Radiant Living

Modern Lifestyle
Challenges
Cardiovascular Disease
Heart disease and strokes cause nearly
half of all deaths in America, and severely
reduce the quality of life for many people.
Both diseases have the same underlying
cause, which is atherosclerosis, a condition
in which cholesterol, fat, and calcium
harden, narrow, and eventually plug the
arteries. This process takes many years
and gives virtually no clues until the
arteries have 50 to 80 percent blockage.
While there are some risk factors for
cardiovascular disease that we can’t
change, such as age and sex, there are
some that we can do something about.
According to the Framing-ham Heart
Study the six most important modifiable
risk factors are high cholesterol, cigarette
smoking, high blood pressure, obesity,
diabetes, and physical inactivity.
Cholesterol
The amount of cholesterol in the blood
is one of the three most important risk
factors for atherosclerosis.
Research shows that the risk of death from
heart disease increases when cholesterol
exceeds 150mg/dl. However that is not the
whole picture. Cholesterol comes in two
forms: LDL (the bad kind) and HDL (the
good kind). HDL actually protects us from
atherosclerosis by removing cholesterol
from the arteries. An HDL level of 75mg/dl
drops heart disease risk to near zero, while
a level of 25mg/dl or lower raises the risk
very high.
An especially harmful type of cholesterol
(oxidized cholesterol) is found in
Parmesan cheese, lard, dry mixes that
contain powdered milk or eggs, such as
custard and pancake mixes, and other
processed foods containing cholesterol
30 s RADIANT LIVING