Article content
In the eyes of many people, cholesterol is the main culprit behind sudden vascular diseases such as myocardial infarction or cerebrovascular events, commonly referred to as a stroke.
However, there is a lot of misunderstanding about cholesterol among people. In today’s article we will take a closer look at how to fairly easily prevent these serious health complications.
The truth about cholesterol and its effect on your vessels
First, let’s look at cholesterol. For it, the total level is not as important as the ratio between the different types of cholesterol.
For example, take a person with a total cholesterol of 300. For many of you this may evoke outright horror.
However, if the level of good cholesterol is 85 to 90, which is fairly common in women, then the ratio is correct and there is no increased risk.
But many in the medical community want you to believe that a total cholesterol level of 300 is dangerous. So they scare you and then immediately prescribe statins (cholesterol-lowering drugs).
As we have already stated, the important factor is the ratio between “bad” LDL and “good” HDL cholesterol.
For those of you who want an even more complete picture of your blood cholesterol level, you can request an analysis in a specialized laboratory. There they will determine a more detailed breakdown than just HDL and LDL cholesterol.
Why cholesterol actually matters
Another question that will surely occur to you is: why does cholesterol actually matter?
Few people know that our blood is actually abrasive, that is abrasive or rough, wearing down the walls of the vessels.
And it is precisely this “grinding” of the vessel walls that causes inflammation in them, especially in the large vessels such as the arteries near our heart.
And this is where cholesterol plays an important role in repairing our vessels.
A high cholesterol level can therefore also be an indicator that there is a large amount of inflammation in our body. The body then uses cholesterol to repair the damage that was caused.
The problem with LDL cholesterol, however, is that although it seals the cracks in the vessels, it continues to accumulate at the repaired sites.
Its deposits can then be so large and coarse that they eventually clog the vessels. However, this only occurs when the blood is too thick.
The question, then, is how to ensure that our blood is not thick.
An interesting finding from statistics regarding women
When examining medical statistics, scientists came to an interesting finding: myocardial infarctions and strokes occur almost not at all in women during their reproductive years.
Why is that? How do these women differ from men?
You probably already suspect what it’s about. It’s about menstruation. During it a portion of the blood is removed from the body, which leads to a reduction in its viscosity.
And this fact protects women of reproductive age from heart attack and stroke. Men of course do not have this protective effect of menstruation and therefore these diseases occur in them relatively often, even in younger and middle age.
However, after menopause the mentioned risk evens out between women and men.
The truth that has been staring you straight in the face all this time
We are gradually getting to the core of our article. The question is how to ensure the thinning of thick blood in men or in women after menopause, that is at any age?
There is one extremely useful thing – blood donation .
Research carried out in the 1990s found that people who donated blood at least once or twice a year had up to a 75% lower risk of myocardial infarction and sudden stroke.
Similar findings were reached by research conducted in Scandinavia, in which an even much larger group of people was tested. The risk was reduced by 75 to 80%. No cholesterol pill has such a good effect!
And why won’t the doctor tell you about it? You are surely asking yourself this question now. Why hasn’t your doctor told you about such a serious matter that has such a simple solution?
Well, imagine what would happen to all those drugs for high cholesterol. Their sales would probably collapse completely.
And that is probably the reason why doctors don’t say much about it. They apparently get fat commissions from pharmaceutical companies for prescribing cholesterol drugs.
And while you will achieve lower blood cholesterol, the drugs will also bring you a number of frightening side effects.
In addition, you can watch one truly interesting video (in English) about blood donation and reducing the risk of vascular events:
