Smoking, age, and weight can also contribute to high cholesterol levels.
It can be hard to tell if you have high cholesterol because it doesn’t always come withsymptoms.
Having high cholesterol levels can increase your risk ofheart attack, stroke, and other conditions.
What Is High Cholesterol?
Cholesterolis a fatty molecule that your cells need to function.
Why Is My Cholesterol High?
High cholesterol can be triggered by your diet.
If you’re eating healthy, other factors may be impacting yourcholesterol levels.
This condition can make it hard for your body to get rid of extra cholesterol.
While the liver makes cholesterol in your body, it also recycles and removes cholesterol from the body.
Getting plenty of exercise has a variety of health benefits and may help you maintain healthy cholesterol levels.
More intense, regular exercise can even help reduce LDL cholesterol levels.
Age and Weight
As you age, your LDL cholesterol rises.
Some scientists believe that your body becomes less efficient at clearing bad cholesterol as you get older.
Research has also found that HDL cholesterol decreases by about 1% with every year of advancing age.
Studies have also found a relationship between high cholesterol and obesity.
People with obesity may have trouble metabolizing cholesterol.
Obesity is associated with changes in the way people absorb, synthesize, and process cholesterol.
Obesity also lowers HDL cholesterol, which can affect the body’s ability to remove excess LDL cholesterol.
Smoking
Smokingcan restrict blood flow through your vessels and make them stiff.
Studies have also found that quitting smoking can help restore HDL function.
Stress
Studies have also found that psychological stress may have some correlation with unhealthy cholesterol levels.
Your healthcare provider will determine which treatment approach is best for you.
Stick to your healthcare provider’s suggestions and double-check to see your healthcare provider as recommended for follow-up testing.
If this is part of your treatment plan, you still have to continue your healthy lifestyle changes.
Alipid panelusually measures total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, and HDL cholesterol.
Untreated high cholesterol can lead to a number of serious complications, including heart attack and stroke.
Johns Hopkins Medicine.Facts about cholesterol.
Familial Hypercholesterolemia Foundation.Your liver and cholesterol.
2019;17(1).
National Institutes of Health: National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.What is blood cholesterol?
American Heart Association.Cholesterol medications.
National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.Blood cholesterol: Diagnosis.
