It is important to get a control over your cholesterol levels. When you check your cholesterol levels, it is estimated in mg/dL or milligram / deciliter of blood. Once diagnosed, doctors find out the entire lipoprotein profile including total blood cholesterol (TC), high density lipoprotein (HDL), low density lipoprotein (LDL) and triglyceride.

If your total cholesterol level is less than 200 mg/dL, while all other factors are within the desirable level, it means your health is safe and somewhat risk free or at low risk. But you will be diagnosed with borderline high risk, once you are having 200-239mg/dL of TC. At this time, it is possible that your HDL level counterbalance LDL, but when you TC level is more than 240mg/dL, you are certainly at higher risk.

Now when we talk about bad cholesterol level, it is one of the most harmful substances that we need to get rid off. Doctors always suggest to lower low density lipoprotein level. People may get a lower risk for developing coronary heart problems, if they have 100mg/dL of LDL. However, if they have LDL level more than 190mg/dL or more, they are certainly at higher risk for developing the risk for a critical health problem.

Apart from lowering bad cholesterol level, it is also important to maintain a high level of good cholesterol. If you can maintain good cholesterol level more than 60mg/dL, it means that you are on the safe side by preventing most of the cardiovascular problems. Men on average have 40 to 50mg/dL HDL and women on average have 50 to 60 HDL.

It is also important to manage the triglyceride level. If you have high level of LDL and TC, it means, you also have high level of triglyceride. In normal situation, the triglyceride level should not be more than 150mg/dL. But if it is more than 500mg/dL, it means, you are at higher risk for developing serious health problems. You can develop high level of triglyceride as a result of sedentary behavior, obesity, high carb diet and excessive alcohol, so always be careful to watch your cholesterol levels.

Cholesterol is carried through the bloodstream and then it is fixed to the protein content. These proteins are referred to as lipoproteins. High density lipoprotein (HDL), or also known as good cholesterol, is required for a wide number of bodily functions. So our goal is to boost the good cholesterol level.

Doctors suggest to lower low density lipoprotein (LDL) or bad cholesterol, but at the same time they also suggest to raise good cholesterol level. In fact, lowering bad cholesterol and boosting good cholesterol is the ideal way to keep a heart problem at bay.

Good cholesterol acts like cholesterol scavengers that pick up additional cholesterol from the bloodstream and take it back to the liver for throwing away from the body. When you have high amount of good cholesterol, it means that you have a lower amount of bad cholesterol level in your system. Also good cholesterol also plays protective role for your blood vessels and heart health. It also provides anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidant and anti-clotting effects.

It is true that lowering bad cholesterol level is very important, but it is not sufficient to prevent the risk of heart disease. So it is important to focus the attention over raising good cholesterol level at the same time. In fact, raising good cholesterol level decreases the risk of mortality from heart disease.

If you are not aware of your good cholesterol level, you should seek advice from your doctor regarding the baseline cholesterol examination. If the value does not come within the desirable range, you may need to change your lifestyle to boost your good cholesterol level.

Many people make an aim of 60mg/dL for good cholesterol or even more. Good cholesterol level less than 40mg/dL significantly increases the risk of cardiovascular disease. For an average healthy male, the range of good cholesterol varies between 40-50mg/dL. On the other hand, for an average healthy female, the range comes between 50-60mg/dL. Women’s sex hormones have a positive influence over good cholesterol.

Fortunately, high cholesterol is such a condition that is highly preventable, manageable and treatable. You can effectively manage high cholesterol with the help of lifestyle modification including healthy diet intake and regular exercising. In addition, you may have to take medications for high cholesterol.

Unfortunately, high cholesterol does not show any apparent symptoms. It is only the diagnostic blood tests that can reveal the result. Your doctor needs to perform the baseline test for cholesterol. It is advisable that one should do the test at the age of 20 and then must continue it in every 5 years and so on. If your cholesterol level does not appear within the desired limit, doctors may ask you to go for the diagnostic tests more frequently.

Cholesterol is carried through the blood and then attached to the protein substance. These protein substances are known as lipoproteins. There are three different types of cholesterol – low density lipoprotein or LDL, very low density lipoprotein or VLDL and high density lipoprotein or HDL.

Low density lipoprotein (LDL) is bad for your health, as it accumulates in the artery wall and makes it harden and narrower, which increases the risk of heart attack. VLDL, on the other hand, contains high amount of triglycerides, which make the LDL content larger in size, eventually they make the artery wall even narrower.

High density lipoprotein or HDL is referred to as ‘good’ cholesterol. This does benefit to our health system. It works like cholesterol scavenger and thus it takes away the additional cholesterol from the bloodstream and delivers it to the liver for disposal. There are certain factors such as sedentary lifestyle, obesity, improper diet and smoking along with excessive alcohol increase the risk of high cholesterol.

