Hyperlipidemia

What is hyperlipidemia?

Lipid is the scientific term for fats in the blood. At proper levels, lipids perform important functions in your body, but can cause health problems if they are present in excess. The term hyperlipidemia means high lipid levels. Hyperlipidemia includes several conditions, but it usually means that you have high cholesterol and high triglyceride levels.

High lipid levels can speed up a process called atherosclerosis, or hardening of the arteries. Your arteries are normally smooth and unobstructed on the inside, but as you age, a sticky substance called plaque forms in the walls of your arteries. Plaque is made of lipids and other materials circulating in your blood. As more plaque builds up, your arteries can narrow and stiffen. Eventually, enough plaque may build up to reduce blood flow through your arteries.

Atherosclerosis increases your risk of heart disease, stroke, and other vascular diseases. Fortunately, you may be able to reduce high lipid levels and, therefore, prevent or slow the progression of atherosclerosis. Lifestyle changes like exercising and eating a healthy diet can also lower your lipid levels and are often the first step in treatment.

What are the symptoms?

Hyperlipidemia by itself does not cause any symptoms.

What causes hyperlipidemia?

Most hyperlipidemia is caused by lifestyle habits or treatable medical conditions. Lifestyle contributors include obesity, not exercising, and smoking. Conditions that cause hyperlipidemia include diabetes, kidney disease, pregnancy, and an underactive thyroid gland.

You can also inherit hyperlipidemia. The cause may be genetic if you have a normal body weight and other members of your family have hyperlipidemia.

You have a greater chance of developing hyperlipidemia if you are a man older than age 45 or a woman older than age 55. If a close relative had early heart disease (father or brother affected before age 55, mother or sister affected before age 65), you also have an increased risk.

What tests will I need?

Because hyperlipidemia usually doesn't cause symptoms, you will need a blood test for a diagnosis. The National Cholesterol Education Program recommends that people get this test every 5 years after age 20.

Your blood test will show your physician the levels of different lipids in your blood. Your physician will compare your results to established ranges. The ranges help your physician diagnose hyperlipidemia and then decide whether you will need lifestyle modification, medical treatment, or both as treatments. Your physician will also determine whether you might have atherosclerosis or other risk factors for heart disease. The more risk factors for heart disease you have, the more aggressively your physician will treat hyperlipidemia.

Most blood tests measure levels of LDL (sometimes called "bad") cholesterol, HDL (sometimes called "good") cholesterol, total cholesterol (LDL plus HDL), and triglycerides. To have a low risk of heart disease, your desirable lipid levels are:

	•	LDL less than 130 mg/dL;
	•	HDL greater than 40 mg/dL (men) or 50 mg/dL (women);
	•	Total cholesterol less than 200 mg/dL; and
	•	Triglycerides less than 200 mg/dL.

Some experts believe that even lower cholesterol and triglyceride levels may be desirable.

How is hyperlipidemia treated?

Your treatment will depend on your lipid levels, your heart disease risk factors, and your general health. As a first step, your physician may recommend the lifestyle changes discussed later in this article.

Your physician's goal in treating you is to lower your LDL cholesterol. If lifestyle changes have not lowered your LDL, or if your physician decides that you are at risk for heart disease and you need stronger treatment than lifestyle changes, medications can help. In general, men older than age 35 and post-menopausal women are candidates for lipid-lowering medications.

Lipid-lowering medications include:

	•	Statin drugs, which prevent your liver from manufacturing cholesterol;
	•	Bile acid sequestrants, which prevent your body from reabsorbing the cholesterol in bile. Bile is a liquid secreted into your small intestine that helps you digest dietary fats;
	•	Fibrates; and
	•	Niacin (vitamin B5).

What can I do to stay healthy?

Physicians usually recommend making changes in your diet and exercise habits called therapeutic lifestyle changes (TLC). TLC can lower total cholesterol by 10 to 20 percent in some people. More commonly, however, people with hyperlipidemia experience a 2 to 6 percent reduction from TLC.

A major part of TLC is changing your diet. Your physician may recommend changes such as:

	•	Reducing your saturated fat intake to 7 percent of your daily calories;
	•	Reducing your total fat intake to 25 to 35 percent of your daily calories;
	•	Limiting your dietary cholesterol to less than 200 mg per day;
	•	Eating 20 to 30 g a day of soluble fiber, which is found in oats, peas, beans, and certain fruits; and
	•	Increasing your intake of plant stanols or sterols, substances found in nuts, vegetable oils, corn and rice, to 2 to 3 g daily.

