{"id":7373,"date":"2009-04-22T01:00:10","date_gmt":"2009-04-22T06:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/?p=7373"},"modified":"2009-04-20T13:29:28","modified_gmt":"2009-04-20T18:29:28","slug":"understanding-obesity-related-diseases-high-cholesterol","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/04\/understanding-obesity-related-diseases-high-cholesterol\/","title":{"rendered":"Understanding Obesity Related Diseases: High Cholesterol"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>As more of our population become obese and overweight, <a title=\"obesity diseases\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/tag\/obesity-diseases\/\" target=\"_self\">obesity diseases<\/a> become much more prevalent. High Cholesterol is one such disease, and here I explain what it is, why it affects the overweight, symptoms and prevention.<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dietsinreview.com\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-7526\" title=\"doctor\" src=\"https:\/\/www.dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/04\/doctor.gif\" alt=\"doctor\" width=\"216\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>What is it?<\/strong><br \/>\nCholesterol is in every cell in your body and is important for proper functioning of your body (i.e. used to build healthy cells and some vital hormones).\u00a0 With high cholesterol (hypercholesterolemia), fatty deposits may develop in your blood vessels, making it difficult for blood to properly flow through the arteries.\u00a0 With this restricted flow your heart may not get the oxygen-rich blood that it needs, possibly causing a heart attack or stroke, if blood flow is restricted to your brain.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Why is it affected by obesity\/overweight?<br \/>\n<\/strong>Obesity is mainly caused by taking in more calories than are expended through physical activity and daily life. Taking in too many calories, or too much saturated fat, trans fat and cholesterol will increase blood cholesterol levels.\u00a0 High cholesterol is an obesity-associated disease due to the increased amount of fat, especially when that fat is found in the abdominal region (\u201capple\u201d-shaped individuals).\u00a0 Obesity raises blood LDL \u201cbad\u201d cholesterol and lowers HDL \u201cgood\u201d cholesterol.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p><strong><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>What are the symptoms?<\/strong><br \/>\nHigh cholesterol has no signs or symptoms, a blood test is the only way to detect a problem.\u00a0 It&#8217;s recommended that everyone aged 20 and older have their cholesterol measured at least once every 5 years.\u00a0 The blood test, called lipoprotein profile, will give a report of your cholesterol numbers, which correlates your level of risk.\u00a0 A lipoprotein profile measures your total cholesterol, HDL (good) cholesterol, LDL (bad) cholesterol, and <a title=\"triglycerides\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/03\/high-triglyceride-levels-just-as-dangerous-as-cholesterol\/\" target=\"_self\">triglyceride<\/a> levels (fat carried in bloodstream). Indications of high cholesterol include the following:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>High cholesterol &#8211; total cholesterol higher than 240 (twice as likely to have <a title=\"heart disease\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/04\/understanding-obesity-related-diseases-heart-disease\/\" target=\"_self\">heart disease<\/a>)<\/li>\n<li>Low HDL cholesterol &#8211; &#8220;good&#8221; cholesterol is less than 40<\/li>\n<li>High LDL cholesterol &#8211; &#8220;bad&#8221; cholesterol is above 160<\/li>\n<li>Triglycerides &#8211; a number higher than 200<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>What can you do to prevent it?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>High cholesterol is largely preventable and treatable; a healthy diet, regular exercise and sometimes medication can go a long way toward helping control and reduce high cholesterol.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Smoking<\/strong>. Cigarette smoking damages the walls of your blood vessels, making them likely to accumulate fatty deposits and may also lower your good cholesterol.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Obesity<\/strong>. Having a body mass index (<a title=\"bmi\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/04\/understanding-body-mass-index\/\" target=\"_self\">BMI<\/a>) of 30 or greater puts you at risk of high cholesterol.\u00a0 Losing weight can help lower your LDL and total cholesterol levels, as well as raise your HDL and lower your triglyceride levels.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Poor diet<\/strong>. Foods high in saturated fat and cholesterol increase your total cholesterol. A<a title=\"Low Cholesterol Diet\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dietsinreview.com\/diets\/Low_Cholesterol_Diet\/\" target=\"_self\"> low cholesterol diet<\/a> is ideal.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Lack of exercise<\/strong>. Regular physical activity can help lower LDL (bad) cholesterol and raise HDL (good) cholesterol levels and helps you lose weight. It\u2019s recommended to be physically active for 30 minutes on most, if not all, days of the week.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul><\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As more of our population become obese and overweight, obesity diseases become much more prevalent. High Cholesterol is one such disease, and here I explain what it is, why it affects the overweight, symptoms and prevention. What is it? Cholesterol &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/04\/understanding-obesity-related-diseases-high-cholesterol\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3695],"tags":[896,1399,29,1432,9266],"class_list":["post-7373","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-diet-and-nutrition","tag-cholesterol","tag-hypercholesterolemia","tag-nutrition","tag-obesity-diseases","tag-obesity-related-diseases"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7373","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7373"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7373\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7376,"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7373\/revisions\/7376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}