HOW TO PREVENT CANCERS

Heart disease is the biggest killer in most countries in the Western world and it is becoming more prevalent in the Third World too as American-style junk food becomes more popular there too. One facet of heart disease is high blood pressure and another is a high level of LDL, or 'bad', cholesterol and triglycerides.

Because of this, many doctors reckon that all people more than the age of eighteen should have their cholesterol levels scrutinized at least once a year, particularly if you know that your diet is pretty suspect or if you have genetic concerns which mean that you will have high cholesterol.

Once you know that you have a difficulty, then you should definitely have a check up each year and take some steps to reduce your consumption of foodstuffs that increase your cholesterol levels. Foods that fall into this category are those that contain saturated fats or hydrogenated, trans fats.

This in essence means cutting out these fats. Saturated fats are predominant in red meats and full-fat dairy products like milk, butter, cheese, cream, and beef and pork. Hydrogenated trans fats are common in commercial junk food like hamburgers, hot dogs, potato crisps, potato chips, pies and pasties.

If you have high levels of blood fats like HDL cholesterol, LDL cholesterol and triglycerides you have to do something and that means that you have two options: which means that you have to either initiate lifestyle changes or take tablets for the remainder of your life.

If you want to try fixing the problem yourself without tablets but with your GP's assistance, you will need frequent check ups to keep an eye on your progress or you could get a home cholesterol monitor. If you take this route, you will have to understand the monitor's readings.

There are usually three or four vital readings: LDL, HDL, Total Cholesterol and Triglycerides. HDL (or 'good cholesterol' should be| 40 or more; LDL (or 'bad cholesterol') ought to be less than 100-130. However, most home testing kits will only give the total cholesterol level, which should be below 200.

This total cholesterol reading is not entirely satisfactory because you will not know the individual cholesterol levels. After all, under 200 can still be very, very bad. Even very dangerous. However, if you take a doctor's test each quarter and you test at home until you acquire a feel for the impact that the measures you are taking are having, you ought to bel safe between check ups.

However, these home test cholesterol monitors are becoming more and more sophisticated every year, so it is worth going to a large national chemists and seeing what is on sale from time to time. Anyway, if going to the GP is difficult or very costly, this may be your only choice.

The reality is that home test kits are not very helpful yet, but they are better than nothing when used in conjunction with regular visits to the medical doctor, but on their own they do not give the whole picture and their results cannot be relied on as an indication that your cholesterol levels are alright.