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Too much focus is often put on high cholesterol levels as the major risk factor for heart disease when in fact more than 50% of people with heart disease do not have high cholesterol levels. Something else must also be at work. More and more evidence is pointing towards chronic inflammation as the culprit. So what is chronic inflammation, and what can you do about it?

Normal inflammation occurs when you have an infection or cut your finger. It is your body’s natural healing response. Overt symptoms of inflammation are redness, swelling, and soreness. The problem happens when your body remains in an inflammatory state when it is no longer needed. This is called chronic inflammation, and it is a problem because the immune system starts attacking healthy tissue as is the case with such autoimmune diseases like lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, and Type I diabetes. In addition, there is increasing evidence that chronic inflammation may be the main underlying cause of heart disease, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease.

So what causes your body’s natural healing system to get out of balance? Inflammation is greatly influenced by the kinds of foods you eat and the lifestyle you live. Below are 4 tips on what you can do to control inflammation:

Reduce Waist Size: Visceral fat contributes to inflammation and heart disease. Visceral fat accumulates around the belly and internal organs to create the apple shaped figure. One excellent way to help reduce visceral fat is to exercise regularly.

Increase Omega-3 Fatty Acids: Most people are eating too few Omega-3 fatty acids and too many Omega-6 fatty acids due to high meat and polyunsaturated vegetable oil consumption (corn, safflower, cottonseed, soybean, and peanut oil). To help improve your ratio, eat more foods that contain Omega-3 fatty acids like fatty fish, walnuts, and flax seeds and reduce your consumption of meat and store-bought packaged foods which often use polyunsaturated vegetable oils. If you choose to eat meat, choose meat from grass-fed instead of grain-fed animals to increase the Omega-3 content of the meat.

Greatly Reduce Sugar Consumption: Most of your diet should consist of foods that are low on the glycemic scale because these foods will trigger an inflammatory response in the body. Examples of high glycemic foods include white potatoes, tropical fruits like pineapple, sugar, juice, high fructose corn syrup, refined or pulverized flours found in bread, many cold cereals and baked goods.

Eat More Turmeric and Ginger: These two spices are anti-inflammatory spices that should be incorporated more frequently into the diet.

Did you know that of the top causes of death and disability liver disease is the only cause that has consistently grown over the last few decades? And that over one third of all people in the Western world suffer from liver disease and don’t know it?

Most people in this condition suffer from mild liver disease. Symptoms are not specific to the liver and most of the time people attribute it to sloppiness, tiredness, diet, or genetics.

If you suffer from two or more of the following symptoms chances are you suffer from some form of liver disease.

• Excess body weight. Because the liver is in control of your body’s metabolic rate, when there is liver disease your metabolism is impaired. This often leads to obesity (and extreme weight loss in later stages). When people go on normal diets they will lose some weight but because their liver is not healthy their metabolic rate will go down and weight loss soon stops – the famous weight loss plateaus.
• Bad breath. When your metabolism is impaired your body has to resort to alternative ways of producing energy. These processes produce byproducts which are expelled by your mouth, producing bad breath, no matter how many times you brush your teeth.
• Circles under the eyes. It is not clear why liver disease causes circles under the eyes, but people who heal their liver will lose them, so there is a connection.
• Diabetes, Hypertension and High cholesterol. More results from an unhealthy metabolism. Sugars won’t be handled properly as response to insulin diminishes, fat will pile up in your arteries, and your heart and brain will suffer.
• Headaches and a foggy mind. Without proper energy sources and due to the pile up of toxic substances (which your liver was supposed to get rid of) brain cells won’t work properly causing a foggy mind and headaches. Some doctors believe that liver disease can cause Alzheimer’s disease, though no studies have shown a link.

Tiredness. No energy… Are you starting to see a pattern?

Feeling bloated. Besides controlling your metabolism and getting rid of toxic substances, your liver is also responsible for secreting bile, which is necessary to absorb fat. When it malfunctions it produces less bile and the excess fat is digested by bacteria, which secrete gas in the process, thus making you feel bloated.

Most diseases will show some signs that they are in your organs, bloodstream or skin and you will be able to notice them. You won’t feel particularly well, may be lethargic, have a strange feeling in your chest, or it could be almost anything out of the ordinary.

The most common symptoms of increased levels of cholesterol are, in fact, nothing at all. A lot of people suffering from high cholesterol don’t even know it because they don’t get routine blood tests that check for it specifically. This categorizes high cholesterol as a “silent killer” because many people will live their lives without even noticing until it’s too late.

There are some symptoms of high cholesterol you may experience if your cholesterol levels are above and beyond just “high” and these are:

• Xanthoma. This is the build up of fat deposits under the skin and is fairly uncommon but easy to spot. This is usually most seen in those with a genetic predisposition to accumulate fat.

• Yellow areas around the eyelids. This can be difficult to spot on many people.

That’s not a lot to go on and those symptoms of high cholesterol are only found in a very small amount of the population. The stealth of high cholesterol is quite a concern so depending on your area and knowing how unhealthy your diet is can really help you and your doctor decide if you should be testing your levels occasionally even if you are under age 30. Many people are opting to get their levels checked even around age 25 because it’s better to be safe than sorry.

If you are diagnosed with high cholesterol, it’s a great idea to add an all natural cholesterol supplement to your diet. You should also follow your doctor’s advice and try to limit your fatty food intake.