Are you ready? No, are you really ready? Changing your health habits is a challenging task, even though it’s presented as absurdly simple in magazine cover lines that, promise you can “Lose 10 Pounds in Two Weeks.” It takes commitment to make as absurdly simple in magazine cover lines that and of changes called for on the Live /t Down Plan, along with the support of family and friends, One thing that will help is understanding your own risks, as you’ve done in this chapter, for studies show that people are more likely to make a healthy change if they believe it’s relevant to their situation. Other ways to get on track and stay there: Shout the news. Tell everyone in your life that you’ve made a new commitment to your health, from eating well to exercising to reducing your stress. Their questions and support will help you remain strong Track your progress. There’s no better way to succeed than to see your success. The weekly logs that are part of the 12-week...
The Plan is ideal for anyone, regardless of your cholesterol But some aspects of the plan will differ slightly if you have metabolic syndrome or high triglycerides. For instance, you may need te exercise more, limit calories, and But some aspects of the Plan will differ slightly if you have metabolic syndrome or high triglycerides. For instance, you may need te exercise more, limit calories, and take certain supplements. If You Have Metabolic Syndrome You read about metabolic syndrome in this topic. People who have metabolic syndrome tend to be overweight, with much of their fat settled around their abdomens. They also tend to have insulin resistance (in other words, are on their way to developing diabetes) and are relatively inactive. If you have metabolic syndrome, you’ll need to lose weight. There’s simply no way around this recommendation. In Chapter 4 we’ll help you determine a daily caloric target based on your sex, age, physical activity level, and current...
The Plan will help you reduce your cholesterol. How much you need to bring it down depends on your CHD risk factors. In a nutshell, the greater your risk for a heart attack or stroke—in other words, the more risk factors you have-—the lower your ideal cholesterol level If you have high cholesterol, the main goal is to lower your LDL. Why, you mightcask, is this true when your ratios of HDL and LDL to total cholesterol are what countcthe most? First, because it’s much easier to lower LDL than raise HDL, Few drugs orcsupplements reliably raise HDL (niacin is probably the best). Intense physical activity is effective, but few people are willing to work that hard. Alcohol also moves the needle, but of course the “dose” is limited by alcohol’s inherent dangers. Lowering LDL is also the most direct way to slow plaque buildup, since LDL plays the most direct role in forming the stuff Perhaps the best way to think about your cholesterol goal is in terms of Improving your HDL/LDL ratio, This...
We’ll go into more detail on every aspect of the Plan in the following four chapters. You’ll walk through the Plan week by week starting on click here, But here are the basics in a nutshell. As you might expect, the cornerstone of the Plan focuses on how you eat. If you’re inicipating a draconian diet that limits you to lettuce and tofu, relax; you’ll still get plenty of enjoyment from food. In fact, the Plan enables you to get roughly one-fourth of all of your calories from fat, as long as it’s the heart-healthy kirk of fat. And it doesry’t restrict your intake of dietary cholesterol, (Yes, that’s right, eaggs and shrimp are back on the menu). What’s more, there’s no focus on limiting calories unless you’re overweight, defined as a Body Mass Index (BMI) of 26 or higher (check Here). That’s because the best way to control your weight is to eat right and get more exercise, not count calories—even if you are overweight. In the end...
More than anything else, how you live your life determines your likelihood of developing CHD. Even if you have risk factors you can’t do a thing about, making changes to your lifestyle can go a long way toward ensuring you don’t ever suffer a heart attack or other so-called “coronary event.” Smoking Smoking accounts for about one in five deaths from cardiovascular disease. Women who smoke are two to six times more likely to suffer a heart attack than those who don’t. The nsk increases with the number of cigarettes smoked each day. But if you quit, within one year your CHD risk plummets 50 percent; within 15 years your relative risk of dying from CHD approaches that of a lifetime nonsmoker. About 70 percent of smokers say they want to quit. If you’re one of them, talk to your doctor about stop-smoking strategies. In addition to providing the kind moral and medical support you’ll need, your doctor can prescribe medications shown to help smokers break the...
Okay, so some things you really ave born with. For instance, researchers have found several genetic abnormalities that can lead to high cholesterol and make lowering your cholesterol through lifestyle changes alone difficult, if not impossible. If this is true for you, you’ll probably need cholesterol-lowering medication. That doesn’t mean you can skip the lifestyle changes, however; the two together work best. The following risk factors fall into the category of things you can’t change. Genes About 1 in 100 people can chalk up high cholesterol to a genetic basis called familial combined hyperlipidemia (FCHL). Although FCHL has been under study for nearly 30 years, many aspects of it remain a mystery. The disease results from defects in the way the body metabolizes lipoproteins; this leads to high total cholesterol, high triglycerides, or both. People with FCHL also have higher levels of small LDL particles—the ones most likely to accumulate in the arteries and cause...
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