Medical information changes almost on a daily basis when it comes to cholesterol. We all know that using common sense when it comes to our health is probably the best medical advice we can give ourselves.

This is no different when it comes coffee and cholesterol. One thing most health professionals agree upon though, is that filtered coffee is better to drink if you want to keep your cholesterol down and your heart healthy.

The Compounds That Harm

Coffee beans contain a compound called diterpene, which makes it’s home in the oils of the coffee. Cafestol and kahweol are the two specific oils, or fats that are included in the coffee bean and they are the oils you want to go away.

The way these potentially harmful oils get into the coffee is by the hot water used in brewing. Hot water draws them out of the bean or grinds, and they are then consumed by you, the coffee drinker.

Filter For Health

If you drink your coffee unfiltered or boiled, you run the small risk of coffee messing with your heart health and cholesterol levels. Even though non-filtered coffees may only raise your risk by 10%, over time that could affect your health.

When you use a paper filter or a mesh filter, you are trapping most of the harmful oils, thereby getting healthier coffee that won’t cause your cholesterol levels to rise.

If you are a coffee drinker and you want to keep tabs on your cholesterol levels or you just want to be heart-healthy, then always use a filter for your drip coffee maker and your percolator (if you still use one). It appears that drinking instant coffee is safe as well.

So if we ask the question, does coffee raise cholesterol levels, I would as of today, it doesn’t if you filter it.

Happy coffee drinking!

How Your Heart Pumps Blood

Your heart pumps about 3-ounces of blood every time it beats. Your heart is moving 2,000 gallons of blood on average every day of your life. When blood is pumped through your arteries, your doctor can tell whether or not you have high blood pressure by how elastic your vessels are. Healthy blood vessels will bounce back when blood is forced through them; unhealthy vessels have a hard time withstanding the force of the blood being pumped through them. This can lead to all kinds of health problems like hardening of the arteries, heart attack, stroke, enlarged heart and kidney damage.

Manage Your High Blood Pressure Naturally

If you suspect that you have high blood pressure, have your health care provider measure your blood pressure. There are many causes of high blood pressure; you can inherit it if it runs in your family or you can have it just by not taking care of yourself properly. Here are 6 easy ways to manage your high blood pressure naturally.

Stop smoking. If you smoke, you are five times more likely to have heart disease.

Limit alcohol consumption. Many people who drink too much alcohol will have high blood pressure, and that could be the only reason they have it. Keep your alcohol use to one or two drinks a day. Better yet, give it up entirely; it’s not worth the risk.

Get plenty of minerals. Calcium, magnesium and potassium are the three most important minerals you should focus on. Getting these naturally in your diet everyday is the best, but if you can’t, then take a supplement.

Limit Sodium. Salt is a big problem for many, but not for all people who have high blood pressure. For some reason, not every one has sensitivity to salt. Try cutting down on your salt intake or you can ask your doctor if reducing salt is really necessary.

Manage your cholesterol. You may or may not have high cholesterol levels, but people with high blood pressure should keep their eyes on it. To be safe, eat low to no cholesterol foods. Eat nothing that has saturated fat in it.

Lose weight and exercise. If you are over weight, you are a prime candidate for high blood pressure and high cholesterol levels. Losing weight will sometimes be all that is needed to get your blood pressure levels back to normal. Of course fitting in exercise or some type of physical activity will help as well.

You can manage your high blood pressure naturally by following these 6 easy steps. It comes down to lifestyle changes which seems easier to do than to have to go on lifetime medications. Just take one step at a time and you will find that managing your blood pressure naturally is actually quite easy.

Buttered Toast by yamada taro

Butter or margarine, which is the better choice for lowering cholesterol? Well, it seems that many people are buying into the theory that butter is better because it is natural, or a whole-type of food. That may not be the case though.

Butter is 65% saturated fat with one tablespoon (and that is not a lot) containing 30 mg of cholesterol. Yikes. You may agree that butter is a whole-natural food, but you can’t ignore the cholesterol that is in it, and that won’t change.

So does that mean that vegetable margarines are better? Well corn margarine contains no cholesterol, so it must be better for your health, right? Even though corn margarine doesn’t have any cholesterol, it does contain trans fat, which we are told is bad for our health as well.

Which is the better choice for lowering cholesterol, margarine made with vegetables or butter?

You may know by now that foods high in cholesterol could lead to heart disease and many other health problems. You also may know that trans fatty foods raise LDL-cholesterol, weaken the immune functions, reek havoc with the body’s natural anti-inflammatory hormones and who know what else. The list is long and it’s not good.

The hydrogen process used (heating) not only produces trans fatty acids, it also adds toxic metals to the foods in the forms of nickel and aluminum. Who needs that kind of trouble? Most people don’t.

Luckily, you can go to the dairy counter now and find all kinds of brands of margarine that don’t have any trans fatty acids in them. These would be better choices than full-blown butter as far as cholesterol levels are concerned. The American Heart Association recommends that we eat only non trans fatty margarines over butter and that is probably a wise recommendation.

You are always going to have the debate with the whole-food crowd that butter is a better choice. Remember, you can have butter, but the amount you can have in order to control your cholesterol levels in very small and may not be worth it.

If you are really confused about which is the right choice for lowering cholesterol, butter or margarine, just ask your doctor or go to the American Heart Association page and get more information.