When we look at the cholesterol level in our body, we can see that high cholesterol is not the exclusive part of the game, but cholesterol level may raise as a result of certain types of fat intake, such as trans fat and saturated fat.

Saturated fat increases bad cholesterol level more than cholesterol itself. If you would like to take a heart-healthy diet, you must limit your saturated fat intake to 7-10% and not more than that. If you are suffering from cholesterol problem, you should not make it even more than 7%.

Apart from cholesterol supply, animal based food products are rich source of saturated fats. These foods are – poultry, beef, processed meats, veal, butter, milk, cheese, cream, ice cream, baked goods that are often produced from egg yolks. Though all plant based foods are free from cholesterol, not all of them are free from saturated fats. In fact, for some of them, the amount of saturated fat is really high, such as palm oil, coconut oil and palm kernel oil. Though these foods are not the direct sources of cholesterol content, they can significantly increase the risk for getting high cholesterol due to their rich supply of saturated fat.

Trans fat, on the other hand, is produced when hydrogen is present in the air and the liquid vegetable oil is heated at the same time. This process is referred to as hydrogenation. Oil will contain high amount of trans fat, if its hydrogenation level is higher. Trans fat is available in margarines, commercially baked foods, crackers, cookies, fried foods, and processed foods.

When considering high cholesterol foods, trans fats are even riskier than saturated fats, as they do more harm to raise the bad cholesterol level. Trans fat can significantly raise LDL and lower HDL.

No matter how old you are, if you are suffering from high cholesterol, it should be your goal to have a lower cholesterol level, as an unhealthy cholesterol level can pose serious threat to cardiovascular system, nervous system and other bodily organs including the brain. Fortunately there are a few things that you can do to effectively manage and lower your cholesterol level.

As described and recommended by health experts, there are four things you need to follow in order to lower your cholesterol level. First of all, you need to switch your diet to a healthy and heart-friendly diet. You have to strictly avoid foods that have high saturated fat, as high saturated fats such as fatty meats, red meats, egg yolks, dairy products raise blood cholesterol level.

While eating heart friendly diet, you need to make it sure that some heart friendly foods, when you eat them at moderate amount, will actually do help in managing your cholesterol level. These foods are – fatty fishes like salmon and tuna, nuts like almond and walnuts, oat bran and oat meal, stanols fortified foods like orange and some margarines.

Some experts say that the benefits obtained from these diets have different impacts for different people. In fact, some people get more benefit from these diets than other. These diets also help in lowering triglyceride level and raise high density lipoprotein (HDL).

Exercise also helps people to lower their cholesterol level. Improved physical activity has considerable effect on an individual’s cholesterol level, including raising HDL and lowering LDL and triglyceride. It is important to lose weight as overweight and obesity increase the risk of cholesterol. When you lose weight, it will significantly lower your bad cholesterol level, while improving good cholesterol level.
If lifestyle management is not enough and if you fail to lower your cholesterol level, you need to take cholesterol medication. Statin drugs are used to lower cholesterol level.

It helps to raise your high density lipoprotein (HDL) or good cholesterol level. The reputation of Niacin is much higher compared to other cholesterol drugs, though it’s a simple vitamin that works in a much simpler fashion. But one cannot deny the fact that niacin has a great influence over good cholesterol level.

The major attention still lies on the lowering low density lipoprotein (LDL) or bad cholesterol. It is surely the important objective. But now researchers understand how cholesterol is utilized in a human body and they also realize the importance of improving the HDL level.

Though different manufacturing companies gave their best effort to design the formula that can effectively boost up HDL level, they have still not had much luck. The drug called torcetrapib seems promising at the initial level, but it produces many adverse side effects, and FDA also disapproves using this drug. So it is a high time to re-concentrate on finding out the usage and effectiveness of niacin to boost HDL.

Niacin can effectively raise good cholesterol by 15-35%, which is undoubtedly a good value to consider niacin an effective drug for raising HDL level. However, you should always remember that niacin has a good influence over raising HDL level, at the same time, niacin helps in lowering LDL or bad cholesterol and triglycerides. Both are considered as the important risk factors for heart disease.

High dosage may cause annoying flushing, though not harmful. However, it is prescribed at different dosages. There are other side effects of niacin as well. These are – headache, stomach, dizziness and in some worst cases, liver damage. There are ways to prevent or minimize the side effects of taking niacin for cholesterol, such as taking with food or with aspirin, but one should not use niacin before consulting with the doctor.

Whole grains, fruits and vegetables are low cholesterol foods. On the other hand, most fishes and poultry also have little amount of cholesterol, this is why one should limit the intake of poultry and fish foods to 5 ounce or less per day. When you bump across any grocery store, you can see that there are many products labeled as “low cholesterol”, “no cholesterol” or “free cholesterol”.

However, sometimes it can be a marketing propaganda. Products derived from plants do not contain any cholesterol, only products derived from animals contain cholesterol, sometimes high cholesterol.

