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C |
holesterol - by gosh, my mom told me twenty years ago I should be on skim milk, stop the french fries, boil the chicken.
Surely great leaders are a function of their time and most certainly great ideas are too. We know the people of Japan have stomach cancers but little heart disease. Yet, in the doctor’s waiting room of the Western world, daily we hear –
“I’m 375 pounds, had a physical and the doctor said I’m in great physical shape; only ... my cholesterol is elevated” or
“Gee - I only eat a half gallon of ice cream at night before going to bed. I’m a compulsive eater (am I addicted?). So I flunked my exercise stress test. Just because I can’t get my 250 pounds running uphill, do I really need to change my diet? I’ve been eating meat everyday for the last thirty years. Give up cigars and cigarettes? So what if I get short of breath - and I love those chocolate chip cookies.
Is it really true - all I can eat are yogurt-covered raisins, nibble on carrots and chomp on granola bars (I’ve just read that even granola bars have a lot of fat)? I’m sure I have a brain tumor - I can’t see.
Do you think eating peanut butter on toast with fried eggs and mayonnaise several times a day could affect me?
Sure I’m tired after I eat and yes, my dad did die of a heart attack at 47. Well my great uncle is jogging and doing marathons. Even my mother is “shrinking up” with that new nutrition program.
Is it really true
nutrition is the ultimate medication? And we are what we eat?”
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A |
s we all know
by now - or will know surely by the end of the year - cholesterol is a steroid chemical present in foods mainly, although
not exclusively, fatty foods (saturated). Small amounts are essential for making
and maintaining nerve cells, synthesizing natural hormones, and producing bile
salts and cell membranes. Cholesterol is supplied by foods of animal origin
although the liver may utilize other foods to manufacture all the cholesterol we
need.
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s |
ludge in the
river? Or oil slicks? Can you imagine such “sludge” passing through your
veins and arteries? (Remember “Itis and Algia”?) Well,
the inflammatory reaction initiates the deposition of fat into the healing
reaction with the resulting deposition similar to what we see in the leaching of
limestone on old buildings. Blood
with its transport vehicles called lipoproteins “swishes” around the bends
and curves with jets and eddies depositing the excess cholesterol into these
inflammatory reactions on the arterial walls - a process known as atherosclerosis. The gradual deposition of “crud and sludge” leads to
obstruction of the blood supply. Before
you know it, no blood, no oxygen - poof! just plain lightheadedness, dizziness
on standing or possibly pain in the legs on exertion - maybe even a heart
attack.
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H |
igh
density lipoprotein cholesterol, often referred to as “good cholesterol”, appears to protect the arteries against the
buildup of these fatty deposits, whereas low
density lipoprotein cholesterol is thought to contribute to an increased
risk of coronary heart disease and early heart attacks.
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T |
he majority of adults in the United States are at
risk and should - according to a national consensus of experts -maintain
a cholesterol level below 200 mg. By seventy years of age, without any of
the risk factors (high blood pressure, diabetes,
smoking, obesity, family history) and a cholesterol of 200 or greater, one has
more than a 60% chance of having narrowing of the arteries. The
timetable accelerates with each additional risk factor. Actually, by the early
20s, arteriosclerosis is already apparent.
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D |
id
you know each 10 mg rise of the cholesterol level increases the death rate by
5%? Unfortunately,
as we age, we tend to increase cholesterol with our change in lifestyle and
habits. By cutting all cholesterol-rich
foods out of
the diet, cholesterol content is lowered by 5-15%. This may make the difference
between “easing” into old age or “diseasing” out of the picture
altogether.
LOW CHOLESTEROL
Fish,
mono/polyunsaturated fats - corn oil, olive oil, vegetables, fruits
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S |
o,
when you receive that certified letter from the IRS and your blood pressure goes
up, before reaching for the cigarette and coffee and figuring only a meal of
steak and French fries, coconut cream pie and ice cream will satisfy this
high anxiety, first remember to look
in the mirror - you are what you eat and
what you see is probably a good estimate of your cholesterol level. Don’t
tell this to your doctor, though. The doctor might be “out” an office visit
and a test. But if you need a number (and
most importantly a relationship) to help make a change, why not have your
cholesterol checked and consider changing your diet.
Eh, what’s up doc?