Most of us do our best to keep our blood lipid reading in healthy cholesterol ranges. Research shows that those who are able to maintain healthy cholesterol ranges greatly reduce their chances of experiencing a heart attack or stroke. On the other hand, those who consistently show out of balance un-healthy cholesterol ranges will likely join the one million men and women who will fall victim to a heart attack this year.
There are many reasons why someone might not be able to attain healthy cholesterol ranges, with the biggest being not knowing what they are.
Today we have many advantages over our parents and grandparents. When our grandparents were young they were told that foods high in saturated fat would give them energy and keep their skin looking young, soft and smooth. Products like butter, sausage, bacon, cream gravy, fried foods, and bologna were some of the popular foods of their day. Medical doctors and celebrities were constantly on the television talking about the health benefits of cigarette smoking. As this bad information made its way through society the incidences of heart attack and stroke continued to rise until it became the number one killer of Americans. And it is still the case with heart attack ranking number one an stroke number three.
Today as a society we are trying to reverse the trend of consuming large amounts of saturated fat and making the dangers of smoking known. For those trying to achieve healthy cholesterol ranges avoiding these two pursuits is a must if healthy cholesterol ranges are to be achieved.
What are we dealing with when we talk about healthy cholesterol ranges
Healthy cholesterol ranges have four components. They are LDL (bad cholesterol), HDL (good cholesterol), triglycerides (early stage fats), and total cholesterol. LDL reading should be around 100 mg/dl, HDL should be between 50 and 60 mg/dl, triglycerides should be about 150 mg/dl, and total cholesterol should come marching in at around 200 mg/dl.
It is also important to point out that healthy cholesterol ranges for those who have a family or personal history of heart disease, or other common risk factors such as obesity, high blood pressure, inactivity, and smoking should shoot for levels approximately ten percent lower than the ones above.
Without a doubt these are lofty goals and may require the help of either a prescription medication or a natural cholesterol reduction supplement to provide that little bit of extra support that might be needed to send high cholesterol packing once and for all.
The good news is that achieving success is possible. In fact, by simply making a few lifestyle changes you should be able to hit the ground running and start to see a substantial improvement in 2 months or less. There is no better time to start than now, and quite literally how well you do could be right in your hands.
-
About the Author:
Rob Hawkins is an enthusiastic advocate for the use of natural health products and natural living with over 10 years experience in the field.Learn more about natural remedies and natural health at purchase remedies.com
Article Source
{ 1 trackback }