www.womanthismonth.com 45 March 2013 | Controlling cholesterol is a serious undertaking requiring diligence and perseverance. We took a morning jog with the Saar Social Runners and met with the experts to find out more about this symptomless condition that can sneak up on you if you don’t get checked and make changes! Wake-up! Let’s not mince words, high cholesterol, is indeed as scary as it sounds. Left untreated, it can lead to heart disease and stroke. Globally, high cholesterol is responsible for a third of heart disease according to the World Health Organization. The problem is prevalent in the Middle East and here in Bahrain where our sedentary lifestyles and diets laden with processed foods and animal fats lead to such coronary problems. Take heart — a visit to your doctor followed by a simple blood test gives you all the information you need to know about your cholesterol levels. The good and bad Cholesterol is a fatty substance in our body produced by the liver but also found in animal products. Despite the scare factor cholesterol does have some redeeming qualities. In fact, we cannot live without it. Cholesterol serves an important role in the body to produce cell membranes, some hormones, making vitamin D and aid in the production bile. The problem is in cholesterol’s dual personality. On the one side there is good cholesterol (HDL or High-density lipoprotein) and on the other is a bad one (LDL or Low-density lipoprotein). The trick is to raise the good and decrease the bad which is somewhat harder than it sounds. “I was shocked to find out I had high cholesterol two years ago,” says one runner from the Saar Social Runners, who averages 30 km of running per week. The fit and trim mother of three says she honestly felt she had a balanced lifestyle. However, after closer inspection she realised there were many ways to tweak her diet to bring down the numbers. Diet is indeed one of the ways of controlling cholesterol but other lifestyle factors such as smoking, stress and alcohol consumption as well as genetics can be at play with elevated cholesterol levels. CONTROL YOUR CHOLESTEROL Our expert: Dr Syed Raza, cardiologist, Awali Hospital Although Dr Raza does see his fair share of patients with high cholesterol he says there are still many people walking around with high cholesterol who don’t know it. “What I am seeing in Bahrain is the tip of the iceberg due to lack of screening,” says the cardiologist. Our Saar Social Runner mother says she only decided to include a blood test in her annual smear test because this was routine procedure in her home country. Dr Raza suggests individuals should check their cholesterol from the age of 35 onwards and every one to two years after if the results are normal. What the doctor is looking for in the screening test is not only the total cholesterol but the breakdown of the HDL, LDL and triglycerides, another type of fat found in the blood which can be elevated due to a poor diet. “In the past we used to only look at the total cholesterol. Now we are more concerned about the LDL or the bad cholesterol,” explains the cardiologist. Dr Raza says his patients tend to take the issue of high cholesterol more seriously when he points out that ignoring the problem will lead to an increased risk of heart attack or stroke. “They are then more motivated to change their diet or if they have stopped taking their medication, then they go back on it.” Two months is the time he suggests to make dietary changes to see if this is the culprit behind high cholesterol. Patients work with the hospital’s dietician to find a suitable programme. “Even then, only about fifty percent of individuals will change their lifestyle,” says Dr Raza. It’s all in the numbers The initial test results from our fit and trim and 30k/week runner were: Cholesterol Actual Target HDL 1.00 mmol/l > 1 mmol/l LDL 4.9 mmol/l < 3 mmol/l Triglycerides 0.61 mmol/l < 2 mmol/l Total cholesterol 6.05 mmol/l < 5.2 mmol/l
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