Other names: elevated cholesterol, hypercholesterolemia, increased blood cholesterol, high LDL
Cholesterol is a fatty substance that is part of the membranes of all animal cells and is important for their proper function.
Cholesterol ingest animal liver but we are also able to produce it from other nutrients. Of liver cholesterol in the blood, where it can take up the cells of the body. Conversely unwanted cholesterol from the bloodstream, liver uptake and amend it to bile acids.
Cholesterol itself is insoluble in blood and blood vessels, therefore, travels inside the kind of balls formed from lipoprotein (substances of fat and protein in nature). According to the type of packaging in which it is stored cholesterol in the blood, it is distinguished HDL ( “good”) and LDL ( “bad”) cholesterol.
HDL cholesterol is taken up by the liver and cleared from the bloodstream, while LDL-cholesterol is taken up by peripheral body cells. The problem of LDL cholesterol is that if its concentration in the blood is high, can participate in the process of hardening of the arteries (atherosclerosis). A fact to the walls of arteries and damages it.
Therefore, high concentrations of LDL cholesterol increase the risk of developing cardiovascular diseases such as heart attack, while higher levels of HDL cholesterol decreases the risk.
Elevated blood cholesterol itself does not hurt and has no other symptoms, but long-term damages blood vessels and can lead to serious and irreversible damage to the heart or other organs. Therefore, the determination of cholesterol, the preventive examinations by a medical practitioner and when increasing your doctor recommends some measures to reduce cholesterol and you will continue to follow.
The risk of vascular involvement increases continuously with the concentration of cholesterol in blood, and so is the boundary between normal and elevated cholesterol levels determined artificially. Under normal is considered to be the concentration of total cholesterol in the blood to about 5 mmol / l.Greater predictive value, however, has a particularly determining HDL and especially LDL cholesterol, the normal values for LDL from 2.2 to 4.5, for HDL 1.1 to 1.4 mmol / L in men and 1.3 to 1.6 mmol / l in women.
Increased levels of cholesterol is caused by poor lifestyle and hereditary factors.
To modify cholesterol to normal levels, your doctor will certainly recommend to follow a healthy lifestyle (plenty of exercise, less fatty foods and more vegetables and fruits, etc.).
If this does not adjust cholesterol or its value is very high, your doctor may prescribe cholesterol-lowering drugs.
When to take the medication, however, depends not only on the level of cholesterol in blood, but also on the presence of other risk factors for vascular disease. What we are trying to heal is not increased cholesterol, we try to prevent cardiovascular disease and cholesterol is only one of its risk factors.
To raise cholesterol must therefore consider the physician individually for each patient.
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