High cholesterol affects around 15 percent of teenagers and is, unfortunately, a growing problem. Left unchecked and untreated, the build up of cholesterol can continue into adulthood and lead to a significant increase in the risk of early heart disease. Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in the United States today. This is why teenagers with high cholesterol, and their parents, need to be aware of how to tackle the problem.

Around 1.5 percent of teenagers suffer from high cholesterol because the condition runs in their family. A cholesterol test should also be considered if there is a family history of high blood pressure. Teenagers are also putting themselves at risk of developing high cholesterol if they smoke regularly. However, the leading cause of high cholesterol in teens is obesity. Poor diets and a lack of exercise can cause a fatty build up in the arteries which can lead to severe health problems in adulthood.

To reduce the risk of your teenager developing high cholesterol, or to lower it if it has already become a problem, one of the first things you will need to do is encourage them to become more physically active. People need to aim for a minimum of 30 minutes of exercise a day, 5 days a week. If they are obese or experiencing health problems they should build up to 60 minutes of exercise most days of the week in order to improve their health.

Diet is also an important factor. The biggest culprit for high cholesterol is processed foods, so meals should be cooked from scratch whenever possible. Saturated fats, which mostly come from animal produce such as meat and dairy, and hydrogenated fats, found in some oils, should be restricted. Good alternatives to 'bad' fats are liquid margarine and olive oil.

Teenagers should also ensure they are getting their 5 portions of fruit and vegetables today as these often have properties which help lower cholesterol. Apples, pears, prunes and brussell sprouts all contain soluble fibre which breaks down bad cholesterol. Soya, oats, pulses and nuts can also aid cholesterol reduction. However, due to their high calorie content nut intake should be restricted to a handful or less a day.

If trying to lower cholesterol through diet and exercise fails to yield results after a year then medication may be prescribed. These usually work by blocking cholesterol production, increasing levels of 'good' cholesterol or reducing cholesterol absorption. As with any form of medication, these drugs can have unpleasant side effects and should only be considered if all other measures have failed.



Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Leanne_Williams

It is a scientifically proven - and well publicised - fact that eating well significantly lowers your risk of developing serious diseases. This is especially true of heart disease. If there is a history of heart problems in your family or if you are worried your lifestyle may have put you at increased risk, then it is never too late to make changes to your diet that will significantly improve your health.

If you want to lower your cholesterol levels, you first need to know which foods you should eat in moderation. Fat is essential to the body, but modern eating habits mean people are getting far more trans fat and saturated fat than is healthy. A good diet should be made up of less than 7 percent of these fats. They are found mainly in animal sourced products (meat and dairy). You should also aim for lower levels of hydrogenated fat, so should check the ingredients on your margarine to choose the healthiest option and then use this for cooking rather than butter, which is a big culprit in high cholesterol. As a general rule, processed convenience foods are worse for cholesterol levels so aim to cook from scratch most nights of the week.

There are foods which can lower your cholesterol, so you should aim to include more of these in your diet. Start your day with an oat based cereal as it is an easy way to get more soluble fibre, which can reduce your 'bad' cholesterol levels by approximately 5 percent. You can also increase your intake of soluble fibre by eating certain fruits and vegetables such as prunes, pears, apples, pulses and brussell sprouts.

If your diet is fairly balanced and sensible, you can reduce your cholesterol levels further through eating more polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats. These are unsaturated fats and come mostly from plant, rather than animal, sources. Try using olive oil rather than vegetable oil and snacking on almonds and walnuts. Do bear in mind though, nuts are very calorific so you should be careful how much you eat and limit it to less than a handful.

If you are concerned about your cholesterol levels, visit your family doctor. They may be able to test how high your cholesterol is, and can certainly give you further advice about how to improve your lifestyle and eating habits to reduce it and make your heart healthier.



Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Leanne_Williams

Cholesterol is an essential fatty substance (called a lipid), which is present in the circulatory system. It is needed by the body for the production of hormones and vitamin D. A small amount is secreted by the liver, which also removes excess cholesterol from the blood stream, and the rest of it is absorbed through animal sources like meat and dairy. But if you are getting too much bad cholesterol in your diet then it can lead to life threatening conditions such as heart disease.

Cholesterol cannot travel through the blood stream on its own, so it it first needs to bond with a protein. This forms a lipoprotein, and there are two types. The first is a High Density Lipoprotein. This is what doctors and dieticians would call 'good cholesterol' as it removes cholesterol from the walls of the arteries which will then allow the liver to absorb it. The second type is the 'bad cholesterol' which you should try to avoid. Low Density Lipoprotein is what causes an undesirable fatty build up on the artery walls. Left unchecked, this will eventually lead to a narrowing of the arteries which can trigger serious cardiovascular problems, for instance a heart attack.

Potentially dangerous levels of bad cholesterol are usually caused by a poor diet, but it can also be an inherited problem. For example, genetics may mean a person has insufficient LDL receptors in the liver, so too little LDL is absorbed from the blood stream. This is a common problem among men and women who suffer from heart attacks at an unusually young age.

For most people though, keeping your heart and arteries healthy is a matter of eating good food while avoiding the bad. Convenience food is often full of much higher levels of saturated fat than home cooked meals, and the rise of cardiac problems in the populations strongly correlates to the greater availability of processed food. Try instead to eat a varied diet rich in vegetables, fruit, fish and whole grains. Olive oil is a healthier option than vegetable oil, and buy trans-fat margarine for cooking purposes rather than using butter - these are much less likely to cause problematic build up in your arteries.

Another change you should make to your lifestyle if you are concerned about how cholesterol may be affecting your health is to get more exercise. Physical activity raises HDL levels. As already stated, HDL is considered good cholesterol because it helps remove and break down any build up you might already have on your artery walls so it possible to reverse some of the damage you might already have done to your body. It is never too late to reduce your risk of heart disease.



Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Leanne_Williams

So another piece of the jigsaw slipped into place. It wasn't just rabbits who died of high blood cholesterol levels. Humans did too. Other researchers looking further back in time noted that rationing was introduced during WWII in Norway and the UK, and in both countries the rate of heart disease fell. (Although the rate of having bombs fall on your head rose rapidly, which could have had something to do with a rapid alteration in the causes of death.)

It was then found that there were some people with a genetic condition known as familial hypercholesterolaemia (FH), basically, an inherited condition of high levels of blood cholesterol (LDL). Children inheriting the condition from both parents could die as young as five from heart disease. By golly, it was all beginning to look like an openand-shut case. leaping ahead in time somewhat; in the 1970s Brown and Goldstein identified that people with FH had a problem with their production of lDl receptors. With fewer LDl receptors the LDl level skyrocketed and this was the basic 'fault' in FH, which, as you will now recognize, should actually be called 'hyper low density lipoproteinemia.

It was at this time that the concept of a raised blood cholesterol started to fragment into a constellation of different lipoproteins, and LDL was fingered as 'bad' cholesterol.. And so it seemed, although I am leaping about a bit in time and space, that all the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle were falling into place. and the diet-heart hypothesis was really flying. As early as 1956 the American Heart Association (AHA), somewhat jumping the gun in my opinion, had launched the concept of the 'prudent diet'.

A prudent diet consisted of replacing butter with margarine, beef with skinless chicken, bacon and eggs with cold cereal, warm baths with cold showers and chocolate by a smack on the back of the neck with a cold kipper. In the 1960s and 1970s, huge trials on dietary modification were set up. The biggest was probably the MR-FIT trial, involving hundreds of thousands of people. What were the results of this trial? I think it would spoil things to let you know that at this point all will be revealed later on.



Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Laura_Hagen