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Heart disease and high cholesterol are some of the most prevalent health concerns in our country today. One of the things that all of us should be concerned with in our quest to live long and healthy lives is our cholesterol levels. Out of control cholesterol is a leading contributor to heart disease, blood clots and stroke.
Cholesterol comes in two forms. HDL cholesterol or (high density lipoproteins) is what we refer to as "good cholesterol". HDL cholesterol actually carries bad cholesterol away from the heart and deposits it to the liver so that it can pass from the body. High levels of this type of cholesterol protect you from heart disease. If your levels of this type of cholesterol are too low, the bad cholesterol is allowed to take over.
LDL cholesterol (low density lipoproteins) is the "bad cholesterol". When too much LDL circulates in the blood, it can build up in the inner walls of the arteries that feed the heart and brain. It forms plaque, a hard substance that clogs the arteries. This is what we call atherosclerosis. These narrowed arteries make it for a clot to cause a blockage. When an artery is blocked, this can cause heart attack or stroke. Part of the "hardening" process in LDL is what is known as peroxidation. It is this process that turns the LDL into plaque.
It's critical for all of us to know our cholesterol levels and make sure that we have high levels of HDL and low levels of LDL. You can significantly affect your cholesterol levels by with lifestyle choices; though some people are just genetically inclined to have high LDL levels. If you fall into this category, you may need medication along with lifestyle changes to get your cholesterol under control. See your doctor for a blood test to determine your cholesterol levels.
How Can I Improve My Cholesterol Levels?
If you know that your cholesterol numbers could use some improvement, there are many things you can do to improve those numbers. Here are the basics
Exercise - Just 30 minutes of walking, 3-5 times a week can help bring your cholesterol numbers in line.
Lose weight if you're overweight - Overweight people tend to have higher LDL levels. Taking the weight off can improve these numbers.
Don't smoke - Smoking contributes to high LDL levels and to low HDL levels.
Managing Your Diet
Diet is the most important factor in controlling your cholesterol levels. Whether or not you need to lose weight, a healthy diet is critical to maintaining good cholesterol levels. Here are the diet basics you should follow.
Reduce the amount of red meat in your diet. Opt for chicken, fish and turkey more often; beef and pork just once or twice a week. Use egg substitutes or egg whites rather than egg yolks.
Choose low fat options - Drink skim or 1% milk. Choose low fat cheese, yogurt and sour cream.
Increase your whole grains - Replace simple, white flower based products with whole grains. Oatmeal and whole wheat are great options.
Increase your fruits and vegetables - Fruits and vegetables provide vitamins and fiber. They fill you up on fewer calories, so you can eat less and lose weight. They are also filled with anti-oxidants, which can prevent disease by combating our body's free radicals. For the highest levels of anti-oxidants, be sure to eat your share of blueberries, red beans, artichokes and tomatoes.
Use good fats - We all need fat in our diets, but the types of fat we choose are important. Stay away from anything that says "hydrogenated". Don't use lard, butter or hard shortenings. Stay away from anything that contains "trans fats". Use olive oil, flaxseed oil and canola oil as your primary fats. These good fats can help raise your HDL levels, without elevating your LDL levels in the process.
Add Green Tea to your diet - Green tea is one of the most under-recognized health protectors. Green tea is rich in anti-oxidants, just like fruits and vegetables. There have been many studies that have concluded that green tea's anti-oxidants have a powerful influence in preventing heart disease.
One study, in particular is worth noting. The University of Shizuoka in Japan conducted a study on green tea and its ability to prevent atherosclerosis. In this study, some mice were fed green tea extract in their drinking water, while other mice were fed water without green tea added. All of the mice were fed a diet high in saturated fats and other products known to raise bad cholesterol.
After about eight weeks, the mice who were fed green tea showed significantly less propensity to have atherosclerosis.* While the high level of LDL could still be spotted in the blood, it was not being converted to plaque. The study concluded that green tea has the ability, likely because of its high anti-oxidant level, to prevent the peroxidation of the LDLs. So, even when the diet was higher than normal in "bad cholesterol" foods, the green tea seemed to prevent this cholesterol in the blood from turning into artery blocking plaque.
