Cholesterol is both our friend and foe – at normal levels, it is an essential substance for the body’s normal functioning, but if levels in the blood get too high, it becomes a silent danger that puts us at risk of a heart attack.

What is cholesterol?

Cholesterol is found in every cell of the body and has important natural functions. It is manufactured by the body but can also be taken in from food. It is waxy and fat-like in appearance.

Cholesterol is oil-based and so does not mix with the blood, which is water-based. It is therefore carried around the body in the blood by lipoproteins.

Healthier blood pressure sometimes takes a community.

Are you one of the approximately 78 million people in the United States who has high blood pressure? Do you have a family history of it? Known also as the silent killer or hypertension, high blood pressure typically has no symptoms but can lead to deadly health consequences such as heart attack, stroke and kidney failure. Some populations are more at risk of developing hypertension than others. Despite how widespread it is and damaging it can be, high blood pressure is still unknown, misunderstood or ignored by many people.

For that reason, a scientific study was developed to see if a multi-disciplinary, community-wide program could be effective in improving blood pressure results in its participants. The answer is “yes”.

Doctors at three leading research institutions and the American Diabetes Association report that treating patients with prediabetes as if they had diabetes could help prevent or delay the most severe complications associated with this chronic disease, which affects about thirty million people in the United States.

Writing in the Sept. 23 online edition of the journal Diabetes Care, the authors – including UNC’s John Buse, MD, PhD, professor of medicine and director of the UNC Diabetes Care Center – say that patients who have a fasting blood sugar of 126 or higher are diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, and most patients are prescribed the first line medication metformin. People with fasting blood sugar levels between 100 and 125 are determined to have prediabetes.