Cholesterol is a waxy substance that’s found in the fats (lipids) in human blood. Whilst the body needs cholesterol to continue building healthy cells, having high cholesterol can increase your risk of cardiovascular and other diseases, including the following:

• Heart disease
• Heart attack
• Athelerosis (clogging up of the arteries)
• Stroke
• Dementia
• Alzeheimer’s

This is because high cholesterol, can cause fatty deposits in your blood, attaching to the walls of arteries and blood vessels. These deposits clog up the arteries, making it difficult for sufficient blood to flow through them. This increases the risk of a heart attack because of a decrease in supply of oxygen-rich. Decreased blood flow to your brain can cause a stroke.

There are changes you can make to your lifestyle (more about this below) and drugs but is there anything else?

Calabrian bergamot, a unique type of citrus which only grows in the Italian region it is named after.Bergamot differs from other citrus fruits in that it contains a particularly potent blend of flavonoids, including naringin, neohesperin, brutelidin and melitidin, which, in clinical testing, have demonstrated a range of potential health benefits not found in any other citrus fruit. Bergamot juice has been traditionally drunk by locals for decades to support and promote the health of the cardiovascular system.

Bergamot is packed full of antioxidants

Bergamot has been shown, in medical trials to reduce cholesteral and also reduce the risk of metabolic syndrome, a precursor to diabetes and other illnesses.

More Cholesterol Facts

High cholesterol (hypercholesterolemia) can be inherited, but it’s often the result of unhealthy lifestyle choices, and thus preventable and treatable. A healthy diet, regular exercise and sometimes medication can go a long way toward reducing high cholesterol.

It’s also increasingly prevalent in older people and those with thyroid problems.

Cholesterol, which is partly derived from food and also made by the liver is used by the body to create hormones.  Since older people have less of the hormones that make us youthful, some anti-ageing doctors speculate that the increase in cholesterol is older humans, is the body’s attempt to restore normal hormone production.

Indeed, trials with older people in the US, who had their youth hormones (pregnenolone, dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEA-S), progesterone, total estrogen and total testosterone) restored to more youthful levels with bio-identical hormones had reductions in total cholesterol –  the good HDL and the bad LDL. Thus proving the doctors’ point that drugs treat the symptoms not the cuase.

Cholesterol is carried through your blood, attached to proteins. This combination of proteins and cholesterol is called a lipoprotein. You may have heard of different types of cholesterol, based on what type of cholesterol the lipoprotein carries. They are:

• Low-density lipoprotein (LDL) – this is the “bad,” cholesterol transports cholesterol through the body. LDL cholesterol builds up in the walls of your arteries, making them hard and narrow.
• Very-low-density lipoprotein (VLDL) –  This type of lipoprotein contains the most triglycerides, a bad type of fat, attached to the proteins in your blood. VLDL combined with LDL makes cholesterol larger in size. So anyone taking a cholesterol-lowering medication but who still has a high VLDL level, may need additional medication to lower your triglycerides.
• High-density lipoprotein (HDL) – is the  “good,” cholesterol picks up excess cholesterol and takes it back to your liver.

Lifestyle changes are within your control

A number of lifestyle factors such taking too little eexercise, obesity and an unhealthy die, all contribute to high LDL cholesterol and low HDL cholesterol.

There are also other factors for some people, such as genetic makeup that stops your body from removing LDL cholesterol from your blood efficiently or cause your liver to produce too much cholesterol.

Risk Factors

People with the following risk factors are more likely to have high cholesterol leading to heart disease.

• Smoking – cigarette smoking damages the walls of blood vessels, making them more likely to accumulate fatty deposits. Smoking may also lower levels of HDL, or “good,” cholesterol.
• Obesity – Having a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or greater increases the risk of high cholesterol
• Poor diet – Foods high in cholesterol, such as red meat and full-fat dairy products, increase total cholesterol. Eating saturated fat, found in animal products, and trans fats, found in many commercially baked cookies and crackers, also increases cholesterol.
• Lack of exercise – Exercise helps boost your body’s HDL “good” cholesterol while lowering your LDL “bad” cholesterol. So inactivity increase the risk of high cholesterol.
• High blood pressure – Increased pressure on the artery walls damages them, which in turn can speed the accumulation of fatty deposits.
• Diabetes – High blood sugar contributes to higher LDL cholesterol and lower HDL cholesterol. High blood sugar also damages the lining of arteries.
• Family history of heart disease. If a parent or sibling developed heart disease before age 55, this places you at a greater than average risk of developing heart disease.