Other foods that can help control cholesterol include cold-water fish, such as mackerel, sardines, and salmon. These fish contain omega-3 fatty acids that may lower triglycerides. Soybeans found in tofu, soy nuts and many meat substitutes contain a powerful antioxidant that can lower LDL.

A supplement known as psyllium can help you increase your soluble fiber intake. Made from seed grain husks, psyllium helps absorb water and cholesterol from your intestines and may improve the ratio of HDL to LDL.

Excess weight can decrease your HDL cholesterol, and losing excess weight can lower your LDL levels. Your physician will help you decide how much weight you need to lose. One consideration, though, is body shape. If you carry extra weight around the middle of your body, you have a greater chance of heart disease than if your weight clusters around your hips, thighs, and bottom.

Exercise makes up another component of TLC. Your physician will recommend an exercise program, such as walking briskly for 20 to 30 minutes most days of the week. Exercise can help you lose or maintain weight, relieve stress, raise HDL, and lower triglycerides and LDL. Make sure to talk with your physician before starting any exercise program and gradually increase how long and how often you exercise.

If you smoke, you should quit immediately, especially after finding out you have hyperlipidemia. Smoking can lower HDL, narrow your blood vessels, and injure your blood vessel walls. All of these effects can speed hardening of the arteries.

"Exercise can reduction the desire eat"

"Exercise can reduction the desire eat"

The researcher Univerity of Colorado Denver find, exercise help keep weight body increase after diet with reduction
the desire eat and burning lipid before burning carbohidrat. Exercise also help raising of lipid cells when weight
body increase.

The result find contrary with wisdom conventional that the lipid of cells is constant and cannot chage by diet or change of life style.
On the experiment, the researcher give the mouses meal which susceptible obesity many of our desire with diet high lipid along
16 weeks and consistenly no more movement. After 2 weeks, this mouses eat diet low lipid and low calory. The weight body reduce
14 %. The weight body continously decrease after diit 8 weeks again. Half the mouses exercise. In order on treadmill. Another mouses
consistenly no more movement.

And the end of 8 weeks, mouses stop the diet and eat many food with low lipid appropiate they wanted. Part of this mouse do
exercise and another part not. The mouses with exercise experience raise of weight body, burn no more lipid in begining day
and more carbohidrat after that. The lipid stomach accumulation more little and desire eat copius reduction.

This experiment published at American Journal of Physiology Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology.

Cholesterol Levels

Cholesterol Levels

AHA Recommendation

Cholesterol plays a major role in a person's heart health. High blood cholesterol is a major risk factor for coronary heart disease and stroke. That's why it's important for all people to know their cholesterol level. They should also learn about their other risk factors for heart disease and stroke.

Total blood cholesterol is the most common measurement of blood cholesterol. It's the number you receive as test results. Cholesterol is measured in milligrams per deciliter of blood (mg/dL).

Blood cholesterol for adults is classified by levels. Your healthcare provider must interpret your cholesterol numbers based on other risk factors such as age, gender, family history, race, smoking, high blood pressure, physical inactivity, obesity and diabetes.

The American Heart Association endorses the National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP) guidelines for detection of high cholesterol. The Third Report of the Expert panel on Detection, Evaluation, and Treatment of High Blood Cholesterol in Adults (Adult Treatment Panel III or ATP III) was released in 2001. It recommends that everyone age 20 and older have a fasting "lipoprotein profile" every five years. This test is done after a 9–12-hour fast without food, liquids or pills. It gives information about total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein (LDL) or "bad" cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein (HDL) or "good" cholesterol and triglycerides (blood fats).

Researchers have established healthy ranges for each of these. They're given in the lists below. If a fasting lipoprotein profile isn't possible, the values for total cholesterol and HDL cholesterol are acceptable.

Initial classification based on total cholesterol and HDL cholesterol

Total Cholesterol Level	Category
Less than 200 mg/dL	Desirable level that puts you at lower risk for coronary heart disease. A cholesterol level of 200 mg/dL or higher raises your risk.
200 to 239 mg/dL	Borderline high
240 mg/dL and above	High blood cholesterol. A person with this level has more than twice the risk of coronary heart disease as someone whose cholesterol is below 200 mg/dL.

HDL Cholesterol Level	Category
Less than 40 mg/dL (for men) Less than 50 mg/dL (for women)	Low HDL cholesterol. A major risk factor for heart disease.
60 mg/dL and above	High HDL cholesterol. An HDL of 60 mg/dL and above is considered protective against heart disease.

