Cholesterol Down-- get the river flowing through your blood vessels!

You often hear about cholesterol and the importance of reducing cholesterol levels in your blood. How does is work? I turned to an expert and the information is amazing. Janet Bond Brill, author of Cholesterol Down (2006), my resource for this blog entry. I'm grabbing quotes for  pages 191-195 in her book. It gets a little technical-- but a bit of exposure to the science may increase your dedication to an exercise program. I'm trying to follow Dr. Brill's explanations-- and I present them in an abridged version below.

LDL, or low density lipoprotein, is the bad cholesterol. The LDL cholesterol lodges in "the inner lining of the artery walls and and contributes to plaque buildup and atherosclerosis." Walking, Janet Bond Brill explains, "boosts LDL resistance to oxidation," and this decreases the likelihood that LDL cholesterol will cause atherosclerosis of the arteries.

Heart disease seems mainly to refer to problems that occur in the blood vessels rather than the heart itself. That's been my conclusion, listening to stories from friends and family about cardio procedures most often involving the placement of stents in the blood vessels. I was glad to hear that brisk walking is possibly the best method for maintaining the health of your blood vessels.

5 Fun Facts from Janet Bond Brill, Ph.D.

1) Walking changes the size and shape of LDL (bad cholesterol) particles in your bloodstream, beneficially altering them so that they are less dangerous.

2) Finnish researchers studied 104 men and women on an exercise program (mostly walking) and noticed great results: LDL cholesterol dropped by an average of about 11 percent, but HDL, good cholesterol, increased and the antioxidant potential of LDL was strengthened by a huge 23 percent.

3) Where you store your fat accents your likelihood of developing not only heart disease but also diabetes and high blood pressure. Potbellies are bad. A small amount of belly fat is much worse than fat in other areas such as hips and thighs. Walking trims abdominal fat.

4) Some researchers think that exercise improves the body's ability to utilize insulin. This in turn increases the activity of LDL receptors on the liver, which enhances clearance of LDL from bloodstream, subsequently lowering LDL levels.

5) Imagine that the flow of blood through the arteries is like water flowing down a river. Brisk walking speeds up the flow of blood through the arteries, which reduces clogging and inflammation and there helps prevent the atherosclerotic process.

Oh, and one other thing, okay, make that #6

6) Bumping up the intensity of your workouts increases what is called "shear stress," a substantial increase in the speed of blood flowing through your blood vessels. This leads to increased production of nitric oxide in the cells lining the arteries. Nitric oxide promotes dilation of the vessels' interior diameters, which helps prevent clogging and lessens the chance of a heart attack.

Thank- you Dr. Janet Bond Brill!