Why Do I Have High Cholesterol
High cholesterol is one of the most common health conditions today, but that does not mean it is something we should overlook. Too much cholesterol in the blood puts our hearts at risk, increasing our chances of developing heart diseases that compromise our health, which is reason enough to try to regulate levels and ensure our well-being. Understanding why this excess occurs is important to take the necessary steps that will help us lower it, so at OneHowTo.com we give you some of the most common causes of it to answer your question, why do you have high cholesterol.
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Obesity or being overweight
Our body needs cholesterol to function, but there are two types: HDL or good cholesterol, and LDL or bad cholesterol. When LDL levels are higher than normal, our health is in danger, increasing the risk of major heart problems.
Being obese or overweight is one of the main triggers of high cholesterol, and the more fat we have accumulated in our body, the more likely it is that these lipids also accumulate in the blood, causing this problem. Losing weight through a healthy diet and reducing intake of fatty foods, fried foods and processed sugars is essential to lowering cholesterol.
Excess fat and sugar in the diet
If you're not overweight or obese and are wondering why you have high cholesterol, then you'll need to review your diet very closely. Many patients are not overweight but consume excess fats in their daily diet which causes the accumulation of lipids in the blood, increasing LDL cholesterol.
Reducing consumption of meats, fatty meats, fried foods, snacks, junk food, sweets and pastries as much as possible is essential to ensuring your health and reducing cholesterol levels.
Being sedentary
Along with excessive consumption of fat in the diet and obesity, leading an inactive lifestyle is one of the most common triggers of high cholesterol. Among the many benefits of exercise for health, the using up of fat that occurs with physical activity helps keep our cholesterol at an appropriate level, also accelerating metabolism and helping us maintain a healthy weight.
If in addition to not watching your diet you are inactive and never exercise, change your habits and start an exercise routine to reduce your cholesterol, this is critical to ensuring your health.
Family history
Do not forget that genetics plays an important role in health, and although the reasons why you have high cholesterol usually have to do with lifestyle and diet, some hereditary conditions can increase our likelihood to suffer from this disease.
If there are cases of high triglycerides and cholesterol in your family, or if any of your relatives suffer from conditions such as hyperlipidaemia or dysbetalipoproteinemia, you have an increased risk of blood lipids accumulating, so you'll need to increase measures to prevent high cholesterol.
Health conditions that increase blood cholesterol
In addition to the factors mentioned above, there are some health conditions that increase our risk of high cholesterol, among them are:
- Diabetes
- Kidney disease
- Suffering from polycystic ovaries
- Hypothyroidism
- Some medical treatments like those used for depression or high blood pressure can increase blood cholesterol.
How to lower cholesterol
In addition to following your doctor's recommendations to the letter, it is important to make profound changes in your diet and lifestyle in order to regulate your cholesterol and get healthy. To help you, at OneHowTo.com we have some articles that you may find useful, so we invite you to read:
This article is merely informative, oneHOWTO does not have the authority to prescribe any medical treatments or create a diagnosis. We invite you to visit your doctor if you have any type of condition or pain.
If you want to read similar articles to Why Do I Have High Cholesterol, we recommend you visit our Family health category.