If your total cholesterol is 200 mg/dL or more, or your HDL cholesterol is less than 40 mg/dL (for men) and less than 50 mg/dL (for women), you need to have a lipoprotein profile done to determine your LDL cholesterol and triglyceride levels. If your cholesterol is high or you have other risk factors, your healthcare provider will likely want to monitor your cholesterol more closely. Follow your provider's advice about how often to have your cholesterol tested. He or she will set appropriate management goals based on your LDL cholesterol level and other risk factors.

LDL Cholesterol Level	Category
Less than 100 mg/dL	Optimal
100 to 129 mg/dL	Near or above optimal
130 to 159 mg/dL	Borderline high
160 to 189 mg/dL	High
190 mg/dL and above	Very high

Your LDL cholesterol goal depends on how many other risk factors you have.^†

• If you don't have coronary heart disease or diabetes and have one or no risk factors, your LDL goal is less than 160 mg/dL.
  
• If you don't have coronary heart disease or diabetes and have two or more risk factors, your LDL goal is less than 130 mg/dL.
  
• If you do have coronary heart disease or diabetes, your LDL goal is less than 100 mg/dL.

Triglyceride is the most common type of fat in the body. Many people who have heart disease or diabetes have high triglyceride levels. Normal triglyceride levels vary by age and sex. A high triglyceride level combined with low HDL cholesterol or high LDL cholesterol seems to speed up atherosclerosis (the buildup of fatty deposits in artery walls). Atherosclerosis increases the risk for heart attack and stroke.

Triglyceride Level	Category
Less than 150 mg/dL	Normal
150–199 mg/dL	Borderline high
200–499 mg/dL	High
500 mg/dL and above	Very high

On the whole, Americans should reduce the amount of saturated fat, trans fat, cholesterol and total fat in their diet. If you have high blood cholesterol, it's very important to control high blood pressure, avoid tobacco smoke, eat a healthy diet, get regular physical activity, maintain a healthy weight, and control or delay the onset of diabetes. Taking these steps will help lower your risk of heart disease and stroke. If you still need drugs to reduce your blood cholesterol, a healthy diet and active lifestyle will help lower your cholesterol and improve your overall cardiovascular health.

Drinking Water Scams Revealed

Drinking Water Scams Revealed

by: Stan Howard

(free to publish) Read this article before you consider paying for your drinking water. Wouldn't it be nice to stop poisoning ourselves with polluted or unhealthy drinking water? I, for one, felt that I would love to find a source of safe inexpensive drinking water. (Ideally, I'd love to turn on the tap, and out it would flow!) Whether it's curing cancer with magnets or herbal wonder-remedies or Vioxx, we've all seen the fantastic claims people make about their health products AND about how your whole life will be changed! I can tell you right now that 90% are frauds. You may even have fallen prey to some of these scams, selling you the latest fad. Me too. I've bought so many kinds of drinking water, I can't recall. (If a lie is repeated often enough, it becomes "the truth"). Finally, after many disappointments I got FED UP. I decided to get to the bottom of this desire we all have to make sure that our most basic nutrient -- water -- will keep us healthy, not make us sick. I checked out endless commercial websites and a number of university and government sites; and I was dismayed at what I repeatedly found: --Outdated information or info repeated from other websites --Wild and sensational claims --No research --No refunds, etc. I already knew that we can't trust our tap water because of the presence of up to 2000 contaminants. Specifically, I found: a) Bottled Water: a real mish-mash of quality, often no more than filtered tap water sold at outrageous mark-ups, and at quite an environmental cost. b) Reverse-osmosis and distilled water: completely ignored the medical evidence of the dangers in the ongoing drinking of water that is void of minerals, acid in nature and oxidizing. I quickly realized that these products were either useless, overpriced or potentially harmful long-term. And the companies were smiling all the way to the bank. Nevertheless I was able to find products that were well-researched and legitimate: water ionizers and certain filters. I found two websites providing comparisons of reliable water purifiers: Water Filter Comparisons and Water Purifier 101 (While the first of these sites does not address the problem of acidity in drinking water, it is straightforward in its assessment of what various water filters do.) I hope that you're not misled by false claims, and take a look at objective comparisons, for the sake of your health.

Stan Howard is a researcher with Best Water, which offers a free report comparing all types of water purification, and other vital information on drinking water quality. Receive your free report here: Water Purifiers

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