What Your Doctor Doesn’t Tell You About Cholesterol

Last Christmas, we once again had the pleasure of seeing friends and family and enjoying a different kind of holiday celebration by visiting a Chinese buffet.  This is our second year of doing something a little different from the usual holiday feast, and everyone agrees, it is a great way to get together without all the fuss.

Our small group consists of six friends and family and throughout our conversations that day two of the six people told me they were taking cholesterol lowering drugs, and a third was in the queue to start taking them as well.  Now I’m no mathematician, but that is three out of the six taking the same prescription drug.  Wow, fifty percent just in our small group is relying on a drug that diet alone could make a significant impact on whether they need that drug or not.  And what I found most unusual, was they said their cholesterol level wasn’t that high.  It was actually just a tad over what the experts advise it should be. 

Don’t Worry, Be Happy

Why do we worry and stress ourselves out so much? Well, in a nutshell we live in stressful times. The economy is stagnant, house prices are declining, the price of food, clothing, utilities, and fuel are rising quicker than a loaf of bread, and there’s the constant threat of losing one’s job and not being able to find another one. We fret about what we have or don’t have, how we look, our weight, our clothes, our hairstyles, the mortgage or rent payment, and the bills. We’re constantly rushing around, and never seem to stop and ‘smell the roses’. Wow, it’s no wonder we’re stressed out!

We worry about the past, the present, and the future—and what’s the point. We can’t change the past. What’s done is done, and the present and future are what we make of them. We can choose to look and react negatively at things, or decide to look and react positively at things, creating a happier today and tomorrow. The choice is ours.

You Are What You Eat

We’ve all heard the phrase “you are what you eat”. It’s a popular phrase in that it does hold some truth to it. The foods we eat contain a wide variety of essential and nonessential nutrients, as well as other substances that can affect our body functions.

There are six classes of nutrients known to be essential for human beings. They are carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, minerals, and water. Our body needs all of these nutrients to maintain healthy functioning. Without sufficient or balanced intake of any of these vital nutrients, disease can develop.

Our body is constantly changing. We are not the same person we were a month ago. Although we may look the same and don’t notice any change, the substances that make up the tissues and organs of our body are continually changing. We tend to think of tissues such as bones, the heart and blood vessels, and nerves as being solid and permanent, but they are in fact in a constant state of renewal. How incredible is it that all of the cells of the skin are replaced every month, or the cells lining the intestinal tract are replacing themselves every 1 to 3 days. How about taste cells rejuvenating every 7 days, and red blood cells turning over every 120 days. Wow, isn’t the body remarkable!