High cholesterol is bad for your health and even can be one of major warning signs that your risk of heart disease increases. Therefore, it is important to consider what you eat and do regularly tests (once in five years if you are over the age of 20 or should be more frequently for men who are over the age of 35 & women who are over the age of 45)! And one of frequently asked questions when talking about cholesterol is the symptoms of high cholesterol!
You might also like to read about normal cholesterol levels by age, how to lower cholesterol naturally and foods to lower cholesterol, before continuing!
And before discussing about the signs or symptoms of high cholesterol, it's much better to completely understand what actually high cholesterol is!
What is high cholesterol?
The body needs certain amounts of cholesterol. But if the level of this fat-like substance is too over -- this can be a serious problem that can interfere with the function of your arteries. High cholesterol will generate more plaques in the arteries, which eventually will influence the performance of the heart muscle.
These plaques can make the arteries harden. Poor performance of arteries can cause shortness of breath and chest pain, and even these plaques can make the arteries stop working (in the severe stage) which then can cause a serious heart attack!
LDL or low-density lipoprotein is a kind of cholesterol that can create more plaques in the arteries (artery clogging). That’s why LDL is always referred to ‘bad cholesterol’.
There is also another type of cholesterol that familiar called HDL or high-density lipoprotein. Unlike LDL -- HDL is always referred to ‘good cholesterol’. Higher levels of HDL are better for your health, because it can be so helpful for your body to remove low-density lipoprotein from the blood.
In other words, the ideal of your cholesterol to promote good health is higher in HDL and lower in LDL!
Symptoms of high cholesterol
Unfortunately there are no any symptoms that you experience when you have high cholesterol. Therefore, as mentioned before you should regularly screening test to keep monitoring your cholesterol. The cholesterol tests are also familiar called lipid profile blood tests.
No any symptoms of high cholesterol are the reason why this condition can be so lethal because people with high LDL are more likely to don’t know it, especially for those who don’t have regularly screening tests!
For more detailed information how often you should do a cholesterol test, talk with your doctor!
Risk factors
There are some conditions or factors that can increase your risk of having high cholesterol which then can cause heart disease! Some of these conditions may include:
- Eating a lot of unhealthy foods that are high in cholesterol (poor diet), like full-fat & red meat dairy products.
- You are an individual who have a family history of heart disease.
- You have high blood pressure! Increased pressure in the walls of arteries can speed the buildup of fatty deposits.
- You are smoking. Some studies found that smoking may decrease the level of your HDL /good cholesterol!
- You have diabetes! High level of blood sugar can contribute to decrease HDL and increase LDL!
- Poor exercise! We all agree that having regular exercise is so important for your health, including for helping your body to lower LDL and boost up HDL.
- Being overweight! If BMI (Body Mass Index) of your body is 30 or more -- your risk of having high cholesterol is higher.
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