What Factors Contribute to High Cholesterol?

What Factors Contribute to High Cholesterol?

When worried about cholesterol you have to worry about several factors.

 What exactly gets those LDL levels high and what can you do to prevent the levels from rising in the first place? 

You probably want to know what to do if you do have high cholesterol right now. 

The factors causing high cholesterol and the factors that lower cholesterol are the same. 

To reduce your chance of getting high cholesterol or to lower your already high levels, you have to change your lifestyle and change your diet.  It takes work to maintain a healthy body, and when the alternative is heart disease or stroke, it is better to be aware of your cholesterol level and know what to do to change or prevent it. Your weight is a huge factor when it comes to a high cholesterol level. Excess weight has been linked to high cholesterol and heart disease.  Even being slightly overweight can cause your cholesterol levels to go up.  The more you weight or the more you weigh out of your weight according to height, the more chance that your cholesterol levels will be high and that you have a greater risk of coronary heart disease.  The fat levels in different body areas will cause the HDL to increase, which in turn increases your LDL if you are eating unhealthy, fatty foods.
Your diet plays a big part in how high your cholesterol is or is not.  If you have a diet high in fatty foods, fried foods, meats, and dairy, you probably have cholesterol levels higher than you should have.  If you want to lower these levels, change your diet.  Not just for a week or two, but for the rest of your life.  This is not something you can lose like weight.  You can see saw on a diet for a year.  You will lose and gain weight and nothing ever is permanent.  Your diet to lower cholesterol has to permanent.  You have to increase the amounts of vegetables, grains, and fruits in your daily intake of foods and decrease meats, dairy, and other things that have a high fat ratio.

Physical activity is also important.  You have to get off your butt and start exercising.  Increased exercise has been proven to lower the bad cholesterol.  Start slow, but start.  If you are doing nothing, start walking around the block for a couple of times.  As time goes on increase the distance and the pace you are walking.  After a month or two you should be able to start to jog a little or maybe even run.  You can add to this exercise with some calisthenics or the weight room.  When you exercise more you start to replace the fat with muscle.  Your weight will go down and so will your bad cholesterol.  As your blood is pumping through your veins, the cardiovascular exercises will help clean the plague of your vein and artery walls.

Another factor of cholesterol is heredity.  It has been proven the high cholesterol is hereditary.  If your mother or father had high cholesterol, there is a good chance that you are predisposed to it.  Talk to your parents and see if they have they history.  They may have high cholesterol now and not even know it.  Get them to a doctor and have it checked.  It may save their lives and give the information you need to know if you are predisposed to have high cholesterol or not. If you parents have passed, talk to aunts and uncles.  Anybody in your immediate or extended family can be a source of information about the possibilities of you having a chance of having bad cholesterol levels. This information can allow you to see just what your diet and exercise has to do with cholesterol levels and how much percentage of the high cholesterol is due to your genetics.