More on Cholesterol

Continuing with our discussion from last week...let's talk a bit about the causes of high cholesterol. According to this article, there are primary and secondary causes that lead to elevated levels.

Primary Causes:

Genetics - If your parents, grandparents, brothers, or sisters have high cholesterol, you and your children may be at risk. Not really relevant for me. However, since genetics can be a cause of high cholesterol in young ppl AND since I don't see any other obvious indicators (such as weight or diet), then I'll be taking a look at solutions for this category as well as others in our next discussion.

Age & Sex - Women have a lower rate of high cholesterol, since before menopause they have lower cholesterol levels than men of the same age. However, as the women get older, their blood cholesterol levels rise until about 60 to 65 years old. After the age of 50, women often (but not always) have higher total cholesterol levels than men of the same age. Also, not really relevant for me.

Secondary Causes:

Weight - Excess weight tends to increase you LDL (bad) cholesterol level. I'm actually right where I should be for my height and age.

Diet - Fact: The average American man consumes about 360 milligrams of cholesterol a day -the average woman consumes about 220-260 milligrams a day. Compare these statistics with a maximum consumption of 300 milligrams per day. An egg contains about 300 milligrams of cholesterol – so if you eat an egg a day, you reached your maximum quota of cholesterol. This must be my problem. My diet seems like it should be healthy, but I must be overlooking something. This is where I plan to focus my greatest efforts.

Libations! - Alcohol is "good" because it increases HDL cholesterol (the good one). However, it does not decrease the bad or HDL cholesterol. Now the article goes on to discuss how alcohol does more harm than good...but I'm an everything in moderation type of gal. Let's just say that I'm going to try every other solution possible 1st, and then we'll get around to restricting the drank intake.

Smoking - Smoking reduces your good or HDL cholesterol and is linked to about 20% of deaths from heart disease. I don't smoke.

Stress - Stress in itself does not increase cholesterol levels. However, as one of the secondary causes of high cholesterol, it affects your mood and your eating habits. This could be a factor.

That's all for now. I'll delve into solutions in my next post.