Now, this doesn't mean that it's ok to eat a diet high in fat and cholesterol and rely on green tea to take care of the problem. However, it does indicate that green tea may be highly effective at preventing the bad cholesterol that we do ingest from turning into arterial plaque.
So, for the best plan for preventing heart disease and stroke, it's wise to follow a low cholesterol diet, maintain a healthy weight and get regular exercise. But, it's also wise to add green tea to your diet. It may give you an extra edge to winning the cholesterol battle!
In recent years, green tea has gained a lot of attention for its ability to prevent diseases and keep us healthy. Most of the attention has been on green tea's ability to prevent cancer and heart disease, and some of the research results in this area have been quite promising. Look at some of the findings thus far.
•Green tea was shown to be an effective adjunct to chemotherapy in breast cancer patients. A study concluded that patients who received green tea along with their chemotherapy showed a higher concentration of their chemotherapy drugs in their cancer cells than those who had chemotherapy alone.
• Green tea acted was shown to act as a scavenger against skin cancer cells, whether taken orally or applied to the skin.
•Green tea was shown to have a significant lowering effect on post menopausal women's circulating estrogen level. We know that a high circulating estrogen level after menopause increases the breast cancer risk.
•A study conducted in China showed that regular tea drinkers had a significantly lower risk of biliary tract cancer and gallbladder cancer - even if they had gall bladder disease - than those who did not drink green tea.
•Another study showed that green tea consumption appears to have the ability to act as a sort of scavenger against a substance called Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS). ROS are a particular form of free radicals that contribute to the development of prostate cancer, when produced in excess.
•Green tea has been shown to prevent heart disease by preventing LDL cholesterol circulating in the blood from oxidizing. When LDL cholesterol doesn't oxidize, it cannot harden into plaque and stick to arterial walls.
•Green tea has been shown to regulate blood sugar naturally. Researchers believe that it has potential to help control Type II diabetes.
But, there may be additional interesting news. It's possible that green tea may increase the chances of success in liver transplants, as well. In the past, studies have shown that green tea's anti-oxidants might be effective in treating several forms of liver disease. But now it seems that there may be even more good news about how green tea might help the liver.
Two different studies have shown ways that green tea might be helpful in increase the chance of success in liver transplants. One common complication in liver transplants is ischemia, or restricted blood flow. When blood flow is restricted after a transplant, the chances are greater that the patient will develop complications or reject the organ. Ischemia is more common in obese people, and when the transplanted liver is fatty.
One study showed that the simple act of rinsing a fatty liver in a solution that contained green tea extract before transplanting it reduced the chances of transplant failure.
In another study, some mice were fed EGCG, the most significant anti-oxidant in green tea, while others were not. They were all then subjected to surgeries resulting in ischemia that threatened to injure their livers.
The mice that were fed green tea had a 100% survival rate, while those that were not fed green tea had only a 65% survival rate. When the mice that were fed green tea underwent tissue analysis, they were found to have far less liver cell death and far more viable liver tissue than the mice who did not receive green tea.
In addition, the study showed that green tea has the ability to reduce the fat content of fatty livers by as much as 55%, while protecting the liver tissue.
This is great news for liver transplant patients. Each year, about 4500 livers become available for transplant from cadaver donors. In addition, living donor programs are becoming more popular and safe. Each year, more and more liver transplants are performed from living donors, who typically make a complete recovery within weeks of their surgery.
However, each year many patients die while waiting for transplants, and some transplants fail due to complications. Each year, about 5% of cadaver transplant patients die within one month of the transplant, and another 9% will die within one year. Statistics are better for live donor transplant patients, with approximately a 3% death rate in the first year, and just over 5% death rate in the first year.
If green tea can reduce the number of transplant failure by helping ensure a higher level of viable liver tissue and reducing the risk of ischemia, then liver transplants can see an even higher success rate than today. This, coupled with the increased success of live donor transplants makes facing a liver transplant far less frightening.
Green tea seems to hold a great deal of possibility for the future. There are numerous diseases that green tea seems to have the ability to prevent or help treat. As research continues, it's likely that we'll learn more ways that we can use green tea to protect our health.