High Cholesterol: Causes, Treatment & Prevention

What is High Cholesterol?

Cholesterol is a fat-like substance produced naturally by the liver. It is needed by the body to make vitamin D, hormones, cell membranes, and substances that help with food digestion. Furthermore, you can get cholesterol from foods, such as meats, dairy, and eggs.

When you have too much cholesterol in the blood, it can combine with other substances in the blood to form plaque. This plaque sticks to artery walls, leading to a condition called atherosclerosis. The plaque build up in the blood can lead to coronary artery disease that occurs when your arteries are narrowed or blocked.

Understanding More About High Cholesterol

There are two types of cholesterol; healthy and unhealthy cholesterol. Having excess cholesterol levels leads to many health problems. Because cholesterol doesn’t dissolve and can’t travel through the blood on it’s own, it is carried by lipoproteins.

Lipoproteins are particles that offer transport for lipids through the bloodstream. There are three main forms of lipoprotein namely:

Low-Density Lipoprotein (LDL)

This is called “bad” cholesterol. It helps transports cholesterol throughout the body. High levels of LDL lead to plaque build up in the arteries, leading to atherosclerosis. High cholesterol occurs when your blood contains too much LDL cholesterol.

According to the Center for Disease Control, high cholesterol levels lead to serious health problems, such as stroke and heart attack when left untreated.

High-Density Lipoprotein (HDL)

This refers to the “good” cholesterol. This lipoprotein collects excess cholesterol and takes it back to the liver. Afterward, the liver gets rid of the cholesterol from the body. With high levels of HDL cholesterols in your body, you are at a lower risk for heart disease and stroke. To raise your HDL levels, you have to eat foods with healthy fats and avoid unhealthy fats.

Triglycerides

Lastly, there are triglycerides. These are lipids that provide your body with energy. The body can make triglycerides or get them from the foods we eat.

However, high levels of triglycerides and bad cholesterol put you at more risk of stroke, heart disease, and pancreatitis. Besides, excess triglycerides levels can easily lead to narrowing or blocking of arteries.

Triglyceride levels increase when you consume more calories than the body can use. Luckily, maintaining a healthy lifestyle and diet can help control triglyceride levels in the body.

High cholesterol doesn’t cause symptoms. You should get your cholesterol levels checked regularly.

What are the Causes of High Cholesterol?

Anyone can get high cholesterol. There are many things that cause high cholesterol, some are controllable and others can’t. Taking care of things you can control will help lower your risk of high cholesterol.

Some of the causes of high cholesterol that can be controlled include:

• Not exercising or being active
• Eating foods high in cholesterol, trans fats, and saturated fats
• Smoking
• Overweight and obesity
• Individuals with diabetes

However, there are some factors that cause high cholesterol and they can’t be controlled. These factors include:

• Genes passed down from parents to children
• Familial hypercholesterolemia: a genetic disorder that prevents the body from getting rid of LDL
• Getting older
• Gender
• Race.

How is High Cholesterol Diagnosed?

There are no symptoms of high cholesterol. Unless you get checked, it is hard to tell if you have high cholesterol levels. To diagnose high cholesterol, most doctors use a simple blood test.

The main aim of this test is to access levels of LDL cholesterol, HDL cholesterol, triglycerides, and total levels of cholesterol. However, when and how often you should get the test depends on risk factors, age, or family history.

To conduct the test, your doctor will take your blood sample and send it to the lab for complete analysis. The results will show whether your cholesterol or triglycerides levels are healthy or bad.

What are the Complications of High Cholesterol?

High cholesterol levels lead to excess accumulation of fatty deposits or plaque on the artery walls. The fatty deposits limit or block blood flow through the arteries, leading to serious health conditions. Besides, excess plaque build up in the artery walls can lead to severe blood clots.

When blood flow through the arteries is blocked (atherosclerosis), it results in many serious health complications including:

• Angina (chest pain)
• Heart attack
• Stroke
• Peripheral vascular disease
• High blood pressure
• Chronic kidney disease
• Bile imbalance.

How to Lower High Cholesterol Through Diet and Medications?

There are two main ways that are used to lower high cholesterol levels in the body. These methods include diet and medications.

1. Diet

What we eat determines our overall health. For you to maintain or have healthy cholesterol levels, your healthcare provider can offer the following diet recommendations. The recommendations include:

• Avoid eating fast foods and junk foods
• Limit the intake of foods high in saturated fats, cholesterol, and trans fats
• Take lean sources of protein, such as fish, chicken, and legumes
• Choose broiled, baked, grilled, steamed, and roasted foods instead of fried foods
• Eat foods high in fiber, eg vegetables, fruits, and whole grains
• Taker foods high in omega-3 fatty acids

There are foods that raise cholesterol levels in the body and it makes it hard for the body to use them or eliminate them all. Foods high in trans fats, cholesterol, and saturated fats should be avoided if you want to live a healthy life. Some of the foods high in these bad fasts include:

• Bakes foods, such muffins, and cookies
• Processed foods that only offer instant energy
• Deep-fried foods, such as fried chicken, potato chips, and many more
• Avoid taking egg yolks, red meat, organ meats, and high-fat dairy products in excess

However, depending on your healthcare provider’s recommendations and your health conditions, some of the foods high in cholesterol can be taken in moderation.

2. Medications

When diet recommendations are not effective in lowering your cholesterol levels, your doctor can prescribe medications. The most used medications for lowering high cholesterol are statins. Statins are meant to block the liver from producing more cholesterol.

Some examples of effective statins include:

• Lovastatin
• Rosuvastatin
• Pravastatin
• Atorvastatin
• Fluvastatin

This gives the body enough time to use the cholesterol in the body until it reaches healthy levels. Furthermore, your doctor can prescribe other medications, such as:

• Cholesterol absorption inhibitors
• Bile acid resins
• Niacin

However, some of these medications have side effects. You should ask your doctor about their side effects and tell them if you have underlying health conditions.

How Do you Prevent High Cholesterol?

Preventing high cholesterol is easy when you follow a healthy diet and maintain a healthy lifestyle. However, there are some risk factors that cannot be controlled. To lower your risk of high cholesterol levels, the following are necessary:

• Don’t smoke or quit smoking
• Avoid excessive alcohol consumption
• Make it a habit of exercising regularly; aim for 30 minutes of exercise a day
• Maintain a healthy weight
• Eat a healthy diet low in cholesterol or saturated fats and high in fiber
• Manage stress.

Wrapping Up

If your cholesterol levels are high, you should try and treat the condition. If you live with high cholesterol levels, you are at a higher risk of life-threatening health problems or death. Luckily, treatment can control this condition and it can help you avoid complications.

To help lower your risk of high cholesterol, you should practice a healthy lifestyle, eat healthy, and follow a recommended treatment option. You should exercise more because exercise offers many benefits for your health.