According to the UK's leading global health and care organisation, (BUPA), 1 in every 2.5 adults has a cholesterol level higher than that which is recommended for a healthy lifestyle. Thats quite a statistic I'm sure you'll agree.

In the twelve months between 2007 and 2008, Lipitor, the worlds leading high cholesterol treatment which is manufactured by Pfizer Pharmaceuticals, grossed out as the highest selling drug in the world. By a country mile in fact.

With sales listed around $12 billion dollars world-wide, and over $7 billion in the United States alone, this gives a fair indication of the size of the global population who are suffering with high cholesterol.

In short, you are not alone in wishing to find the most efficient and effective treatment to lower your cholesterol, FAST!

Before we take a look at why Lipitor is the medication which could help you lower your cholesterol, lets take a look at what high cholesterol actually is, and how it works.

How do I know which particular 'High Cholesterol' I'm suffering from? There seems so many different types?

Cholesterol comes in three different 'flavors', and each acts quite differently on the human cardio-vascular system.

Low-Density Lipoprotein (LDL)
LDL cholesterol is better known as the 'bad' cholesterol. The one we're trying to reduce. Most of your body's cholesterol (around 70 percent) is transported in this form.

It consists mainly of fat, with not much protein so no good news here.

LDLs are chiefly involved in transporting cholesterol from the liver to the body's cells. High levels of LDL are associated with an increased risk of CVD (cardio-vascular disease) as LDL causes cholesterol to be deposited in your blood vessels.

Eventually gunking them up to such an extent it can increase the risk of heart failure, angina as well as creating complications which can lead to a raft of secondary conditions including thrombosis, to name one of many.

Very Low-Density Lipoprotein (VLDL)
These very low-density lipoproteins account for only a small percentage of your body's over-all cholesterol count, but they are rich in triglycerides and transport them to the tissues.

Trigly-what?

Triglycerides (Pron. Try-gl-ice-er-rides) are a different type of fat, mostly coming from fats found in the food you eat. Energy from food that is eaten and not used immediately is converted into triglycerides and transported to fat cells for storage. This provides you with an important source of stored energy.

Although most triglycerides are stored as fat and are as such, disassociated with the cardio-vascular system directly, low levels are also found in your blood. A raised level of blood triglycerides together with high LDL can increase your risk of heart disease, particularly if you have diabetes.

Total Cholesterol (TC)
Having a high TC reading is a risk factor for future health problems. Lets make no bones about that.

However, it's important to consider the relative amounts of HDL versus LDL. This is often referred to as the TC:HDL ratio.

You should aim for a high level of HDL and a low level of LDL (known in the trade as a low TC:HDL ratio).

So how does Lipitor fit into the equation?

Treating High LDL Cholesterol
There are two ways to help lower high cholesterol.

The first is with lifestyle changes including changing your diet, managing your weight and increasing exercise. The second is to combine lifestyle changes with cholesterol-lowering medicines.

Help Yourself
Healthy eating can and will reduce cholesterol.

Your diet should be low in saturated fats in particular, and low in fat overall.

Biscuits, cakes, pastries, red meat, hard cheese and butter, (all the fun-stuff unfortunately) tend to be high in saturated fats, so cut down on these foods where possible.

Some foods naturally contain high levels of cholesterol. These foods include eggs, prawns and offal such as liver and kidneys.

This type of cholesterol is known as dietary cholesterol and it has a much lower effect on blood cholesterol than saturated fat in your diet. You don't need to cut down on these foods unless your doctor has advised you to.

Get rustic
It's also important to eat plenty of fibre, especially soluble fibre, which is thought to lower cholesterol. Soluble fibre is found in fruits and vegetables, beans and oats.

Aim to eat at least five portions of fruit and vegetables each day. Foods containing substances called plant sterols or stanols may help to lower cholesterol.

Eat Honey
It was already known that honey contained varying levels of antioxidants, with dark honey having more than light.

Researchers discovered honey contained as many antioxidants - which combat the free radicals which can damage cells as a result of high cholesterol - as spinach, apples, oranges or strawberries.

The scientists from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign say honey appears to have a "mild protective effect" against high cholesterol. Which is great news ikf you have a naturally sweet tooth.

