What Causes High Cholesterol? (continued)

Alcohol plays an odd role in cholesterol levels.  It increases HDL but at the same time it does not lower LDL.   The medical community does not know for certain whether alcohol reduces the risk of heart disease.   We know that too much alcohol can damage the liver and heart muscle, lead to high blood pressure and raise triglycerides.  There are just too many other risks to even consider the use of alcoholic beverages used as a way to prevent heart disease just because it increased the HDL.

Stress and personality may contribute to heart disease.  Associating a certain type of personality and heart disease has been suggested for many years.  This goes back to the “Type A” and “Type B” personality study conducted in 1959. 

Type A behavior generally manifests in a chronic sense of time, urgency, aggressiveness and striving for achievement.  Type A people will drive themselves to meet specific deadlines which are most often self-imposed. They have feelings of being constantly under pressure and often multi-task to the point of doing two or three things at one time.  To say that Type A people are “driven” is an understatement.  They consider themselves indispensable.   All of these traits add up to a state of constant stress.

Over the long term, stress has shown to raise blood cholesterol levels.  The way it does this is by affecting habits.  An example is over indulging in fatty foods as a way of consoling themselves when people are under stress.  The saturated fat and cholesterol in these foods contribute to high levels of blood cholesterol.   We will explore dietary factors in a later chapter.

Type B behavior is characterized by just the opposite set of traits.  Type B people are less preoccupied with achievement, less rushed and generally more easygoing people. They don’t allow themselves to be rushed nor have any particular pressure regarding deadlines.  They are less prone to angry outbursts and seem to be better equipped to making distinctions between work and play. 

Studies completed over a period of eighteen months to two years with a group of both Type A and Type B people, indicated that Type A participants had a 31 percent increased risk of developing heart disease. 
This was further substantiated by the discovery of more deposits of plaque in the coronary arteries of Type A people.  Type A behavior also appears to show an association with other risk factors like smoking, higher fat levels, increased secretion of adrenaline.  All of which increases the oxygen requirement of the heart muscles and releasing fatty acids from the body fat.

It is important to note that there are not two different types of people.  Each person is an individual and sorting them into specific categories do not properly identify them.