What are triglycerides?
What are triglycerides used for?
What causes high triglycerides?
How do triglycerides cause harm?
How do we reduce triglycerides?
Triglycerides are an oily kind of fat made from carbohydrates. Like cholesterol they are not soluble in water or blood. They are carried on lipoproteins, VLDLs,
Very
Low
Density
Lipoproteins.
What are triglycerides used for?
Triglycerides are free fatty acids. They store a lot of energy. Just as we use oil for energy in furaces or vehicles, the body uses oil for energy.
Sugar is our "instant fix" for energy. Cells such as muscle cells can make energy almost immediately from sugar.
A long distance runner will burn sugar for the first five or seven minutes of the race. Then the muscles will be low in sugar and the blood will not be able to re-supply fast enough. The muscles start to use glycogen for energy. Glycogen is sugars joined together like pearls on a string. The muscles cells pop them off one at a time for energy. Glycogen is stored in muscles and in the liver. When the glycogen runs low, after twelve or fifteen minutes, the muscles start to burn fat as the major source of energy. The fat they use includes triglycerides.
EXERCISE BURNS TRIGLYCERIDES
Causes of high triglycerides (hyper-triglyceridemia)
Any disorder of carbohydrate will have an effect on triglycerides.
Diabetics make more triglycerides.
Alcoholics take in excess carbohydrate in the form of alcohol, and the liver is less able to metabolise them.
Liver disease from any cause will elevate triglycerides.
Hypothyroidism (underactive thyroid) slows down everything including the metabolism of sugar. Underactive thyroid causes hyper-triglyceridemia.
How do triglycerides cause harm?
Triglycerides damage the liver, disrupting cholesterol metabolism. It is not as easy for the liver to break down triglycedrides. However the greatest damage done by triglycerides is to arteries. They are corrosive on arteries and allow cholesterol to be deposited in the arteries.
How do we reduce triglycerides?
- We can reduce the overproduction of triglycerides or:
- increase the destruction of triglycedrides.
We can reduce the overproduction of triglycerides by treating the causes of the overproduction. I the cause is a low functioning thyroid, give thyroid hormone replacement. If diabetes is the culprit then better diabetes control is in order. If liver disease from alcohol is the cause, treat that.
In all these cases a reduction in carbohydrate intake is necessary.
REDUCE CARBOHYDRATE INTAKE.
Increased destruction also will result from treating the cause. In addition we can burn triglycerides during exercise.
EXERCISE IS NECESSARY.
As mentioned above, the body burns sugar first, then glycogen, then triglycerides.
EVERY MINUTE BEYOND FIFTEEN MINUTES OF AEROBIC EXERCISE WILL BURN TRIGLYCERIDES.