Smoking, Cholesterol And The Heart

Today is World Heart Day, a day set aside to look into issues concerning that very critical organ of the body - the heart. Here, we look at smoking and cholesterol and their effect on the heart.
Smoking is very bad for your heart. It greatly increases the risk of a heart attack, other types of heart disease and stroke.
The good news is that once you stop smoking, the extra risk is reduced quickly.
Smoking affects the vessels that supply blood to your heart and other parts of your body. It reduces the amount of oxygen in your blood and damages blood vessel walls.
Breathing in other people's smoke can also increase your risk of heart disease.
You can get lots of help to quit. Talk to your doctor or health practitioner about giving up smoking.
Cholesterol is fatty substance that’s carried around your body with your blood. Your body produces some cholesterol naturally, and you can also get it from some foods.
Having high levels of cholesterol in your blood is a risk factor for heart disease, so it’s important to manage your cholesterol.

There are 2 different types of cholesterol:

• High density lipoprotein (HDL cholesterol) is called the ‘good cholesterol’ because it helps to keep cholesterol from building up in your arteries.
• Low density lipoprotein (LDL cholesterol) is called the ‘bad cholesterol’ because it is the main source of cholesterol build-up and blockage in your arteries.

You may see them listed as HDL-C and LDL-C on your blood test results.
Total cholesterol is a reading of your good and bad cholesterol.
Triglycerides are another form of fat in your blood that can also raise the risk of heart disease.
When there is too much cholesterol in your blood, it builds up in the walls of your arteries (plaque).
Over time, this build up causes ‘hardening of the arteries’  – your arteries become narrowed and blood flow to the heart is slowed down or blocked. You may suffer chest pain and a heart attack.

A variety of lifestyle choices can affect blood cholesterol levels. These are things you can do something about:

• Diet: Eating foods high in saturated fat and trans fat make your blood cholesterol level go up. Cholesterol in foods also has a small effect. Reducing the amount of saturated fat, trans fat and cholesterol in your diet helps lower your blood cholesterol level. High triglycerides result from eating food high in fat and kilojoules. 
• Weight: Being overweight is a risk factor for heart disease. It also tends to increase your cholesterol. Losing weight can help lower your LDL and total cholesterol levels, as well as raise your HDL and lower your triglycerides.
• Physical activity: Not being physically active is a risk factor for heart disease. Regular exercise can help lower LDL cholesterol and raise HDL cholesterol levels.
• Smoking: High triglycerides result from tobacco smoking as well as diet. 

There are some lifestyle factors that can affect cholesterol levels that you can’t do anything about:

• Age and gender: As you get older, your cholesterol levels rise. Before menopause, women have lower total cholesterol levels than men of the same age. After menopause, women's LDL levels tend to rise.
• Your family history: High cholesterol can run in families. Your genes partly determine how much cholesterol your body makes. For example, familial hypercholesterolaemia (FH) is an inherited condition where your body doesn’t remove enough cholesterol from your blood. If you think you may be at risk of familial hypercholesterolaemia, talk to your doctor.

Symptoms

You can have high cholesterol and feel well. So it’s important to get your cholesterol checked regularly.

Diagnosis

The best way to find out your cholesterol levels is to have them checked by your doctor. This involves a blood test.
Generally we aim for lower LDL (bad) cholesterol and triglycerides, and higher HDL (good) cholesterol.

It’s best to talk to your doctor about what your blood cholesterol levels should be. They will tell you if your cholesterol levels are too high.

Reaching healthy cholesterol levels

Talk to your doctor about the best way to achieve a healthy total cholesterol combination of HDL, LDL and triglycerides.

Lifestyle changes

Your doctor may tell you that the best way to manage your cholesterol is to make some changes like eating less saturated fats and more healthy food, or they may ask you to see a dietician.
Lifestyle changes can make a big difference. For many people, changing what they eat and drink is enough to lower their cholesterol.
Find out more about what you can do to help your cholesterol.

Medicines

Lifestyle changes are not enough for some people. Your doctor may also prescribe medicines to help control your blood cholesterol. Make sure you take it as prescribed and get your cholesterol levels checked regularly. It’s also important to continue with healthy lifestyle choices.
Blood pressure is the pressure of your blood on the walls of your arteries as your heart pumps it around your body. It’s a vital part of how your heart and circulation works.
Your blood pressure naturally goes up and down all the time, adjusting to your heart’s needs depending on what you are doing. High blood pressure is when your blood pressure is persistently higher than normal.
A blood pressure reading under 120/80mmHg is considered optimal. Readings over 120/80mmHg and up to 139/89mmHg are in the normal to high normal range.
Blood pressure that’s high over a long time is one of the main risk factors for heart disease. As you get older, the chances of having persistently high blood pressure increases.
It’s very important to get your blood pressure checked regularly, and if it’s persistently high it needs to be controlled. Uncontrolled high blood pressure can lead to a heart attack or stroke. It may also affect your kidneys.
The medical name for high blood pressure over a long period of time is hypertension.

Causes

The exact causes of high blood pressure are often not clear. Your blood pressure may be strongly influenced by:

• family history
• eating patterns, including salty foods 
• alcohol intake 
• weight 
• how much physical activity you do.

Some medicines can also raise blood pressure.

Symptoms

You can’t feel high blood pressure. There are usually no warning signs, so you can have it and not know. That’s why it’s important to get it checked.

Diagnosis

The best way to know if you have high blood pressure is to have your blood pressure checked by your doctor or health practitioner.
They will take your blood pressure using an inflatable bag (cuff) that goes around your arm. It’s joined to a device that measures the pressure.
Blood pressure can vary at different times of the day. Sometimes it can even go up just because someone is taking it, so it’s important to have an accurate measure of your blood pressure. Talk to your doctor or health practitioner about what your blood pressure level should be.

Controlling high blood pressure

If you have high blood pressure, talk to your doctor about the best way to control it.

Lifestyle changes

Your doctor may recommend that you make some healthier lifestyle choices, like changing the food you eat or getting more exercise.