So what are healthy and normal cholesterol levels and what are bad cholesterol levels?

All human beings are born with clean blood vessels, which from nature have a long live. Why then after some time these vessels are polluted and develop atherosclerosis?

Cholesterol is blood lipids (lipid-fat), some fatty substance. When cholesterol and his plaques start clogging the vessels of the heart or brain, life becomes unbearable. Heart attacks, cerebral thrombosis, hypertension and atherosclerosis – they are all due to not healthy cholesterol levels.

A common understanding that walls inside of vessels are covered with something similar to scale as in water pipes is not true. Thin, elastic vascular walls, without exception, over the years get thicker and compressed in every human. Thickening happens irregularly: at first by the diameter of the vessel wall fat strips appears and then around the zone of lipid accumulation grows connective tissue and plaques starts growing, which later will result in narrowing vessel clearance. If this process occurs after you reach the age of 60, it is quite a natural phenomenon. If it happens before, then it means you have atherosclerosis.

Plaques are formed only on the walls of arteries – vessels, carrying oxygen-rich blood. Often they affect the aorta, coronary arteries, as well as the vessels of the brain, kidneys and lower extremities. These plaques called “atheroma” and consist mainly of cholesterol.

It is said that to determine the risk of heart disease, it is enough to measure the waist.
It was found that when the waist circumference is more than 96 cm ischemic heart disease occurs three times more frequently than with “normal” waist size. And here on the stage again appears cholesterol and levels of cholesterol in our blood: thinner people have lower lever of cholesterol.

Fat food is high in cholesterol levels. It is the road to losing circulatory system and blood vessels elasticity, decreasing elasticity increases the risk of heart diseases. Only elastic blood vessels are able to expand when the muscles require increased amount of oxygen. After some time, vessels lose their elasticity and this leads to the development of hypertension.

Cholesterol is one of the main building materials of the body. It is present in cell walls, shells of the nerve fibres; they are also involved in the synthesis of hormones and vitamin D.

Cholesterol is essential for many processes and body even produces it as a supplementary fuel in extreme cases.

The question arises: how cholesterol – fatty by the composition substance – dissolves in the blood? It is not soluble. It takes special transport particles – lipoproteins. Lipoproteins can be low (LDL) and high density (HDL).

The first (LDL – approximately 70% of the total) provides the transport of cholesterol from liver to its consumers – adrenal and other endocrine organs. Precisely this cholesterol “on the road” may save on the vessel walls, reducing their clearance. As a result you get slowing blood flow, decreasing the energy flow for organs and violating the circulation of the blood. On the plaques, due to slow blood flow, platelets are piled, which further reduces the clearance of vessels and can lead to thrombosis. Hence, heart attacks, cerebral thrombosis, senile dementia, etc. all due to not healthy levels of cholesterol.

To simplify things, low density lipoproteins are called “bad” cholesterol containers, in contrast to the “good” cholesterol in high density lipoproteins.

High density lipoproteins are extracting cholesterol from the vascular walls and deliver to the liver; they help to remove low density lipoproteins from the body, reducing the risk of atherosclerotic changes.

Cholesterol itself is not harmful. Blood must contain a certain amount of fat and cholesterol.

Only high or increased levels cholesterol are a danger. When the level of cholesterol in the blood exceeds a certain level, the arteries become clogged. These two types of lipoproteins play an important role in the development of coronary heart disease: low density lipoproteins and high density lipoproteins. Increased levels of low density lipoproteins and reduced levels of high density lipoproteins, significantly increases the risk of heart disease. And on the contrary, high concentrations of high density lipoproteins and low – low-density lipoproteins greatly reduce the risk of heart disease. Therefore, identifying the individual risk of coronary heart disease, it is important to know the levels of these two types of lipoproteins. The ratio of cholesterol to a concentration of high-density lipoproteins is a reliable indicator of the risk of heart disease. Individual values may differ from the averages.

Our body has some kind of a cycle of production and consumption of cholesterol. Its main producer and main consumer is liver. Liver produces 1.5-2.5g of cholesterol per day, but food give only about 0.5 g. One liver cell lives for about 100 days. For the development of new liver cells a lot of cholesterol is needed. Most of the formed in the liver cholesterol allocates to the intestine with gall, where 97% is absorbed into blood and spread to the blood vessels.

The reason for the accumulation of cholesterol is its excessive formation in the body and slow excretion. This is because of an excessive consumption of animal fats, rich in saturated fatty acids.

Cholesterol levels in products
Cholesterol is contained only in animal products. The biggest difference between cholesterol content (mg per 100g edible portion): chicken egg – 570, Dutch cheese – 520, bovine kidney – 300, beef liver – 270, liver, pork – 130. During meat and fish boiling they lose up to 20% of cholesterol.

British scientists that study aging process, state that the increased level of cholesterol in the body is not just harmful; it is the reason why people look older. According to recent studies, the blood of people who look older than their age, contains high levels of cholesterol and haemoglobin, reports the BBC. In the body of women, who look older, researchers found low levels of bilirubin, which produces red blood cells. High level of haemoglobin and a low level of bilirubin are directly linked to smoking. Researchers say that people look older than their age, when blood cells are destroyed in the skin from smoking, cholesterol and other factors.

