Good health has always been a subject of great concern for
everyone. We always talk about exercise, living a healthy
lifestyle and eating healthy. But it was not always like this.
Decades ago, the concept of health was quite different from how
we perceive it right now. Yes, the value of exercise was still
very much mentioned but the concept of "healthy eating" was
vastly different. As late as the 1960s, the tenets that surround
healthy eating was quite different from what it is now. Just
look at the popular media in those days. The Brady matriarch
Marcia Brady would constantly feed her family red meat,
specifically beef, in her belief that meat ensures that her kids
need red meat to grow up healthy.
Fast forward to the present and the what used to be the bible
truth before is now considered as one of the worst health
mistakes one can take. We now know that red meat is not really a
healthy option because of the large amount of fat that it
contains. The same with a lot of processed foods. We are now
more conscious about the stuff that we consume and let into our
system.
An integral part of this new health consciousness is the
increased awareness about cholesterol. With advances in
nutrition research and medicine over the last few decades,
cholesterol has been identified as the culprit in a number of
diseases - most notably cardiovascular disease. This non-soluble
waxy substance is a vital part for the maintenance of one's
health. It is used by the body to make hormones, cell walls and
nerve sheaths. But even though cholesterol plays an important
role in the body too much of one type of cholesterol can
actually be bad for the health.
People might wonder why there is a reference to types of
cholesterol. To better understand this, it would be good to know
how cholesterol works in the body. The liver produces while your
diet provides cholesterol. This is then transported by the LDL
or bad cholesterol though the whole body as a way of maintaining
vital body functions. The HDL, the good cholesterol, then brings
back the cholesterol to the liver so that it can be recycled.
This is done so that cholesterol does not build up too much in
the blood stream. Health problem crop up when there is too much
LDL and not enough HDL to carry the cholesterol back to the
liver. This imbalance increases the cholesterol in the body,
which can lead to heart disease.
From the way body works and handles cholesterol, we know that
there are two different types of cholesterol in the body, the
bad cholesterol (LDL) and good cholesterol (HDL). It does not
take much thinking to realize that what nutritionists and
physicians want us to do is to lower bad cholesterol and
increase good cholesterol.
How exactly do you do that?
Fortunately, because of developments in nutrition and medical
research there are ways of increasing the good cholesterol in
your body. With proper nutrition and a healthy lifestyle you can
exactly do that and be on the road to good health and low
cholesterol. For more details, please visit
http://www.goHDL.com
About the author:
Hanu Nirukurti
