What You Need To Know About The Symptoms Of High Cholesterol

High Cholesterol is a disease prevalent in modern society, yet most people have no symptoms of high cholesterol. If you want to know how it can affect you read on…

Background

Cholesterol is a natural fat compound that moves through our veins. In itself, it isn’t a problem as we need it for various bodily functions. However when levels begin to rise above what our bodies can cope with, it starts to behave in a negative way. It has been likened to plaque on the teeth, but instead of teeth the Cholesterol thickens and attaches to the arteries. This will slowly start to make moving blood around the body much more difficult. Once this has happened many of the heart diseases that are common in society are more likely to start to occur.

Symptoms

There are generally speaking no symptoms of high cholesterol, usually the only way it is found is through blood tests. For some younger people the appearance of white rings around the iris is a sign of high cholesterol. Gallstones have also been called a symptom as they are associated with a fatty diet. So with almost no real symptoms of high cholesterol people need to rely on proactive diagnosis via blood tests.

Blood Testing

So needing to use blood testing is the most proactive way to find high cholesterol. There are two types of cholesterol in our bloodstreams at any time. HDL is the good version as it transports the bad cholesterol LDL back to the liver where it can be broken down.

Treatment

The most immediate high cholesterol is for the patient to improve eating habits and way of life. By improving eating habits cholesterol can be reduced. This involves reducing the amount of saturated fats (usually sourced from meat, dairy etc) and increasing the levels of cereals, fruit and fibre.

Doing more exercise, quitting smoking and losing weight are risks factors that can be changed and all have been shown to reduce the risks of high cholesterol.

The next stage if the way of life and eating alterations don’t work is to move to medications. Usually this happens after three to six months, this is to allow enough time for the changes made to start showing an affect as these are preferable than needing to take drugs. There are a number of cholesterol lowering drug on the market.

So while the symptoms of high cholesterol may be non-existent, finding out if you have high cholesterol is a simple process. Treating it may require life changes, but it is possible to treat.

Visit the Cholesterol Scoop for more information on Cholesterol Level Too Low.

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/health-articles/what-you-need-to-know-about-the-symptoms-of-high-cholesterol-1142146.html