Rehab And Cholesterol #81

Let me ask you something.  What are your rehab goals or plans as a heart patient?  You know when we had heart attacks and surgery we certainly must have been in pretty much health's dire straits. Most of us were not healthy, or we would not have ended up with heart disease.  So it is almost like after having surgery we had our cardiovascular systems cleaned and repaired as best our doctors could. From that time forward our health was back in our control.  It is now up to us to continue to improve our health. What you were eating prior had a big part in creating your heart problems.  So that should tell you something needing to be changed. Weight control is another.  Most of us were overweight and had to address it.  But that is not true for everyone having heart attacks and heart disease.  You can certainly be slim and trim, but eating unhealthy and have serious cholesterol problems leading to heart disease and heart attack.  So without having any hard statistics it is almost certain most or the great majority of heart patients need to make a serious commitment to lifestyle changes.  That is if you expect to make a full recovery and get back to being a healthy person.  Do you know what happens to most people when they get to be our age?  I am not talking about having a heart attack.  I mean normally people become a little less active. They probably have a little more idle time, and eat a little more than they use too.  It is normal when you get older to more easily gain weight.  I don't know all of the reasons why, but you do tend to gain weight easily, spread out some in a lot of places, and your waist line grows.  Cindy and I were cleaning out some old things from our home and came across some pictures of me from 10 or 15 years ago.  I could not believe that was me.  Did I really look like that?  Was I that big? No way. This doesn't happen daily but more than once I have had people ask me how I stay so fit looking.....for your age is usually added to that.  I will tell you when you have been through the sacrifices we have made in rehabbing it sure makes you feel good when asked that question.  If you have to lower your cholesterol levels. Losing weight, and eating healthy, will help lower those LDL levels. Eating the right type of foods will raise your HDL levels.

What is cholesterol? It is a fat (lipid) produced by the liver and obtained through the foods you eat.  It is needed for normal body functions.  Cholesterol produces hormones within your body, it converts sunshine to needed vitamin D.  It also produces substances which help digest food and insulates nerve fibers.   Cholesterol is carried through the blood stream by lipoproteins, of which there are three main types.  Low density (LDL), high density (HDL), and triglycerides.  High cholesterol levels mean you have too much cholesterol in your blood stream. Too much LDL leads to a build up or blockage  in your arteries.  HDL cholesterol carries cholesterol from other parts of your body back to the liver, which removes LDL cholesterol from the body.  Therefore HDL is the good,  or desirable cholesterol.  It can reduce your LDL levels through the liver.   So what have we learned?  That like other substances that are natural to our bodies and are meant to be regulated by body function, too much in total, or of the bad LDL can lead to heart disease.  Which is what happened to a lot of us.  Eating very lean meat in moderation, that is a personal decision for you.  Eating hot dogs, fried hamburgers, sausage, no, no, no. Fatty steaks, chops, pork, bacon, ham, no, no, no.  Big cholesterol problem and weight gain issues.