Testing It Up

Christmas dinner is practically just around the corner, and most of us are probably already thinking about what yummy things mom and grandma intend to serve.

While it may be good to indulge once in a while, it is still very important to remember that the last thing we want to do, if we want to continue living healthy over the holidays, is to throw caution to the wind and totally forget about watching what we eat.

Here are a few tips on how to eat right during the holidays, thereby keeping one’s cholesterol levels in check.

Be conscious of food portions. We have probably heard it time and again, the key to almost everything is moderation. In terms of food, it is advisable to us to be conscious of food portions, as it is excessive portions that may contribute to gaining weight and increased cholesterol levels.

A helpful thing to keep in mind is to use our hand when figuring out portions. One serving of meat or fish, for example, should be about what fits in the palm of your hand. One serving of fruit, on the other hand, is about the size of one’s fist, while one serving of cooked vegetables, rice, or pasta should fit in one’s cupped hand.

Choose wisely. Since this is a time when we either eat out or eat at someone else’s place, where you have no control over how food is prepared, it is important to choose wisely. When at the buffet table, steer clear of fried food and go for those which are broiled, baked, steamed or grilled.

Exercise! After a night – or several nights – of partying, make sure that you lace up your sneakers and head out to the gym, or simply resolve to run around the neighborhood, or do physical things around the house that you have put off for quite some time.

It may be more challenging having to watch our cholesterol levels during this holiday season, but with a few simple strategies, everything will be more manageable.

First, the things that we need to avoid. On top of that list is saturated fat. It is not just about giving up food that is high in cholesterol, such as eggs; it is also about the way you prepare your food. You may not want to give up on the butter entirely, but you may want to watch how much of it you consume. You may also want to consider substitutions, such as using canola oil instead of vegetable oil.

When food is laid out on the table buffet-style, then go for the gifts of the sea. Include fish in your diet at least two to three times a week. If you do not cook all that well and cannot really prepare gourmet salmon, opening up a can of tuna can still give you a dose of omega-3 that is good for your heart.

You may also want to step up on the fruits and the veggies, and these are great foods because you can heap them on your plate and you will still be good to go.

Parties do not need to be a bore even when you are on a diet. A flute of bubbly should be okay, for as long as you stick to just one and not drown yourself in it. Throw in some nuts while sipping on your cocktail, and you can be true to your target while still having fun.

The holidays need not be a hindrance to enjoying the holiday season, and getting healthy does not need to wait until New Year’s and resolution season comes along. If you start now, you may be well on your way towards a healthier, lower-cholesterol you before 2009 comes to a close.

Yes, you are reading that right. Some of you may wonder, though, exactly how that can be accomplished, when Thanksgiving is just a little more than a week away and soon after that will come various Christmas soirees. But hey, anything can happen, especially if you are determined to do it.

First things first, though; you should have your cholesterol levels checked, especially if you lead a lifestyle that makes you a likely candidate for high cholesterol levels. It is wrong to think that since you received a good cholesterol reading several odd years ago, then you should be good to go. Cardiologists recommend that anyone aged 20 or older should go for cholesterol screening once every five years; those who are at high risk for heart disease should schedule one even more frequently.

If indeed those tests come back with less than satisfactory readings, then it is only fitting to work with your doctor and set a target. Your physician will most likely talk to you and consider the various factors that are prevalent in your lifestyle and family history before making a recommendation.

Among the things that your physician will most likely ask you to do is to take cholesterol-lowering medication, but only when it is appropriate in your case. The most important thing that will need to be done is to make changes in one’s lifestyle, but there are cases where it is more beneficial to go on medication in addition to leading a more healthy life in order to bring down those cholesterol levels faster.

