There is a lot of talk about high cholesterol, bad cholesterol, and good cholesterol, but what exactly is considered normal levels of cholesterol?

Cholesterol

The world of cholesterol and cholesterol scoring can be rather confusing. Most people think that having high cholesterol is bad, but that is only true of one type of cholesterol. Many people don’t realize that there are actually two kinds of cholesterol and any time you get your levels tested both of these levels are measured.

HDL

The good kind of cholesterol is called HDL or high density lipoprotein. This kind of cholesterol is beneficial to your body and will help to keep the bad levels in check. The normal levels of cholesterol when looking at the HDL numbers are at a score of 60 or above. A score of at least 60 is what you want, but the higher the number the better. If you have an HDL score of fewer than 40 you are at an increased risk for heart disease; which can lead to heart attack.

HDL is fast moving and works as is part of the building blocks that make up your cells, bile, and body. These forms of lipoprotein will also help to move the slower and “bad” cholesterol out of your arteries. For having at least normal levels of cholesterol in HDL is vitally important.

LDL

The other kind of cholesterol is the bad brother to HDL. The bad cholesterol is called LDL or low density lipoprotein. Having a score of less than 100 is optimal for the LDL variety. Of course, your age and family history will help to determine what the normal levels of cholesterol are when it comes to LDL. This type of cholesterol is slow and prone to clogging your arteries; which can lead to stroke or heart attack.

The LDL levels of cholesterol are broken down into several levels because they tend to fluctuate more than the HDL variety.

Basically, if your score is 100 to 120 this is considered normal or close to borderline. At this level your doctor would more likely want to watch your levels, and depending on your HDL rating, you might need to change your diet or look at adding in supplements to try and improve your score.

An LDL score of 130 to 159 is considered borderline. An LDL score of 160 to 189 is also high, but not as serious as a score above that. Any number in this range should be considered serious and immediate changes to lifestyle and diet should be considered.

With LDL cholesterol a score of 190 or higher is considered dangerous and a serious immediate health risk. Your doctor will probably want to put you on prescription drugs immediately. It is also likely that you will be given a required restricted diet and frequent blood level checks until your levels get back under normal levels of cholesterol.

Knowing the normal levels of cholesterol is important because high levels of the bad kind and low levels of the good kind can lead to all sorts of serious medical problems including death.

Chest pain is a complicated symptom that could suggest an underlying serious disease. The chest houses many organs including the lungs, heart and the esophagus. These wide arrays of minor and major organs make it difficult for healthcare providers to determine the primary cause of the pain. It is always necessary to determine the underlying cause of your condition and to clearly describe the characteristics and kind of pain that you experience. This will suggest some clues on finding ways on how to alleviate the pain. The rule of thumb is that when you experience severe pain, an immediate medical intervention is needed. This also holds true when the pain radiates on the different parts of your body like on the left, then you should immediately call your local emergency medical support team. It is also advised that you stay put and you should not drive as further strenuous activity or exertion could only aggravate the pain.

Pains in the chest have different characteristics. A person may experience dull or sharp pains. Based from the recent study, women are statistically low compared to men. The sensation of pain is transmitted by the complex nerves of the body. This means that the pain that a person encounters may originate from other distal organs of the body. An example would be stomach pains. Stomach pains can be transmitted by the underlying nerves of the stomach to the chest. This mimics a sensation of a chest pain that originates from the heart. You need to be cautious when determining if the pain is life threatening. Heart attack is one of the most alarming pain conditions.

The condition is brought about by the accumulation of fat at the coronary arteries. The obstruction of the coronary artery lessens or even totally blocks the entry of blood supply to the muscle of the heart. An extreme pain is elicited by this condition. This condition needs urgent intervention to alleviate the pain as well as to preserve some of the healthy portion of the heart muscles. Angina is another kind of chest pain that originates from the poorly oxygenated blood that the muscle of the heart receives. It is less severe compared to heart attack but needs proper medical intervention. Pain felt in the chest that is usually encountered after having a full meal is called heart burn. This occurs because of the reflux of the excess gastric acid production of the stomach.

Pains in the chest suggests a variety of health conditions and concerns. You should always consider the advice of your trusted healthcare provider. It is always important to treat the condition urgently. These conditions give a good prognosis if a swift action and intervention is initiated. If ever you have a preexisting disease, make sure that you comply with your prescribed maintenance medications to keep you from experiencing the painful course of the disease. Always remember that an informed individual makes good decisions about his self.

What Is Cardiovascular Disease?

