Heart disease is among the top killers in many countries, especially in the United States, where it is a known fact that it is the top killer for both men and women. Almost 500,000 Americans pass on due to heart diseases and many more suffer heart attacks every year. Scientifically, doctors have agreed on a consensus, the higher a person’s cholesterol level, the higher their level of heart disease.

Lets discuss about one of the coronary heart diseases – Angina. Chest pain, or medically known as Angina, is the primary symptom associated with coronary heart disease in which a patient may suffer due to high cholesterol. Angina is felt by the person suffering from it. It could be described like a pressing on the chest, or a tight squeeze around the chest. It is as if another person is sitting on your chest, causing it to be pressurized. Although initially and most common part of the body that would be affected is the pressure feeling on the chest, these symptoms can actually spread to other parts of the body; the jaw, neck and even your arms. In certain cases, patients feel pressure in some other parts of their body but not their chest.

Besides feeling pain in the chest, people suffering from coronary heart disease may also exhibit signs of shortness of breath, feeling nausea, experience huge amount of sweating and lightheadedness. Any chest pains felt should be taken seriously, as it is most likely to be directly related to coronary heart disease. Victims to coronary heart disease should avoid having a large meal or be too overly excited as they can turn out to become fatal. Rather, when you are experiencing chest pains, you should stop whatever you are doing and have a short rest. If these symptoms persist continuously, it would be best to pay your doctor a visit.

Smoking builds up the plaque in one’s arteries causes by high cholesterol much faster. As a result, a smoker’s heart has to work much harder to pump blood through those clogged up arteries to provide oxygen for the whole body. This extra work forced onto the heart can actually cause heart failure, or when the arteries are completely blocked, there is a high chance a stroke or heart attack would occur. My strong advice – Please STOP smoking!

Through exercise, running, cycling, swimming, basketball, one can improve their cardiovascular health and strengthen their heart and circulatory system. Although exercise may not directly reduce one’s cholesterol; but the strengthening of the circulatory system can help reduce the chances of stroke or heart attacks. Moreover, exercise can help one reduce their weight of which also helps reduce the cholesterol levels in a person’s body.

However, contrary to the belief of many, the astonishing discovery made by researchers is that, plague that builds up in arteries which eventually leads to heart disease has nothing to do with cholesterol levels. It is reaction to inflammation within one’s body. Such inflammation can be caused by viruses, smoking, having an imbalance of omega-6 polyunsaturated fat to omega-3 polyunsaturated fat in our diets and even factors like stress!

On the same note, cholesterol is a healing substance within the body, which can respond to inflammation in the arteries by being deposited in combination with other substances to form “plague” to heal the artery lining. However, just because the plague consists a portion of cholesterol, it does not mean cholesterol is the cause of the formation of the plague, but rather, it was only serving its purpose of being a healing agent in our body. Keeping it simple, plague deposits as a healing agent whenever our body suffers from any significant inflammation but will just continue to circulate in your blood if you do not have inflammation, regardless of you having high or low cholesterol. Thus, the real solution to heart problems is to keep your inflammation in your body low, rather than your cholesterol level.

Tell me what you think.