Does giving blood lower cholesterol?
QUESTION: Does giving blood lower cholesterol?
ANSWER: Hi there,
This is a very important question and a lot of people are not aware of its answer, which is no. The amount of blood cholesterol in the human body is constant and when something is trying to change them, the organism is compensating the lost.
You have to know that the organism is able to maintain all the parameters like blood cholesterol level, blood glucose concentration and others in normal ranges.
Therefore, when you are giving blood, the organism compensates the amount of blood and cholesterol lost by increasing the speed of processes, which are producing blood and cholesterol.
Other important thing is that when you are donating blood, the doctors are taking small amount of blood like 300-500 ml.
Pay attention to the fact, that an individual of 70 kg is having around 7-10 l of blood. These 300-500 milliliters are not able to destroy your metabolism or to cause changes in the cholesterol level.
As I mentioned above, the concentration of cholesterol in the organism is constant. Let's say that all these 7-10 l of blood inside your organism are containing for example 155 mg/dl of LDL cholesterol.
You can calculate by yourself, how many grams of cholesterol are dissolved in your blood and you will see that removing 300-500 ml from these 10 l of blood won’t cause severe changes.
The only option for you to lower your cholesterol is to start doing exercise and to try to follow a diet.
Pay attention to the fact that cholesterol lowering drugs are used when the blood cholesterol concentration is very high.
In most cases, diet and exercises alone are able to lower your cholesterol.
Hope it helped!
Dr.Alba
High Blood Pressure Cause High Cholesterol?
QUESTION: Can high blood pressure cause high cholesterol?
ANSWER: Hi there,
Important fact about the relationship between the cholesterol and the blood pressure is that the high blood pressure is not causing elevation of the cholesterol concentration.
Actually, the high blood pressure is causing atherosclerosis development. Yes, it is true that atherosclerosis is generally connected with the elevated cholesterol concentration, but it can develop even when the blood cholesterol is within the normal ranges.
In this case the role of trigger mechanism is played by the blood pressure. When you have elevated blood pressure, the blood in your arteries is moving fast, which can easily damaged the internal part of the blood vessel - endothelium.
Endothelium is a very important part of the blood vessels, because it prevents the development of thrombosis and atherosclerosis.
However, when it is damaged it can no longer execute its normal function, which leads to the accumulation of cholesterol in the wall of the blood vessel - atherosclerosis.
This accumulation may appear even when the cholesterol concentration is normal, because the damaged fragment of the endothelium produces substances, which are attracting blood cells and cholesterol to fulfill the defect of the endothelium.
The blood cells and the cholesterol are forming a mass, which is making the endothelium firm and unbroken.
This is some kind of protective mechanism, but if the elevation of the blood pressure is persistent and not treated well, the situation is not good.
High blood pressure may force this mass to break off, from the wall of the blood vessel, which is causing thrombosis.
Because of this fact, you have to control your blood pressure within normal ranges. Besides you are obligate to inform your doctor immediately if the treatment is not adequate.
Keeping your blood pressure in normal ranges is making the risk for cardio-vascular diseases very low.
Hope it helped!
Dr.Alba
