Cholesterol is just not cricket
Even if you’re not much of a fan of the bat and ball sport, you’d probably be aware that the summer of cricket has well and truly begun in Australia. Already the Kiwis have come and gone; now the Proteas – the flower men from South Africa – are here.
While our current test players are preparing for a challenging test in Perth, one of our former test cricket legends is taking on a challenge of a different kind.
Michael Slater opened the batting for Australia between 1993 and 2001, so successfully that he kept the run scoring machine, Matthew Hayden, on the sidelines. Michael’s aggressive attitude changed forever what we expect from an opening batsman.
Now Michael Slater is using the same enthusiasm to promote heart health. He is the face of a new national education program to urge Australians at risk of heart disease to take action against atherosclerosis.
Atherosclerosis, also known as atheroma, is the leading cause of cardiovascular (heart and blood vessel) disease; and cardiovascular disease is the number one killer in Australia.
In fact, cardiovascular disease accounts for nearly 17 million deaths worldwide every year – making it the greatest risk for life for most adults.
The condition known as atherosclerosis occurs when so-called plaque, made up of liquid and semi-solid substances including cholesterol and calcium, builds up on the inside walls of the arteries – the blood vessels carrying blood from the heart.
Yet a recent Newspoll survey revealed that seven out of 10 Australians had never heard of atherosclerosis, let alone realised that it can lead to an increased risk of heart attack.
The President of the Australian Atherosclerosis Society, Associate Professor David Sullivan, expressed concern about this lack of awareness of the cause of “premature ageing of the arteries” which leads to heart attack and stroke. And Society spokesperson, Associate Professor Richard O’Brien from the University of Melbourne, said we need to know how the risk factors – high cholesterol levels, high blood pressure, diabetes and smoking – can damage the arteries.
Of course everybody needs some cholesterol. It’s a building block for a number of essential body chemicals including vitamin D and various hormones. But too much is certainly not a good thing.
The cholesterol travelling around our bodies comes from two sources. We make about 75% ourselves, mostly in the liver. The other 25% comes from the food we eat.
Just to complicate the issue a little more, cholesterol is found in two main forms. There is the good type called HDL (high density lipoprotein) and the bad type LDL (low density lipoprotein). LDL cholesterol is the type that clogs the blood vessels, whereas HDL helps to unclog the blood vessels.
So medicines used to lower cholesterol levels actually aim to lower LDL levels and raise HDL levels. Medicines may be required to regulate cholesterol levels, but attention to diet is the first priority. Eating less saturated fat, exercising more and definitely not smoking are the major lifestyle issues we need to address.
You can get more information about atherosclerosis and heart disease, and most importantly how to protect those arteries from premature ageing, at the website ArteryAge.com.au or call into a Self Care Pharmacy for one of the fact cards: Fat and Cholesterol, High Blood Pressure and Exercise for the Heart.
Phone the Pharmaceutical Society on 1300 369 772 or visit their website www.psa.org.au/pharmacies for the nearest location.