• heart disease claims about ½ million lives in America per year • high cholesterol levels play a significant role in heart disease • studies show if you lower cholesterol levels, risk of heart disease is reduced by up-to 40%

What is Cholesterol?

Before we go into how to reduce your cholesterol, let’s take a look at what exactly cholesterol is.

Cholesterol is a fatty substance that is produced by liver and its job is to:-

• produce bile acids to help with digestion of fat • build and repair cells and • produce estrogens and testosterone hormones

Therefore cholesterol is an important function of body, but too much cholesterol in body becomes a risk as it can clog up arteries and this can be cause of heart attacks and strokes.

Cholesterol Symptoms

It is surprising to learn that there are virtually no symptoms to diagnose if you have high cholesterol. High cholesterol is normally identified by a blood test.

However, if you are having health issues such as coronary disease, vascular disease or stroke, then this could be end result of high cholesterol levels in your body.

Symptoms of:

Coronary Disease • Angina • Chest pains • Nausea • Shortness of breath

Optimum health, wealth, and success, require peak performance, or functioning, in each of five major layers of Self – what I have come to define in my Coaching practice as Five Modalities. There are basic three: Mind, Body, and Spirit, that many “progressive” thinkers in current medical paradigm are beginning to acknowledge and embrace.

The fourth layer is Modality of Emotions which is as important as above-mentioned three; and I coach through a fifth Modality that has yet to become part of ongoing conversation about Optimum health and success: what I refer to as Overarch, or Social Ecosystem.

Each of us is born into a Social, or Economic Ecosystem. The dictionary definition of an Ecosystem is: “a localized group of interdependent organisms together with environment that they inhabit and depend on.” So, we all enter into this world ecosystem in a particular social or economic status. And, we enter into this world as interdependent creatures. Socially, and economically, we depend on one another for survival, just as much as we depend on earth for our food and water and other essentials.

Although our social or economic status can change throughout our lives, based on a variety of factors; structure of Overarch, itself, remains intact, and will continue to remain thus. It has been this way for thousands and thousands of years in all parts of world.

This structure is hierarchical in nature, resembling a pyramid. Those near apex, have more control, access to resources, and decision-making capabilities than ones near base. Yet, those toward apex are only able to exist at that spot with support of all those that are holding them there from base on up. So, we all fall into position somewhere in this hierarchical pyramid structure. And, as physical structure of a pyramid would suggest, vast majority of world’s population is closer to base of pyramid than apex.

Why would this be important in Optimum Health? Three reasons; first is that level of control over one’s basic physical survival, (in our current paradigm, this takes form of finances and access to resources) increases as they move toward apex – fewer people have direct influence over major areas of a person’s life closer s/he gets to pinnacle.

Factors such as whether a person has an income and how much they earn, are examples of specific areas that a person gains increased command over as he or she nears top of Social Ecosystemic pyramid. In other words, there are less people that have capacity to fire or hire you; less people who decide how much or how little money you make; less to decide when you work and terms of that work; less who decide whether or when there is time off for family or leisure.