You should remember that eating low cholesterol foods is not the only goal, but saturated fat and trans fatty acid also make the damage by increasing the blood cholesterol level. So when you are considering low cholesterol foods, you also need to consider foods that are low in trans fat and saturated fat.

Foods that have absolutely no cholesterol are – vegetables, fruits, legumes and whole grains. So they need to be the exclusive part of your low cholesterol diet. If you would like to have cholesterol lowering diet, you must have a minimum of 3-5 servings of vegetables and fruits on a daily basis. In addition, you need to have 6-11 servings of legumes and whole grains daily. These diets help to keep the cholesterol level low. Cereals, breads, pasta, rice, peas and dry beans contain high amount of starch and low saturated fat and low calories. These foods do not contain any dietary cholesterol.

Now when we come to low cholesterol foods, we can consider a few animal products like turkey and chicken, once we remove the skin. In fact, most fishes can be considered as low cholesterol foods. Fish also contains a low amount of saturated fat. There are some types of shellfish that can be considered as low cholesterol foods, but not all. Shrimp can also be considered as low cholesterol foods, but you must limit your intake up to 5 ounce or less per day. This amount is applicable for poultry, fish, lean meat, and chicken.

Tofu, beans and dry peas can substitute meat products as they contain low cholesterol. These foods have plenty amount of fiber that helps in lowering cholesterol.

Your diet plays a great role in your cholesterol level. If you are diagnosed with high cholesterol, it is important that you switch to low cholesterol diet, as it helps managing your cholesterol level. There are various types of low cholesterol diet. There primary aim is to reduce fat intake, as fat has a significant impact over boosting up low density lipoprotein (LDL) or bad cholesterol level. Here are the brief details about few popular low cholesterol diets.

Mediterranean Diet

Mediterranean diet encourages eating fruits, vegetables and sufficient amount of grains. Only a very small portion of red meat is allowed in this low cholesterol diet option. You can eat some amount of poultry and fish foods. You are also allowed to take some dairy products as well. You can drink wine with each serving.

Vegetarian Diet

Needless to say, people following this low cholesterol diet option are not allowed to take any sort of animal products such as fish, poultry or meat. You have to eat plenty amount of grains, vegetables and fruits. Soy products, seeds and nuts are also recommended.

Mayo Clinic Diet

Mayo Clinic Diet is not only helpful to lower cholesterol level, but also aids to lower high BP. It recommends eating abundant amount of vegetables and fruits.

When you are choosing a low cholesterol diet, it is important that you entirely depend on low fat foods. Here are the names of the foods that are low-cholesterol, low fat content – vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, whole grains, fish, cereals, and brown rice.

When you design your low cholesterol diet plan, you need to have at least 4-5 servings of fruits and vegetables. You must avoid red meat as much as possible. You may have skinless chicken and turkey instead of red meat. Use only a small amount of margarine over your bread, but never use for vegetables or any other foods like popcorn.

Have plenty amount of seeds and nuts. But have them unbuttered and unsalted. Avoid processed foods including fried foods like potato fry, and other junk foods. Avoid sweets and pastries, cold drinks and the likes. Select whole grain breads and vegetable sauces.

Cholesterol is a fatty and wax-like substance that is present in the bloodstream. Many people inquire whether cholesterol is a curse to our system. Before we start eating low cholesterol food, we should have a clear understanding about cholesterol and the role cholesterol plays in our system.

In this site, you will get plenty information about high density lipoprotein (HDL) or good cholesterol and low density lipoprotein (LDL) or bad cholesterol. In addition, you will get abundant information regarding the role of good cholesterol in our health system.

In a separate section of this website, you will get information about cholesterol levels. With this information, you will be able to discover the different levels of cholesterol such as total cholesterol, low density cholesterol, high density cholesterol and triglycerides and how these cholesterol levels bring impact to the entire system.

This website also deals with the information about high cholesterol, its impact over our health and how to deal with it. Moreover, it also discusses if there are any apparent symptoms of high cholesterol and how to diagnose an individual suffering from high cholesterol. In addition, this site also puts a great insight on the risk factors of high cholesterol.

You will get plenty information about low cholesterol diet that helps in managing and lowering high cholesterol. On the other hand, you are also warned about high cholesterol foods and also how these foods pose serious threat to the entire health system.

You can definitely use this site as a great resource to understand how to lower your cholesterol level just by following few simple lifestyle management skills and by managing your diet plan. It also sheds light on low cholesterol foods in a separate section. Once you become aware of low cholesterol foods, it will certainly help you to design your low cholesterol diet plan.

Recent researches show evidence how niacin is more effective than many commercially sold cholesterol medicines. Last but not the least you will be able to understand how niacin, or vitamin B3, can be of great help in lowering your cholesterol level, while boosting up good cholesterol at the same time.