High cholesterol - Symptoms and causes

High cholesterol is linked with a higher risk of cardiovascular disease. That can include coronary heart disease, stroke, and peripheral vascular disease. High cholesterol has also been tied to diabetes and high blood pressure. The main risk from high cholesterol is coronary heart disease, which can lead to death from a heart attack. If your cholesterol level is too high, cholesterol can build up in the walls of your arteries. Over time, this buildup -- called plaque -- causes hardening of the arteries.


The main risk from high cholesterol is coronary heart disease, Stroke, Peripheral Vascular Disease, Diabetes, High Blood Pressure, Erectile Dysfunction.

What is high cholesterol?

Cholesterol is a fatty substance found in your blood. It's produced naturally in the liver. Everyone has cholesterol. We need it to stay healthy because every cell in our body uses it. Some of this cholesterol comes from the food we eat.

High cholesterol is when you have too much cholesterol in your blood. This can increase your risk of heart and circulatory diseases such as heart attack and stroke. 

 

With high cholesterol, you can develop fatty deposits in your blood vessels. Eventually, these deposits grow, making it difficult for enough blood to flow through your arteries. Sometimes, those deposits can break suddenly and form a clot that causes a heart attack or stroke.

High cholesterol can be inherited, but it's often the result of unhealthy lifestyle choices, which make it preventable and treatable. A healthy diet, regular exercise and sometimes medication can help reduce high cholesterol.

types of cholesterol?

There are two main types of cholesterol, one good and the other bad.

High-density lipoproteins or HDL is called ‘good’ cholesterol. This is because it gets rid of the ‘bad’ cholesterol from your blood. It takes cholesterol that you don’t need back to the liver. The liver breaks it down so it can be passed out of your body.

Non-high-density lipoproteins or non-HDL is called 'bad' cholesterol. This is because when there is too much of it, it can build up inside the walls of the blood vessels. This clogs them up causing narrowing of the arteries which increases your risk of having a heart attack or stroke. 

You may have also heard 'bad' cholesterol being called 'LDL' cholesterol. This was previously used as the main measure of bad cholesterol but we now know that other forms of non-HDL cholesterol are also harmful.

6 Diseases Linked To High Cholesterol



1.   Coronary Heart Disease: The main risk associated with high cholesterol is coronary heart disease (CHD). Your blood cholesterol level has a lot to do with your chances of getting heart disease. If your cholesterol is too high, it builds up on the walls of your arteries. Over time, this buildup is known as atherosclerosis.


2.   Stroke: The more LDL that you have, the greater your risk for stroke. When there is too much cholesterol in the blood, it can build up on artery walls and narrow the arteries. This is called atherosclerosis. It can block the flow of blood or cause blood clots, leading to an ischaemic stroke.



3.   Peripheral Vascular Disease: Cholesterol is a fatty substance that builds up in your bloodstream. High cholesterol can harm your arteries. That raises your risk for peripheral arterial disease (PAD). This disease affects arteries in the legs.



4.   Diabetes: Diabetes and high cholesterol often occur together. The American Heart Association (AHA) states that diabetes often lowers HDL (good) cholesterol levels and raises triglycerides and LDL (bad) cholesterol levels. Both of these increase the risk for heart disease and stroke.


5.   High Blood Pressure: High blood pressure (hypertension) and high cholesterol also are linked. When the arteries become hardened and narrowed with cholesterol plaque and calcium (atherosclerosis), the heart has to strain much harder to pump blood through them. As a result, blood pressure becomes abnormally high.




6.   Erectile Dysfunction: The higher your LDL levels the more likely to develop erection problems and severe cases lead to impotence. Also, high cholesterol can make the body more difficult to produce the necessary chemicals to create an erection. High cholesterol affects the body's ability to properly release nitric oxide into the bloodstream.







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