Triglycerides and Affect on the heart
One of the many ways you can stay healthy these days is by keeping tabs on your blood pressure, blood sugar, and cholesterol levels.
You can also take a step further and make sure that your overall health condition is not on the nose dive by keeping an eye on your triglyceride levels. It is easy to do so. All you would need to do is to get your blood tested for triglycerides.
What is Triglycerides?
You might be wondering, ‘What is triglyceride?’ or ‘What is triglycerides in a blood test?’
Well, triglycerides are lipids that are found in the human and animal body. It resides within your body in your body fat and is released from the fat reserves in your blood by hormones, in between meals, for providing you energy to go on about your day-to-day activities.
Excess Triglycerides affects on your heart
If your blood has excess amounts of triglycerides, you may come down with issues like:
- Thickening of the interior walls of your arteries or hardening of your primary arteries. This will increase your chances of coming down with mild to major strokes, heart attacks, and cardiovascular diseases.
- In extreme cases, high triglyceride content in your blood can also result in pancreatitis or inflammation of the pancreas.
Recommended levels of Triglycerides
Whenever someone asks their doctors, ‘What is triglycerides normal range?’ they will be provided with the following data:
- Triglyceride normal level is > 150 mg/dL of your blood or > 1.7 mmol/L of your blood.
- You would worry a bit if your blood has 150 – 199 mg/dL or 1.8 – 2.2 mmol/L of triglyceride. This is borderline high and you should start making necessary changes in your lifestyle.
- If your blood has 200 – 499 mg/dL or 2.3 – 5.6 mmol of triglyceride then your condition is risky!
- In case you have 500 mg/dL or 5.7 mmol/L or triglyceride, your condition could be your grave!
How to control Triglycerides
It is best that you commit yourself to walk at least 5 kilometers or exercise for at least 30 minutes on a regular basis. If these are too much for you, then taking Yoga or Pilates class can also help you a lot. Here are a few basic recommendations:
- Take the lift or escalator. Your heart will thank you!
- Avoid taking sugar with your milk, tea or coffee.
- Minimize daily intake of sugary cereals, energy bars, energy drinks, soft drinks.
- Avoid food items that contain refined carbohydrates or that are made using white/all-purpose flour.
If you are overweight, you would need to lose those extra pounds in order to limit the triglyceride content in your blood. This is very important or you will suffer with health conditions for the rest of your life.
To avoid the buildup of triglyceride levels in your body you would need to minimize your consumption of saturated fats and hydrogenated fats. Saturated fats are found in red meat whereas hydrogenated fats are found in fried fast food items like burgers, steaks, fries and deep-fried chicken! It is best that you start eating chicken or turkey in case you cannot become a vegetarian! Furthermore, you can also start consuming salmon in huge amounts since seafood like salmon and tuna are packed with omega 3 fatty acids that are good for your heart and overall health.
If you would like to schedule an appointment with one of our highly qualified cardiologists, click here or call +1 (909) 881-7400