How to Control Your Fat and Cholesterol
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Acknowledgments Raymundo and his family would like to invite you to read this fotonovela and learn about how to control fat and cholesterol in your diet. This fotonovela can be used by many community health workers and Promotoras de Salud to help people control their cholesterol levels. We would like to thank the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention project team of: J Nell Brownstein, PhD, Carma Ayala, RN, PhD, and Elena Kuklina, PhD, MD for their leadership and support. lNational Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. l Elena Kuklina who made a major contribution to the script. We would like to acknowledge the members of our UT SPH team and the promotoras de salud from AYUDA who helped in the development and focus groups activities. Sincerely: Dr. Héctor Balcázar UT-SPH Principal Investigator Email: [email protected] Content Introduction to the Ramirez Family......................................................................3 What you need to do to keep a heart healthy.....................................................4 What is the difference between good and bad cholesterol? .............................6 Knowing your Food...........................................................................................12 Put it into practice .............................................................................................23 Illustration and design by Salvador Sáenz For more information about this fotonovela please contact Doctor Balcázar at [email protected] or 915 747-8507 Introduction to the Ramirez Family and to Olivia, the Promotora Raymundo: 55 years of Doña Fela: age recently diagnosed Raymundo’s with hypertension in our mother, 75 years previous fotonovela. old. Pedro: Laura and Luis’ son, Paulina: Olivia: Community Health 7 years old. Raymundo’s Worker, 45 years of age. wife, 55 years old Luis: Laura’s husband, 40 years old. Laura: Raymundo’s eldest daughter, 32 years old. Laura and her 7 year old son, Pedro THY are visiting Doctor Rosales’ office for Good morning Laura, Pedro’s yearly check up. AL I need to tell you something. T HE Hi doctor, I hope all AR is well. HE A P KEE O T DO O T D U NEE O The doctor talks What is the Laura, I wanted to talk T Y A privately to Laura. matter? with you about your lab test results because WH it shows that your cholesterol is high. That makes it hard for blood to move through your body. High blood cholesterol can lead to heart disease, heart attacks, and stroke. You can do things that will help. Losing weight can help bring down cholesterol levels. Eating healthy and being more physically active This is what a healthy blood vessel with normal can help people cholesterol looks like. lose weight and is good for the whole family. WH We were in a hurry, Now let´s talk about Pedro, so he has not eaten A T Y he is above the weight that anything yet. is healthy for his height. O U NEE I would like to check his cholesterol today. D T O If Pedro didn´t have DO breakfast this morning T I will be able to check O his cholesterol today. KEE P A HE AR T HE Would you like to meet with the clinic’s community health later... AL I will need to see Pedro worker (promotora) Olivia? She has been helping adults THY again in a few days to talk and kids with high cholesterol and will be glad to help about his lab results. you. That evening Thank you for The doctor tells me I have high Laura, it Laura coming over. cholesterol and extra weight. Olivia will is very invited Doña talk to me about ways to eat less food, fat, Fela and important and sodium which will help my heart and to follow Raymundo help me lose weight. over for a the doctor’s family talk. and Olivia´s advice. TO KEEP A HEART HEALTHY Doctor Rosales cares a lot. With his Being more active, You are right, dad. We will DO support and yours, I have been able and losing weight. make the changes the doctor O to control my high blood pressure by and the promotora suggest. T D eating healthy foods. This helps me to keep my heart healthy. U NEE O T Y A WH Luis, Laura and Pedro are back at the clinic to meet with On your last visit we checked Doctor Rosales and Olivia. Pedro’s cholesterol. Pedro’s lab ROL? Hello. It results are back. Pedro has high is good to cholesterol for his age. ESTE see you all today. OL H C AD B D N A OOD EEN G W E BET Pedro’s lab results C show that his total His “bad” cholesterol is 148, but it should be less