What is Cholesterol?

Cholesterol is a substance present within blood. The body requires it to build healthy cells, however, too much of it can run the risk of heart disease. This is because a high amount causes the development of fatty deposits in the blood vessels. With time, these may grow making it harder for a sufficient amount of blood to flow through the arteries. The deposits could even break suddenly to form a clot that causes heart attack or stroke. High cholesterol is something that’s inheritable but usually it appears because of an unhealthy lifestyle. This does mean it is preventable and also treatable. It is mainly caused by lipoproteins, these are a combination of proteins and cholesterol. Low-density lipoprotein (LDL) is bad cholesterol and too much of it may build up on the walls of the arteries making them hard and narrow while too little of high-density lipoprotein (HDL) will not transport enough cholesterol to the liver causing a build up. Factors that cause high cholesterol are diabetes, age, obesity, poor diet, smoking and lack of exercise. 

Treatment

If lifestyle changes do not help and there is still high cholesterol, there are many options for medication that the doctor can prescribe, which depends on what is causing the high cholesterol and other factors such as age, health, etc.. Medication include statins, bile-acid-binding resins, cholesterol absorption inhibitors, and injectable medications which all lower cholesterol levels. There are more medications the doctor may list for other options.

HospitALL provides the best heart doctors and the best doctors for cholesterol treatment.