• Home Health High Cholesterol Causes, Symptoms, Medications and Diet

High Cholesterol Causes,

Symptoms, Medications and Diet
By Cristie Martyn December 27, 2019 in Health

High cholesterol a fatal yet fairly common condition that affects one in every
three people all across the globe.

Cholesterol is a waxy substance that is naturally present in your blood.

If you suffer from this condition, you should take special care of your body and
ensure that your condition does not convert into something more severe.

Here are some things that you need to understand about having high cholesterol.

Table of Contents

• What is High Cholesterol?

• High Cholesterol Causes
• High Cholesterol Symptoms
• High Cholesterol Medications
• High Cholesterol Diet

High Cholesterol Causes, Symptoms,

Medications & Diet
What is High Cholesterol?
Cholesterol is a waxy substance that helps in making more healthy blood cells.
However, access cholesterol in the bloodstream that is caused by the
consumption of fatty foods, can make your blood thicker, less fluid.

Hence, makes it more difficult for blood to flow through your veins.

This condition also adds to the strain on your heart, since it will need to pump
harder to make sure the blood reaches all parts of your body.

The accumulation of a high amount of cholesterol in your arteries may also cause
a clot, which leads to heart attacks and can be fatal.

High Cholesterol is usually caused by unhealthy lifestyle choices and can be

managed with the help of many lifestyle changes and medication along with
a healthy diet.

High Cholesterol Causes

Cholesterol travels through your bloodstream with the help of proteins.
 These proteins when combined with cholesterol is called lipoprotein.

There are two types of lipoproteins –

Low-density lipoprotein is known as the “bad” cholesterol and has the tendency
to accumulate on your arteries and hence stresses your heart.

High-density cholesterol is not harmful for your body and is returned to the liver
when there is high amount of high density cholesterol in your bloodstream.

The main reason for the accumulation of bad cholesterol is inactivity, an

unhealthy lifestyle and the consumption of fast food and fatty substances.

High Cholesterol Symptoms

To identify a high cholesterol condition, there are certain signs that you should
look for.

Here are some of the most common high cholesterol symptoms.

• Chest Pain
• High blood pressure
• Heart strokes
• Growth of small yellow lesions on the skin

High Cholesterol Medications

Since there are several people who have issues regulating their cholesterol
levels, there are different high cholesterol medication available in the market.
 Depending on the severity of your condition and the symptoms that you are
showing, you can be prescribed any high cholesterol medication out of the
following-

• Statins

One of the most common high cholesterol medications that is prescribed to

patients is statin.

This medication helps lower triglycerides which are another type of blood fat and
helps raise your high cholesterol.

They contain substances like livalo, crestor and zocor that lower the risk of a
heart attack.

There are some side effects of using this medication such as muscle
inflammation, liver damage and intestinal problems in some rare cases.
 There is also an increased risk of high blood sugar for patients of type 2 diabetes
as a side effect to this medicine.

Some people also report memory loss and disorientation when they are
prescribed this high cholesterol medication.

• Niacin

This B-vitamin, also known as nicotinic acid, is found in food, but when taken in
the form of high cholesterol medication, it helps raise the levels of good
cholesterol.

The side effects of this medication include itching, tingling sensation and mild
headaches.

• Fibrates

This is a class of high cholesterol medication that helps cut down the amount of
triglycerides in your body and help boost your good cholesterol.

Some examples of medication that includes this substance are fenofibrate and
gemfibrozil.

The side effects of this medication may include gas and constipation.

• Bile Acid Resin

These are intestinal medicines that attach to the bile from your liver and prevent
it from being absorbed back in your blood.

Bile is made from cholesterol, so it reduces the amount of bad cholesterol that is
present in your body.

The most notable side effects of this medication are back pain, diarrhea and
abdominal pain.
High Cholesterol Diet
There are several changes that you can make in your diet to make sure you don’t
face any issues with your high cholesterol.

High cholesterol diet can be tricky to manoeuvre, but once you get it right, it can
help you tackle most of your symptoms and help you manage your cholesterol in
a much better manner.

The two most important aspects of maintaining a high cholesterol diet is to cut
down the intake of food that increases the amount of LDL in your body.

There are several food items that are known to increase the bad cholesterol in
your body.

Here are some food items you should stay away from if you want to follow a high
cholesterol diet-

Meat
Most foods that have animal origin have a high amount of cholesterol, such as
animal liver, other meat, egg yolks, shrimp and whole meat dairy products.

To counter this problem, you should replace these products with fish meat that
have high Omega-3 fatty acids.

Although this does not help reduce the bad cholesterol or HDL present in your
body, but it will help increase the good cholesterol or LDL in your system.

The other food items that you should avoid are excessive salt and alcohol.

Although salt does not directly increase your bad cholesterol but it does increase
your blood pressure.

Alcohol is known to increase your calorie intake.

In addition to this, obesity is known to directly affect your cholesterol levels.

Decreasing your alcohol consumption will help you lose weight that will decrease
the amount of cholesterol in your arteries.

Soluble fibres

Soluble fibres are a great high cholesterol diet options.

The high fibre does not allow a high amount of cholesterol to be absorbed in your
digestive tract and helps reduce high cholesterol in your body.

Fruits and Vegetables

If you increase the amount of fruits and vegetables that you eat, you will be able
to tackle your high cholesterol with great ease.

These food items have a high amount of sterols and stanols that work like
soluble fibres and help reduce the amount of bad cholesterol in your body.
Conclusion

This guide will help you understand your high cholesterol better.

It will also help you take the right measures to ensure that you are able to keep
your bad cholesterol in check and live a healthy life.

Follow us @ Pinterest.

Source www.lifebrate.com/