When we speak of lifestyle modifications, we speak of a holistic approach. It is not just about what you eat, but what you physically do on a daily basis as well. If you are the sedentary type who sits in an office cubicle day in and day out, then it is time to start moving. If you really do not have time to hit the gym, then simple things such as getting off the elevator three to five floors down and taking the stairs the rest of the way can certainly be of help. You can also try to walk around for five minutes every hour or so; surely that will not do that much damage to your productivity target for the day.

Cholesterol is an important building block of the body. The body needs it to perform certain functions. However, too much cholesterol in the body can lead to a number of serious ailments such as cardiovascular diseases, cancer and Alzheimer’s.

It is important to monitor the levels of cholesterol in your body. You can do that by watching what you eat and by using various testing methods. Common methods used for testing cholesterol levels include laser eye cholesterol testing, which is a non-invasive method that measures cholesterol by how light is scattered from the eye surface. Another method is digital cholesterol testing, which is a portable blood testing system for complete lipid profiling. And yet another popular method is thin-layer chromatography, which is used to test cholesterol in food before you eat them.

High cholesterol levels in the body can be dangerous and must be treated immediately. It is important to consult a doctor to bring down your cholesterol levels and to stay healthy.

For full version of this article, please visit “Different Cholesterol Testing Methods“.

If you are worried about having high cholesterol, you can test your cholesterol at home with an at home testing kit. High cholesterol can lead to heart disease and death. It is important for everyone to know their cholesterol count that can prevent clogged arteries.

It is not difficult to test your cholesterol at home. If the results indicate that you have high cholesterol, you can consult with your family doctor on what you should do. Your family doctor will most likely order another cholesterol test, although the home cholesterol tests are extremely accurate.

Treatment for high cholesterol depends on how high your cholesterol levels are. If you are borderline on high cholesterol, you can try to lower it yourself by diet and exercise. If your cholesterol is high, you can seek out medical intervention to lower it with the use of drugs. Knowing your cholesterol by checking it at home is one step towards leading a healthier life.

Last week, we did a couple of features with suggested tests that women should proactively undergo. This time around, we bring you the tests that men might want to think of subjecting themselves to. Unfortunately, this might mean that the wife, the girlfriend, the grown daughter or any significant woman in a man’s life might need to prod and nag, and even drag him to the doctor’s office for a check-up.

In a previous post, we already discussed at length how men seem to shy away from doctor’s offices, unless, of course, he is in the medical industry. That being said, though, we do understand that just as women have to don various hats, men have a lot of concerns going on in their lives; between the pressures of a career and amply providing for a family during these trying times, the last thing on a man’s mind will probably be a trip to the doctor’s office. When one is focused on the next mortgage payment, one will tend to ignore a little chest pain or two.

A buddy of mine actually ended up getting a triple bypass, and he is literally lucky to still be able to play all the golf he wants after ignoring chest pains that lasted over a week. And yes, it was his wife who dragged him to the ER after he felt funny while in the middle of a birthday party.

You will probably find the some of the recommended tests on this list rather familiar, as they are tests that we also had on the list we posted for women.

Before we begin, though, it may be good to suggest that a man who has decided to take charge of his own health should first find a doctor that he is comfortable in and has developed a good relationship with. Barring that, one will probably end up postponing this trip indefinitely; having a doctor whom you trust will make this process a whole lot easier.

A run through of these tests are as follows: Blood Pressure, Cholesterol tests, blood sugar testing to test for diabetes, colonoscopy, prostate cancer and testicular cancer screening and skin exams. We will discuss these tests in m ore detail in succeeding posts.

The modern woman is someone who juggles a lot of responsibilities: mother, wife, career woman. Somewhere along the way, while making sure that everyone else is taken care of, she can sometimes neglect to take care of herself – something that she should not do. Here are some lifesaving tests that WebMD suggests women should undergo, perhaps on her birthday or anytime she can scrape a few hours or days from her usually hectic work schedule.