Losing some weight will probably help
If you're overweight, an excess weight loss plan may help you to reduce your LDL levels and increase your HDL levels.

Increasing your physical activity may enhance the cholesterol-lowering effects of diet as well as shifting some of the surplus weight to boot. Win/Win.

As high cholesterol can increase your risk of heart disease, you should reduce any additional risk of developing heart disease, eg by stopping smoking. A practice which is known to clog the arteries.

How do we lower cholesterol if its already dangerously high?
Believe it or not you can stop eating cholesterol for the rest of your life and still have high cholesterol levels.

How does that work?
For starters, all of your cells can create cholesterol. This is good because every cell in your body needs it to form protective membranes.

Your body actually monitors your cells, and if it senses that a cell doesn't have enough cholesterol, it will produce more.

Cholesterol is an essential building block for naturally produced vitamin D and other good stuff, like estrogen and testosterone. But even though every cell can make its own cholesterol, some cells need extra help with their supply. This is where your liver comes in.

Cholesterol is manufactured in the Liver?
Your body, (but mainly your liver), produces 75 percent of the cholesterol our bodies need to function properly and your small intestine also aids in both the creation and absorption of cholesterol.

The average diet adds another 300 to 500 mg of cholesterol. This external cholesterol comes from animal and dairy products. But even if you eat foods without cholesterol, such as green vegetables and fruit, the carbs, fats and proteins all break down eventually and release carbon, which your liver turns into cholesterol. Gee thanks buddy!

If your liver thinks the ovaries (for instance) need more cholesterol to produce estrogen, the liver produces new cholesterol, which it then bundles with a protein in the form of an LDL (Low-Density Lipoprotein) and sends it out into the bloodstream.

When our wandering LDL leaves your liver, any cell that needs it can claim it. Your liver can produce about 1,000 mg of cholesterol a day, so this stuff is always present.

To reclaim unused LDLs, your liver bundles cholesterol into HDLs, which pass through your body and collect stray LDLs.

When these LDL's return to the liver, it recycles them or uses them to build bile acids, which the intestine absorbs for use in digestion.

It's a pretty amazing system, but like any other it's far from perfect.

Genetics and genetic make-up plays a huge part in controlling cholesterol levels, but some people are better at naturally self-regulating than others.

If they consume too much dietary cholesterol, their bodies accordingly slow down the natural production of this waxy substance. Maintaining a healthy balance.

Other people are not so lucky. They can take in too much cholesterol and their bodies don't limit production, which increases levels.

As the body naturally ages, plaque tends to build up in the lining of your arteries. Some of those fatty deposits may be made of excess LDLs. This plaque buildup can result in the arteries hardening and narrowing at the site of the blockages, a condition called atherosclerosis.

Which makes the heart work a whole lot harder than it normally would.

Plaques
The problem is that these LDLs which cause the blockages are like low-quality concrete and stone-chip house coatings. Loose, crumbly and easily dislodged.

Eventually some of that gravel might break loose, and when that happens, your body is going to try to heal the nick that has developed in the plaque itself. Thats when the real problems occur.

This clotting can totally block your arteries, resulting in heart attack or stroke. The HDLs can prevent this from happening since they remove wayward LDLs from these trouble areas and back to the liver. This is why HDLs are "good" -- they lower the risk of heart attack by trying to rid your blood vessels of excess LDLs.

Switch off your natural Cholesterol factory
Your family doctor may prescribe cholesterol-lowering medicines if you already have heart disease, or are at high risk of getting it because you have other complicating risk factors.

The aim of drug treatment is to reduce your total cholesterol levels by a quarter or to less than 4mmol/L.

The main group of medicines for lowering cholesterol are known as 'statins'.

The two best known of the statins group of drugs, are atorvastatin (Lipitor) and simvastatin (Zocor).

They work by reducing, or 'turning down' the production of cholesterol in the liver. This forces the body to use reserves it would not ordinarily use, and reduces the ambient LDL levels quite considerably.

Atorvastatin users have reported reductions measured between 33% and 66% lower LDL cholesterol in under 4 weeks.

Allied to a change of eating habits and a mild increase in excercise and you are already on a route to a healthier life-style.

Give yourself a fighting chance by reducing your LDL cholesterol levels quickly.

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