Early Cholesterol Screening Reduces The Risk Of Cardiovascular Diseases

Fat is an essential nutrient to the body and a rich source of energy when compared to carbohydrates and proteins. On the other hand consumption of high fatty diets leads to obesity and increase the risk of cardiovascular diseases like heart attacks and strokes. There are three types of fats 1.Saturated fats found in animal products and in few vegetables.2.Poly unsaturated fats found in grains, seeds vegetables, fruits and fish. 3. Mono unsaturated fats found in olives and nuts. Saturated fats cause blood cholesterol to rise resulting in the plaque formation in the blood vessels. Poly unsaturated fats help in reducing the cholesterol. Similarly mono unsaturated fats also reduce the cholesterol levels moderately. To know about the relation ship between fatty diets and cardiovascular diseases we should first know about the important factor ‘Cholesterol’.

What is cholesterol?
Cholesterol is a natural substance circulating in the blood stream and composed of lipids. Cholesterol is required by the body for maintenance of the cell integrity and production of the sex hormones androgen in the males and estrogen in the women. When it increases above the normal levels in the blood stream it produces a plaque on the lining of the blood vessels and clogs them. This results in narrowing of the blood vessels and reduces the blood supply to the important organs heart and brain causing serious life threatening diseases heart attacks, strokes. Cholesterol is divided into two groups
1. Low density lipoprotein (LDL cholesterol)
2. High density lipoprotein (HDL cholesterol). LDL cholesterol is responsible for the formation of plaques and hence termed as bad cholesterol. On the other hand high density cholesterol reduces the levels of cholesterol in the blood. Therefore it is termed as good cholesterol required for the body. Maintenance of a proper ration between these two types of cholesterols is important to prevent a plaque formation and other complicated diseases. The level of HDL cholesterol should be high in the total blood cholesterol to reduce the risk of heart and other diseases.

Where from the cholesterol come from?
The main sources of cholesterol are diet and liver. The dietary cholesterol comes from the foods like milk and milk products, meat, poultry and fish. Foods from plant origin do not possess any cholesterol. Liver also produces cholesterol in the body.

Because of the importance of cholesterol in the body measuring the cholesterol gives valuable information about the risk for cardio vascular and other diseases. Because of modern life styles and food habits the incidence heart diseases is on increase.

Dr. Anand Rohatgi, cardiologist with UT Southwestern Medical Center’s program in preventive cardiology reported that atherosclerosis is seen even in young adults and teens. They suggested that cholesterol screening should be started early right from the age of 20 years and repeated every five years. By measuring this counseling can be done and necessary suggestions can be given to modify their life styles. For those falling in the high risk category the screening should be done every two years. They also suggested reducing the saturated fat intake to less than 7% of the total calories consumed and proportionately increasing the fiber intake 5-10 Gms in the diet to reduce the risk of atherosclerosis.

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