Cholesterol and blood sugar tests. When we featured the top health concerns that women have to deal with, heart disease was among the diseases on that list. Abnormal cholesterol and triglyceride levels are usually being pointed to as a risk factor for heart disease, which is why undergoing tests to determine and monitor these levels are important. Usually, a cycle of medication coupled with lifestyle and diet modifications are enough to turn these abnormal levels around.

Another known risk factor for heart disease is the onset of diabetes. Women who are either overweight or have diabetes in their family history may want to consider having a blood sugar test to prevent other complications associated with diabetes that goes untreated.

Pap smear. Three years after becoming sexually active or by the time a woman turns 21 – whichever comes first – the pap smear should become an annual routine until she reaches the age of 30. The test will lead to the detection of abnormal cell changes that may lead to the onset of cervical cancer which, prior to the practice of having annual pap smears, was the leading cause of death for women in the United States. An abnormal pap test result may be followed by a more specific test for the human papillomavirus or HPV. Women over the age of 30 who has had three normal pap tests in a row may choose to extend the interval between pap smears from annual to once every two or three years.

There are three more tests on the WebMD list that we will be sharing with you in succeeding posts.

Researchers from Germany have reportedly identified 20 genes that play an important part in controlling cholesterol at the cellular level. This was explained in the July 8 issue of Cell Metabolism. Among these genes are some which may potentially play a role in the level of risk for heart disease and the development of new drug treatment options. These 20 genes, according to the researchers, may be “immediately relevant” in the maintenance of cholesterol levels in the cell as well as in controlling “the uptake of LDL cholesterol”.

These findings are significant as it is a widely known and accepted fact that high blood cholesterol levels are the culprit behind the development of cardiovascular diseases. Some of these diseases prove to be fatal to some patients; it is for this reason that the monitoring of cholesterol levels as well as activities that might lead to an increase in cholesterol levels is something that a lot of health-conscious people are engaged in.

The results of the study resulted in two-fold advantages; the identification of the genes may eventually lead to the development of more cholesterol-lowering drugs and treatments, as researchers believe that the genes have the potential to be utilized as such. Furthermore, new methods identified during the course of the study may be used in the identification of even more cholesterol genes.

The significance of the methods used in the study, which involved the use of integrated functional genomics that provided researchers with the ability to perform a functional analysis of a lot of genes at once, lies in the fact that this method is a more convenient way to identify more genes. It also a technique that can help researchers explain better the molecular roles that cholesterol regulators play as far as general health and the onset of disease is concerned.

The iPhone is certainly well on its way to being your medical buddy.

A new application has been released onto the iTunes App Store last Friday – Cholesterol Coach from Melbourne-based Pocket Pixels, a software developer for the iPhone platform.

It is a known fact that in the United States, high cholesterol or hypercholesterolaemia is one of the leading causes of heart disease and stroke. Of the more than one hundred million Americans who are believed to have high cholesterol levels, over thirty percent are considered high risk for heart disease and stroke.

An increase in cholesterol levels is generally brought about by a person’s lifestyle and eating habits. Unfortunately, as most people deal with the challenges and pressures of urban living and career building, what commonly follows is the development of an unhealthy lifestyle. Fortunately, though, it is exactly this very same urban lifestyle and consequent fascination for gadgets that may well pave the way towards a healthier life for the young urban professional.

The Cholesterol Coach is exactly what its name implies – it will be the iPhone user’s personal coach on anything cholesterol related. The application will help you track your cholesterol levels and will then take key modifiable risk factors for high cholesterol such as diet and exercise and use this as a basis for putting together an action plan to lower cholesterol levels. It will explain to users the effects that diet, exercise and smoking will have on cholesterol levels as well as help them set realistic goals for achieving normal cholesterol levels.

In order to inspire users, the application uses eye-catching graphs to track progress over time and show the impact of the adopted lifestyle, diet and exercise routine to his or her cholesterol levels.

Cholesterol Coach will also be able to provide information in easy-to-understand language, calculate annual spend on cigarettes, and assist in understanding food labeling in relation to fats.