than EN blood cholesterol is 110. His ”good” cholesterol is 54, which is fine. His R E 206, but it should be “good” cholesterol should not be less than 45. less than 170. DIFF S THE I T A WH Guidelines for Total Cholesterol in Children and WH A Teenagers (ages 2-19) T I S THE LDL (BAD) HDL (GOOD) CHOLESTEROL: CHOLESTEROL: DIFF Keep it low! The higher, the better! Less than 110 Keep it 45 mg/dl E mg/dl is best. or higher. R EN C E BET TOTAL CHOLESTEROL: W Less than 170 is good. EEN G Numbers 170-199 are on the borderline, 200 or more is high. OOD http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/guidelines/cvd_ped/summary.htm#chap9 A Doctor, can you explain the difference N Total cholesterol is the amount of all types of D between “bad” and “good” cholesterol? B And what is total cholesterol? cholesterol in the blood. AD C FOR ADULTS TOTAL This includes both H OL CHOLESTEROL: the good Less than 200 mg/dl ESTE Best. Good for you! and bad 200 to 239 mg/dl cholesterol. ROL? Borderline. Be alert! 240 mg/dl or more High. Danger! LDL or “bad” cholesterol builds up and clogs the blood vessels. The lower it is the better. HDL or “good” cholesterol helps keep the blood vessels Laura, your lab results show that your total cholesterol from getting clogged. The higher it is the better. is 245, but it should be less than 200. Your “bad” ROL? cholesterol is 168, but it should be less than 100. Your “good” cholesterol is 55, so I am not worried about it. ESTE OL H C AD B D N A OOD EEN G W E BET Laura and Pedro can lower their cholesterol, but they Olivia, can help you to make your diet healthy and get C need to work together to eat healthy foods, be more enough physical activity also she has some cooking tips EN active, and get to a healthier weight. It is good that and recipes that will help you and your family along the R Laura does not smoke because smoking also raises total E way. cholesterol levels. DIFF S THE I T A WH Thank you for your help. We Great! I will see you in Hello, I have been working with will make the time and effort six months to check your kids and adults for the past 15 to drop our “bad” cholesterol. weight and cholesterol years. I’m sure that with your again. support, we will be able to help Pedro and you make healthy choices. WH Olivia, can you tell us what cholesterol is and why my family Cholesterol is a natural waxy, A fat-like matter that is in our T should be worried about high I cholesterol? food, and it is also made by our S THE liver. Your body makes all of the cholesterol it needs to do important things, like breaking DIFF down fatty foods and making hormones and vitamins. E R EN C E BET W EEN G OOD A But too N D much B cholesterol AD from some C foods, like H fatty meat, OL organ meats ESTE like liver and kidney, cheese, ROL? and dairy desserts like ice cream may One egg yolk a day raise the amount of does not increase the cholesterol risk of heart attack in in the blood. healthy people. My father, who Olivia, what causes Many things can cause died of a heart someone to have high LDL, or bad attack, had high cholesterol? cholesterol... diabetes, and his mother has high cholesterol. My father-in- ...does anyone in law, Raymundo, your family have has high blood high cholesterol? pressure and now Laura and Pedro have high cholesterol. Many things can cause high LDL, or bad cholesterol, but having a ROL? family history of high cholesterol, diabetes, high blood pressure or heart problems, not being active, ESTE eating an unhealthy diet, being at Relatives with history OL of high cholesterol, H an unhealthy weight, and being diabetes, high blood C of older age increases the risks and makes it especially hard for pressure or heart AD your family to have a healthy life problems. B D style. N A OOD EEN G W E BET C EN R E DIFF S THE I T A WH Luis, I suggest High cholesterol has no warning signs. Many times people have that you meet it without even knowing about it. It is important to have your with your family cholesterol tested because if it’s high you can talk to your family doctor and get doctor and control it by making changes in what you eat and your cholesterol how active you are. checked. Luis, as a community health worker I will help you and your family to keep your heart healthy! WH Healthy children should have their cholesterol checked between ages: Everyone A T age 20 I years S THE 9 and 11 17 and 20 and older years years should DIFF have their E R cholesterol EN checked C at least E BET once every W five EEN G years.