Healthy normal cholesterol levels / Bad cholesterol levels
For better understanding of the survey results on the cholesterol, it is useful to know which part belongs to the HDL and which – to the LDL. The highest level of cholesterol HDL – good cholesterol – is found in people who are regularly doing physical activities, do not smoke and maintain normal weight.

LDL (low density lipoproteins). Healthy normal cholesterol levels / Bad cholesterol levels
1. 160mg or more – high level of cholesterol
2. 130 – 159mg – boundary level of cholesterol
3. up to 130mg – normal level

HDL (high density lipoproteins). Healthy normal cholesterol levels / Bad cholesterol levels
1. up to 35mg – extra risk
2. 35mg and more – usual level of cholesterol

The total cholesterol level. Healthy normal cholesterol levels / Bad cholesterol levels
1. 240mg or more – High level of cholesterol
2. 200 – 239mg – Boundary Region
3. up to 200mg – Standard level of cholesterol

Regular table salt can save us from depression. This is the conclusion of researchers from the United States. Psychologists and Physiologists argue that people are accustomed to the salt as a drug, and therefore use it more than the body requires.

Average consumption of salt in the world is 10 grams per person per day, well above the recommended 3-4 grams. Although long known that this leads to serious illness, people continue to use sodium chloride in high doses.
It turns out that the dependence of salt is like a drug. Scientists explain this by the course of evolution.

Life originated in the salty ocean, but after living the ocean beings on land still needed the source of salt, which is required, among other things, for the transmission of nerve signals. And the animals have learned to look for it. Our species were evolving in hot climates. Sweat deprived the body of sodium. Sources of salt away from the ocean were very scarce, besides our distant ancestors ate mostly plant-food. Hence, evolutionary changes have occurred that have helped us to survive: kidney learned to regulate fluid-salt balance, preserving valuable sodium for the body; a tongue learned to distinguish the salt in the diet. Moreover, to stimulate the body to search for salt, the nature provided our distant ancestors with the link between salt receptors in the mouth and the area of pleasure in the brain. And this relationship we have inherited from the ancient people.

Scientists warn everyone who loves to spend time in front of television. Staring into the silver box for many hours can be dangerous for our mental health and even contribute to depression.

It applies particularly to male youngsters. Boys, who spend most of the day watching movies, go out less and rarely communicate with other teenagers. They have fewer friends and it’s commonly known that close relationships with others are necessary to keep psychological balance.

People obsessed with watching TV more often stay up late at night, which interrupts their sleep patterns. That can cause insomnia who again contributes to depression.

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Scientists have discovered that lemon juice makes our mouth to water (OK this is barely a discovery, I know). But they discovered that you can find out if you are an Introvert or Extravert only by running a simple experiment.

By inserting to your mouth just a drop of lemon juice, you can see what kind of person you are. If you mouth is not watering at all or just slightly you are an Extravert. But if your mouth is watering a lot you are definitely an Introvert. Basically the more you water from one drop of lemon juice the more reserved and less outgoing person you are. How cool is that?

One more thing, anyone’s mouth started watering just from thinking about lemon???

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How to eat healhty was known to man from very early days, people’s food was mainly supplied by Mother Nature: fruits, vegetables, herbs, weeds, etc. Later on, the hunting ages started and we tasted the meat for the first time.

Until now we glorify our meat and cook it in different ways. We use animal fats to make our dishes taster and more flavoured. But is really way to the healthy and happy living?
It is commonly known that eating too much of the wrong fat can increase the chances of becoming obese or developing heart diseases or even cancer.

I have found some interesting facts about meat itself. Allegedly game meat has only around 4% fat, where modern farms deliver to us meat with 40-60% saturated fats!!! These fats are useless to our organism. They poison us by putting away in the most objectionable places and at the same time ruin our health.

Some people say for them not to eat meat is impossible as they love the taste of it. Actually we are just used to the convenience of eating it. It is easy to cook, it is easy to store in our refrigerators and freezers. The taste and smell associate with meat comes from spices and herbs we use to cook it. The meat itself is smelly and not tasty at all!

What more important not eating meat when you becoming older is actually recommended to keep yourself physically and mentally fit and to stay in tune with your body and mind.

Body that gets old is poisoned after years and years of abusing it. We all get old with every moment and maybe we should think how we treat our precious shell?

I found during my research that recommendation for healthy fat intake is around 60 grams for 2000 calorie diet. But I am sure it depends on your age, sex and your health condition. It is always advised to see your doctor or nutritionist before changing your eating habits.

For now, we can just follow Mediterranean style of living. Allegedly the diet from the South keeps the people living there quite healthy. The reason for that lies in monounsaturated fats like olive oil, canola and peanut oil and avocados. The olive oil and others mentioned has been the most common part of this diet. Maybe that is why those counties have a very low rate of many cholesterol related diseases and cancer.

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