absorbs cholesterol in an individual’s blood and carries it to the liver, which removes it from the body.
Low-density lipoprotein (LDL) delivers cholesterol to tissues that need it; however, sometimes, too much quantity goes through the bloodstream and just sticks to the walls of your arteries, further narrowing the arteries passage, and eventually blocking them.
Narrowed arteries block blood from reaching:
- Heart
- Brain
- Other Organs
As you know blood circulation is necessary for the functioning of the human body, thus blocked arteries increase the risk of:
- Heart Attack
- Heart Failure
- Stroke
This shows that high cholesterol levels lead to heart diseases and that’s why you should work in the direction of cholesterol management. You may be wondering what to do for high cholesterol. Whenever you find your cholesterol levels to go beyond the required limit, your priority should be to lower them as soon as possible because high cholesterol levels bring with them the risk of heart diseases like stroke, heart attack, and cardiovascular diseases.
The first thing you need to do to bring down your cholesterol levels is to look at your diet you are taking and if it involves foods that are rich in cholesterol, then cut those foods from your diet and replace them with healthy foods that give you a balance of vitamins, proteins, and carbohydrates. Read the post further as we will now discuss healthy heart tips and let’s start with foods that keep your heart healthy.
Best Foods for a Healthy Heart
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Almonds and Nuts: It has been found in many studies that walnuts, almonds, and other tree nuts are rich in omega-3 fats, which have cholesterol-lowering properties and keep heart diseases at bay. Also, if you are already suffering from a heart disease, then you are at a low risk of heart attack and related problems. So, nuts should be a part of your diet.
- Avocados: Maybe you don’t know that avocados are good source of nutrient as well as mono-unsaturated fatty acids (MUFAs) and avocados are rich in fiber, which significantly improves the HDL levels and lowers the LDL levels. You should add at least two servings of avocado to your diet and this will keep your heart healthy and lowers the risk of heart disease. Just in case, you don’t like eating avocado because of its taste, then you can add avocado slices to your salads and sandwiches that keep you full and give your body the required nutrients.
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Fish: Having fatty fish in your diet reduces your body's triglycerides, a type of fat in the blood. It is due to the presence of omega-3 fatty acids and keeps health problems like high blood pressure and blood clots far from you which are the possible reasons behind heart attack in an individual. According to the American Heart Association eating two servings of fish a week provide the required omega-3 and offer other health benefits.
The fish you can include in your diet and are known for high omega-3s are:
- Salmon
- Tuna
- Trout
- Mackerel
- Herring
Eating right is not enough to keep heart problems away as you also need to take other precautions. Let’s shed light on the prevention you have to follow.
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Keep a Watch on Your Weight: It has been found that excess weight is linked with higher LDL levels, which is not good from your health’s point of view. If you are overweight, then you should work in the direction of reducing the extra kilos because excess weight puts you at risk of a heart attack. Avoid having foods that are causing your weight to increase. Just replace them with healthy foods and try to consume baked and steamed food that will not increase your weight.
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Exercise, Exercise and Exercise: When we talk about the secret to keep health problems away, nothing can beat exercising and you can involve a set of exercises into your exercising regime. In the beginning, start with a few sets for a few minutes and continue doing the same for a few days and increase the sets and the timing after a week if you don’t feel any pain.
- Avoid Smoking and Limit Alcohol Intake: Smoking and high alcohol intake is common among sufferers of heart attack and that’s why experts suggest avoiding smoking and limit your alcohol intake to keep heart diseases away from you.
These are the preventions you need to take along with changing your dietary habits. If you are not in a condition to make changes to food habits, then you can include Naturachol, a natural supplement to lower cholesterol, which is prepared with all-natural products and keeps your heart healthy.
