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Heart Disease: Blood Cholesterol

Your heart, already in a weakened state, needs to be protected from the effects of cholesterol. If your cholesterol is raised too high, you could be at risk for a heart attack or stroke.

There are a variety of factors that affect your cholesterol level, including your diet, weight and level of physical activity. Other factors that affect your cholesterol level include age, gender and heredity, which you cannot control.

Treating High Cholesterol

The main goal in lowering your cholesterol is to lower your LDL (bad cholesterol) level so you reduce your risk of heart disease.

You can manage your cholesterol and lower it through lifestyle change and, if necessary, also through medication.

Lifestyle changes includea low-saturated-fat, low-cholesterol diet. This diet calls for less than seven percent of calories from saturated fat and less than 200 mg of dietary cholesterol per day, and recommends you consume only enough calories to maintain a desirable weight and avoid weight gain. If your LDL is still high after reducing your intake of saturated fats and cholesterol, you should increase the amount of soluble fiber in your diet.

If you are overweight, losing weight can help lower your LDL and is especially important if you have risk factors that include high triglyceride and/or low HDL levels and are overweight with a large waist measurement (more than 40 inches for men and more than 35 inches for women).

Physical activity can help raise HDL and lower LDL and is especially important if you have high triglyceride and/or low HDL levels and are overweight with a large waist measurement. You should be physically active for at least 30 minutes on most, if not all days.

Medications

If you have high cholesterol, it's important to consult your physician about a treatment plan, which may include drug treatment. According to the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, even if you begin drug treatment to lower your cholesterol, you will need to continue your lifestyle changes.

There are several types of drugs available to help lower cholesterol, including:

• Statins, which are effective in lowering LDL levels and are safe for most people
• Bile Acid Sequestrants, which lower LDL and can be used alone or in combination with statin drugs
• Nicotinic Acid, which lowers LDL and triglycerides and raises HDL
• Fibric Acids, which somewhat lower LDL but are mainly used to treat high triglyceride and low HDL levels
• Cholesterol Absorption Inhibitors, which lower LDL and can be used alone or in combination with statin drugs

Please consult your physician to help determine your LDL level and to decide which type of drug treatment plan is best for you.