Heart Risk factors

What are the risk factors for heart and cardiovascular disease?  If my doctor talks to me about my heart health, she will talk about my risk factors.  A Heart Attack Risk Calculator can be found at http://50.56.33.51/hart01/main_en_US.html  We all deal with risk factors.  Some risk factors we cannot change:  I cannot change my genes I inherited from my parents, my age and my sex (female). However, there are several risk factors conditions I can work to improve, such as blood cholesterol levels, my blood pressure, and if I am diabetic, keeping blood sugar levels within normal range. 

Cholesterol levels.  Cholesterol is a substance our livers make and we also get from food.  We must have cholesterol and our bodies make a sufficient amount.  If we have too much cholesterol (either from our diet and/or our body’s production), the excess cholesterol floating around in our blood gets deposited on the inner lining of blood vessels and diminishes the size of the blood vessels.  This contributes to heart/cardiovascular disease. 

As my girlfriend says, “here’s the skinny on blood cholesterol levels”. 

Total cholesterol levels should be below 200 mg/dL.   A number of 200-239 mg/dL is borderline high and above 240 mg/dL is high. 

Triglycerides (our bodies store excess food we eat and do not work off as triglycerides) normal level is below 150 mg/dL.   Borderline high levels are 150-199 mg/dL.  High levels are 200-499 mg/dL.  Very high levels are 500 mg/dL and above.

HDL (high density lipoproteins or good cholesterol) should be above 40 mg/dL, which is considered low.  A high number of HDL (60 or above) is protective.  Doctors believe high density lipoproteins (HDL) helps the body rid itself of extra cholesterol by carrying cholesterol back to the liver where it’s added to bile and excreted.  The experts believe we can raise our HDL level by exercising regularly, controlling how much alcohol we drink and possibly taking some lipid medications.

LDL (low density lipoproteins or bad cholesterol) carries cholesterol out from the liver to cells where the body uses it while making hormones and repairing cells.  Normal level of LDL, 100 mg/dL is desirable. A slightly elevated level is 100-129 mg/dL.  LDL levels of 130-159 mg/dL are considered borderline high.   High levels of LDL are in the 160-189 mg/dL range and above 190 mg/dL  is considered very high.   Tomorrow we talk about high blood pressure.