Affinity Health, a leading provider of quality health cover, says high levels of “bad” cholesterol can quietly damage your arteries for years, raises the risk of a heart attack, a stroke, and other serious health problems that can affect you and the people who depend on you.
Cholesterol is not entirely bad. Your body needs this waxy substance to build healthy cells, produce hormones and vitamin D, and make bile, which helps digest fat.
Because cholesterol cannot move through the bloodstream by itself, it travels inside particles called lipoproteins. Low density lipoprotein, known as LDL, carries cholesterol from your liver to cells throughout your body. High density lipoprotein, known as HDL, helps return excess cholesterol to your liver, where it can be processed and removed.
When there is more LDL cholesterol than your body can use, it may remain in the bloodstream and enter the walls of your arteries. This is why LDL is commonly called “bad” cholesterol.
How LDL Cholesterol Harms Your Arteries
LDL cholesterol does not simply float harmlessly through the blood. Excess LDL particles can enter the inner lining of an artery, become altered, and trigger inflammation.
The immune system sends cells to remove the LDL, but these cells may become filled with cholesterol. Over time, cholesterol, inflammatory cells, calcium, and other substances collect inside the artery wall and form plaque.
This process is called atherosclerosis. As plaque grows, it can narrow the artery, make it less flexible, and reduce the amount of oxygen rich blood reaching important parts of your body.
The danger is not limited to an artery gradually becoming blocked, as some plaques can rupture suddenly. Your body reacts to the rupture as though the artery has been injured and forms a blood clot. If the clot blocks the artery, the result can be a medical emergency.
What Happens When Blood Flow Is Restricted
The effects of high LDL cholesterol depend on which arteries are affected:
- Heart: Plaque in the coronary arteries can reduce blood flow to the heart muscle. This may cause chest pressure, tightness, or pain, known as angina. A complete blockage can cause a heart attack.
- Brain: Narrowed or blocked arteries supplying the brain may cause a transient ischaemic attack, sometimes called a mini stroke, or a stroke. Warning signs include sudden facial drooping, weakness on one side, difficulty speaking, confusion, vision changes, or loss of balance.
- Legs and feet: Reduced blood flow to the limbs is known as peripheral arterial disease. It may cause aching or cramping in the legs when walking, cold or numb feet, shiny skin, toenails that grow slowly, and sores that take a long time to heal.
- Kidneys: Narrowing of your arteries supplying the kidneys can affect kidney function and may make high blood pressure more difficult to control.
- Sexual health: Poor blood flow can contribute to erectile dysfunction. In some men, this may be an early warning sign of narrowed or damaged blood vessels.
Why You May Not Know Your Cholesterol Is High
High cholesterol itself does not usually cause noticeable symptoms. Most people feel perfectly healthy and only discover the problem after having a blood test or developing complications.
A blood test called a lipogram or lipid profile measures total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, HDL cholesterol, and triglycerides.
According to the Heart and Stroke Foundation, general targets for healthy adults include total cholesterol below 5 mmol per litre and LDL cholesterol below 3 mmol per litre. However, people with diabetes, kidney disease, existing heart disease, or a history of heart attack or stroke may require much lower individual targets.
What Can Raise LDL Cholesterol
Diet plays a role, but it is not the only factor. Your weight, physical activity, and stress levels, along with other parts of your health, can also affect your cholesterol.
Factors that can raise LDL cholesterol include eating too much saturated or trans-fat, smoking or regular exposure to tobacco smoke, being physically inactive, carrying excess weight around your waist, having diabetes, kidney disease, or an underactive thyroid, taking certain medicines, growing older and going through hormonal changes, and having a family history of high cholesterol or early heart disease.
Some people inherit familial hypercholesterolaemia, a condition that causes extremely high LDL levels from a young age. It is worth considering when close relatives have very high cholesterol or have had heart attacks or strokes at an unusually early age.
Conclusion
Knowing your cholesterol numbers allows you to act before lasting damage occurs. Ask about a cholesterol test, especially if you have high blood pressure, diabetes, kidney disease, excess weight, or a family history of high cholesterol or early heart disease.
Eat more oats, beans, lentils, vegetables, fruit, avocado, seeds, and unsalted nuts. Limit fatty and processed meats, chicken skin, butter, cream, pastries, fast food, and deep-fried foods. Regular exercise, maintaining a healthy weight, avoiding tobacco, and limiting alcohol can also help protect your heart.
Lifestyle changes are not always enough. If you are prescribed cholesterol-lowering medicine, take it as directed, and do not stop because you feel well. High cholesterol usually causes no symptoms, but it can still damage your arteries even though you cannot feel it happening.
Affinity Health members can discuss their cholesterol results and next steps through the 24/7 Telephonic Medical Consulting Hotline and managed consultations available on the Day-to-Day and Combined Plans.
