1. Health Guide By: Rebekah O’Bryan, Naomi Belcher, and Miranda McCormick

2. What is it?  Saturated Fat- is found in foods that are unhealthy for you, it is not heart healthy, and contains Low-Density Proteins-the bad cholesterol. By choosing to eat foods with saturated fat, you will have an increase in LDL. This can cause major issues.  Examples: Butter, Animal Products-mostly the fat-, chocolate, cheese, and cream  Unsaturated Fat- is found in healthy foods, is heart healthy, and has High-Density Proteins-the good cholesterol. You will have a fair level of HDL. This will help your overall health.  Examples: Oils, olives, nuts, avocado, seeds, and nuts  Trans Fat- a saturated fatty acid, typically processed, it raises cholesterol levels. Eating lots of processed foods can cause issues due to the amount of LDL.  Examples: Fries, fried chicken, pancakes, popcorn, and cookies  Cholesterol- The good and bad proteins, it affects your health greatly. By eating too much bad cholesterol it raises LDL levels, and causes atherosclerosis which causes your veins and arteries to become brittle.

3. Knowing the Difference HDL(High Density Lipoprotein)  Good Cholesterol  Removes excess cholesterol from the blood stream to the liver  High LDL  Goal: Greater than 60  Smaller  Double Molecular Bond LDL(Low Density Lipoprotein)  Bad Cholesterol  Transports cholesterol to the cells  High Risk  Goal: Less than 100  Larger  Single Molecular Bond Pictured to the right is an example of the size difference of HDL and LDL.

4. Pictured here is the structural difference between HDL and LDL.

5. Previewed above is the HDL “cleaning out” the LDL from the artery.

6. Why do Cholesterol Levels Matter?  Doctors need to know the amount of LDL and HDL in your bloodstream because when they are out of the normal range, all kinds of unfortunate events can occur. When the LDL and HDL levels are out of sync, they can create adverse health conditions/disturbances such as heart attack, stroke, atherosclerosis, plaque build-up, high blood pressure, and diabetes. Having high cholesterol makes your odds a lot higher for getting any number of conditions or problems. Physicians check your levels yearly(or as needed) to ensure you are relatively healthy.

7. How does Cholesterol Effect Your Heart?  When you have bad cholesterol levels, it causes plaque to build up in your arteries. This causes your heart to work overtime and it puts strain on your heart. This can cause irregular heart beats. Heart attacks also occur due to the excess work it is putting in. The plaque build ups cause blood to not circulate as good, too. To put this in perspective, imagine when you get toothpaste on the outside of the hole. The next day when you go to squeeze the toothpaste, it doesn’t come out as easy or as fast because the hole-vein walls- have a layer of plaque-dried up toothpaste-, and the blood-toothpaste- can’t fit through as easily as it could the day before.

8. What Other Tests can Be Run When Monitoring Cholesterol Levels?  Triglycerides  Fatty Acids  VLDL (Very Low Density Lipoproteins)

9. Getting your Results  After having your blood drawn and sent to a lab, you get the results of the lab work. You can interpret this in a multitude of ways. You can say that you’re good, bad, borderline, need some work, etc. It depends on you and how your doctor presents the data to you. When the LDL levels are too high, you’ve got some work to do. When the HDL levels are too low, you’ve got some clean eating to do.

10. What can you do?  Eat Healthy  Exercise regularly-the FDA recommends that adults and children get at least one hour of exercise daily  Take medication to help lower LDL levels  Quit smoking  Think ahead by knowing your food types (first slide)

11. Works Cited  American Heart Association. (nd). Cholesterol. [accessed 11 March 2015]. Retrieved from: http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/Conditions/Cholesterol/Cholesterol_UCM_0 01089_SubHomePage.jsp  Cholesterol. (nd). The Pros and Cons of Cholesterol Meds: Taking Cholesterol Lowering Medications for Your Health. [accessed 11 March 2015]. Retrieved from: http://www.cholesterol-loweringfoods.org/cholesterol-meds/  Life Science Academy. (nd). Unit 4. [accessed 11 March 2015]. Retrieved from: http://www.lifescienceacademy.net/unit-4-pbs-heart.html  WedMD. (nd). Cholesterol and Triglycerides Test. [accessed 11 March 2015]. Retrieved from: http://www.webmd.com/cholesterol- management/cholesterol-and-triglycerides-tests