Cardiovascular disease is just one type of heart disease. It occurs when the blood vessels running between the heart and other areas of the body become clogged. This clogging prevents blood from flowing in and out of the heart and can also affect blood flow to the brain. The clogging is often caused by consumption of foods high in saturated fats on a routine basis. There are other potential causes, but dietary concerns are at the very top of the list.

Unfortunately, many people have clogged arteries long before they are officially diagnosed as a cardiovascular disease patient. This is because many do not realize the symptoms that their arteries are clogged until they experience more severe medical occurrences, such as a heart attack.

Common Signs of Cardiovascular Disease

There are a variety of symptoms that can hint something is going wrong with your heart, but the symptoms specific to cardiovascular disease are as follows:

• Angina
• Shortness of Breath
• Pain in arms or legs
• Numbness in arms or legs
• Weakness in arms or legs
• Cold sensation in arms or legs

Angina is the medical term for pain in the chest. It is one of the most common symptoms of cardiovascular disease, along with shortness of breath. Many people with clogged arteries will start to experience these two symptoms without any of the others. The remaining symptoms in the arms and legs are specific to conditions where blood vessels in the limbs are clogged or restricted. If the blockage is in other areas, these symptoms will not be experienced.

Experiencing shortness of breath when doing exercise or other intense activities doesn’t necessarily mean you have cardiovascular disease. The shortness of breath related to a serious heart condition typically occurs with very light activity or exercise. If you cannot walk up a very short set of stairs without bending over out of breath, you may be experiencing early signs of heart congestion.

What to Do If You Recognize the Signs

It is important to see a doctor as soon as you start noticing potential signs of cardiovascular disease. There are some tests that can determine if you have some clogging in your arteries and you will be able to take early action to improve the condition. In many cases, you can stop the clogging or even remove some of it, lowering your chances of having a stroke or heart attack in the future.

The first step is always to educate on the symptoms of heart disease in general. Once you know what is normal and what signals potential trouble, you will know when you need to see a medical doctor and push for testing. The earlier the problems are identified and diagnosed, the earlier you can take action to prevent a more serious heart condition or even death.

Hello my name is Chris McCormick. I am now currently working in the Health field and my passion is to help others help themselves with the best products available to enhance their lives. So hopefully, by reading about my research into healthy supplements, others will feel confident knowing what to look for and be able to make informed decisions about improving their health.

Heart disease, usually called as cardiac disease or cardiopathy, is a general term which refers to various heart-related diseases. Some types of heart disease may share similar symptoms. However, each disease has particular symptoms which depend on the type and the severity of the condition. Below are some types of heart diseases and how to recognize them from their symptoms.

1. Heart attack (Myocardial Infarction or MI)

A person who suffers from heart attack may experience discomfort, heaviness, pressure, or pain around the chest, arm, or below the breastbone. In some cases, the feeling can spread through the jaw, back, and throat. Heart attack also triggers sweating, dizziness, anxiety, nausea, irregular heartbeats, and shortness of breath. A heart attack may last for half an hour or longer. Sometimes, heart attack can occur without any symptoms. This type of heart attack is commonly called a silent MI and happens more often among diabetics.

2. Coronary artery disease

Generally, a coronary artery disease is defined by the occurrence of angina or chest pain. A chest pain creates squeezing, aching, burning, heaviness, and painful sensation around the chest and can spread through the shoulders, jaw, back, throat, or arm. Besides angina, other symptoms commonly follow a coronary artery disease are rapid heartbeat, palpitations, sweating, nausea, weakness, dizziness, and shortness of breath.

3. Arrhythmia

Arrhythmia is an irregular or abnormal rhythm of heart beats. Symptoms that may present during an arrhythmia include palpitations, the feeling of light-headed, fainting, discomfort feeling in chest, fatigue, chest pounding, dizziness, shortness of breath, and weakness. Atrial fibrillation (AF) is one of some types of arrhythmia. Like arrhythmia sufferers, AF patients may also experience the lack of energy, palpitations, dizziness, chest discomfort, shortness of breath, and tiredness.

4. Heart valve disease

Heart valve disease is a condition when the heart valve cannot work normally. This disease triggers dizziness, weakness feeling, chest discomfort, palpitations, and shortness of breath which you notice while doing normal activities or just lying in bed. Heart valve disease which causes heart failure may show some other symptoms such as fast weight gain and swelling in the ankles, feet, or abdomen area.

5. Heart failure

Heart failure occurs when the heart suffers from cardiac disorders which prevent enough blood from circulating the body. Like the heart valve disease, heart failure also shows symptoms like the shortness of breath; fatigue; ankles, abdomen, and feet swelling; dizziness; fast weight gain; nausea; palpitations; and chest pain. A person who suffers from heart failure may also experience cough that produces white mucus.