What are the dangers of high cholesterol

The three highs that are often mentioned, 'high blood pressure, high blood lipids, and high blood sugar', are extremely high-risk factors for physical harm. Currently, cerebral infarction is common in clinical practice, and the age of onset is gradually getting younger. Eating meat and drinking a lot of alcohol have become the lifestyle of most people, and the result is an increase in cholesterol. Many people don’t know the harm of cholesterol. Let’s read this article carefully to find out.

Dangers of cholesterol:

1. High cholesterol levels in the blood can accelerate the growth of prostate cancer in men and cause kidney diseases such as renal failure.

2. For every unit increase in cholesterol, the risk of death from cardiovascular disease increases, and the risk of blood vessel-related stroke also increases.

3. High cholesterol can also have adverse effects on the body's bone health. If you consume a large amount of cholesterol, the gap between the teeth and gums will widen, and the cells that prevent bacteria from entering the gap will lose their function. Bacteria entering the gap will cause periodontal disease.

cholesterol:

Cholesterol is also called cholesterol. A cyclopentanepolyhydrophenanthrene derivative. As early as the 18th century, people discovered cholesterol in gallstones. In 1816, chemist Bencher named this lipid-like substance cholesterol. Cholesterol is widely present in animals, especially in the brain and nerve tissue. It is also found in high levels in the kidneys, spleen, skin, liver and bile. Its solubility is similar to that of fat. It is insoluble in water but easily soluble in solvents such as ether and chloroform. Cholesterol is an important substance that is indispensable to animal tissue cells. It not only participates in the formation of cell membranes, but is also the raw material for the synthesis of bile acids, vitamin D and steroid hormones. Cholesterol can also be converted into bile acid, steroid hormones, and 7-dehydrocholesterol through metabolism, and 7-dehydrocholesterol will be converted into vitamin D3 when exposed to ultraviolet rays, so cholesterol is not a substance harmful to the human body.

Ways to lower cholesterol:

1. Eat less or no foods with extremely high cholesterol content, such as animal offal and egg yolks, and control the cholesterol intake in your diet (less than 300 mg per day). The cholesterol in the blood is mainly (70%) synthesized by the liver, and only a small part (30%) comes from food. Therefore, simply reducing cholesterol intake cannot fundamentally treat high cholesterol, but controlling the cholesterol intake in food is still helpful in lowering cholesterol.

2. Eat less fatty meat and animal oil to reduce the intake of saturated fat. Saturated fat is widely found in meat, eggs, and dairy products, especially in fatty meat, animal oils, and offal. Saturated fat has the effect of increasing low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) in the blood, and its effectiveness is even greater than that of cholesterol itself.

3. Eat more vegetables, fruits, fungi and algae foods, such as konjac, fungus, kelp, wakame, onion, pumpkin, sweet potato, etc. These foods are rich in dietary fiber and help the excretion of cholesterol.

4. The monounsaturated fatty acids contained in olive oil, tea oil, corn oil and rapeseed oil have the effect of lowering low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C). It can be consumed in daily diet together with vegetable oils such as soybean oil and peanut oil.

5. Fish oil and lecithin have the effect of lowering blood lipids, but their effect is mainly aimed at increased triglycerides, and their effect on lowering cholesterol is relatively small (of course, it is still useful).

6. Although antioxidant ingredients such as vitamin C and vitamin E cannot directly reduce the cholesterol in the blood, they can help reduce the harm of cholesterol to blood vessels.