All You Need To Know About Cholesterol

What is High Cholesterol?

When your blood contains an excessive amount of the fatty molecule known as cholesterol, you have high cholesterol. Although your body needs cholesterol to create healthy cells, high cholesterol levels can also increase your risk of heart disease.

Fatty deposits might form in your blood vessels if your cholesterol is excessive. These deposits eventually thicken, making it challenging for adequate blood to circulate through your arteries. Occasionally, such deposits might rupture abruptly and create a clot, which results in a heart attack or stroke.

Although it can be inherited, high cholesterol is frequently caused by unhealthy lifestyle choices, making it both avoidable and treatable. High cholesterol can be lowered with a balanced diet, frequent exercise, and occasional medication.

What Are The Symptoms Of High Cholesterol?

It is crucial to have your cholesterol evaluated because there aren't any traditional indicators of high cholesterol, which makes it possible that you are unaware that you have them. Being a hidden risk factor, it may occur without our knowledge until it is too late.

To learn about how to test your cholesterol levels, click here.

Risk Factors For High Cholesterol

Although there is no single cause of high cholesterol, there are certainly controllable like smoking and uncontrollable risk factors, such as age.

High cholesterol risk factors include:

Smoking
Age
Lack of exercise
Overweight or obesity
Family history
Unhealthy diet

How Are My Risk Factors Going To Be Handled?

Your doctor will urge you to adopt certain lifestyle adjustments whether or not they prescribe drugs. These consist of quitting smoking, eating a heart-healthy diet, exercising more, and decreasing weight. You must follow any treatment plan you and your healthcare provider decide upon. A treatment plan must be followed to be effective.

Effects of High Cholesterol Levels

The liver is the body's primary organ for digesting dietary fat and cholesterol. When we consume animal fats, the liver releases the fat and cholesterol into our bloodstream through lipoproteins.

Fatty deposits form in the arteries when the bloodstream has too much cholesterol in the form of LDL. The vessels become constricted as a result, and they may eventually block. Stroke and heart problems may result from this.

How To Lower Your Cholesterol?

Eat Less Fatty Food

Try to limit your intake of fatty foods, especially those that contain saturated fat, to lower your cholesterol. You can still consume foods high in unsaturated fat, a more beneficial type. Food labels should be read to determine the sort of fat that is present.

What to eat?

oily fish, like mackerel
brown rice
whole grain bread and wholewheat pasta
nuts and seeds
fruits and vegetables

What to avoid eating?

meat pies, sausages, and fatty meat
butter, lard, and ghee
cream and hard cheese, like cheddar
cakes and biscuits
food that contains coconut oil or palm oil

Exercise More Often

Aim to work out for at least 150 minutes (2.5 hours) per week.

When beginning out, the following suggestions are appropriate to try:

Try to walk quickly enough to cause an increase in heart rate while swimming or riding.
Find a workout you enjoy by trying a few different ones. If you enjoy it, you're more inclined to keep doing it.

Quit Smoking

Smoking can increase your cholesterol and increase your risk of developing dangerous conditions like cancer, heart attacks, and strokes.

Your doctor can refer you to the NHS Stop Smoking Service, or you can call the helpline at 0300 123 1044 (available in England only). They can offer you helpful pointers and advice on how to curb cravings.

Cut Down Alcohol

Try:

Avoid crossing 14 units of alcohol per week
have many drink-free days each week and avoid consuming large amounts of alcohol quickly (binge drinking)

If you're having trouble cutting down, seek support and guidance from your doctor or NHS Alcohol Addiction Support.

Medication For High Cholesterol

Changes in food and way of life may not be sufficient for all people to lower cholesterol. Genetic factors are frequently present in cases with high blood cholesterol. Inherited mutated genes can cause high cholesterol, typically unaffected by lifestyle changes or food.

Your doctor may suggest taking drugs to lower your blood LDL levels if you are at risk for coronary heart disease and your LDL cholesterol level doesn't go down after making dietary and lifestyle adjustments. The most popular drug used to decrease blood cholesterol is a statin.

Statins reduce the rate at which your liver produces cholesterol. Instead, the liver uses the cholesterol already present in your blood. Your blood's LDL cholesterol level decreases as a result of this. You could require extra medications if statins do not sufficiently lower your cholesterol.

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