The Risks Of Having High Cholesterol

You’ve probably seen dozens of commercials advertising products, such as cereal, that claim to help you lower cholesterol levels.

You may have even been scolded by your physician for having high cholesterol levels. Make sure you take high cholesterol seriously.

Where High Cholesterol Comes From

Did you know that your body is already making cholesterol? It’s true. But a lot of the food we eat has extra cholesterol in it which our bodies don’t need.

What happens then is that the extra cholesterol stays in our blood and actually forms globs in our arteries. You probably already know that our arteries are relatively narrow so this can be a danger(aneurysms).

High Cholesterol in the Arteries

You could think of your artery as a narrow one-way road. Your blood is the traffic and it keeps going all the time. When that cholesterol gets in there, it’s like a fallen tree blocking part of the road. What happens? Traffic ends up getting much slower and that means it can’t get where it needs to go as efficiently.

The only bad thing is that we keep eating so much extra cholesterol that our bodies’ roadways are often being blocked by multiple fallen trees. The biggest problems occur, however, when one of the big trees completely blocks off the road.

Serious Health Problems

Our body parts need that blood in order to keep functioning. That’s because the blood is carrying valuable oxygen to important parts, such as our hearts and brains.

When that blood can’t get through, the oxygen to our body parts is essentially blocked. And, unfortunately, the blockage isn’t going to be temporary like when your car gets stuck behind that annoying train.

When the oxygen to our brain gets cut off, we have a stroke. Part of the brain literally dies from lack of oxygen. If the oxygen can’t reach our hearts, we have a heart attack and part of our heart either dies or is severely damaged. Strokes and heart attacks are definitely no laughing matter.

Dealing with High Cholesterol

Although you can take medications to help lower your high cholesterol levels, you would be better off by changing some of your diet habits.

Eating some of those cereals that help lower your numbers could be a good start. Cutting out the fried foods is definitely another.