What Is Hyperlipidemia?

Hyperlipidemia or high cholesterol

Hyperlipidemia or high cholesterol is the result of extra fats, also known as lipids, in your blood. It is a waxy substance type of fat that your body makes. It can also come from what you eat. You can control some of its causes, but not all of them. It is treatable, but it is often a life-long condition. You’ll need to watch what you eat and also exercise regularly. You might need to take a prescription medication, too. The goal is to lower harmful cholesterol levels. Doing so can reduce your risk of heart disease, heart attack, stroke, and other problems.

Causes of High Cholesterol:

One of the main causes are foods that have cholesterol, saturated fat, and trans fats that can raise your blood cholesterol level. These include but not limited to cheese, egg yolks, fried and processed foods, ice cream, pastries, and red meat. If you do not exercise that much this can lead to putting on extra pounds, which can raise your cholesterol.  As you get older, your cholesterol levels often creep up, too. Hyperlipidemia can run in families. People who inherit this condition can get very high cholesterol. That means they have a much greater chance of having a heart attack, even when they are young.

As a starting point:

Know which fats in your diet raise LDL (bad) cholesterol and which ones don’t is key to lowering your risk of heart disease. A sedentary lifestyle lowers HDL (good) cholesterol. Less HDL means there’s less good cholesterol to remove LDL (bad) cholesterol from your arteries. What you really need, is to have a high level of High-Density Lipoprotein (HDL) in your body, and a low level of Low-Density Lipoprotein (LDL) and triglyceride in your body. Level of HDL and LDL need to be rechecked after a month because they have a half-life of approximately 15 days. Triglyceride, however, has a half-life of 3 to 4 hours. That is why you fast 12 hours before you do your lipid profile test in the early morning.

Know your numbers. And what to do about them:

Hyperlipidemia means your blood has too many lipids (or fats), such as cholesterol and triglycerides (TG). One type of hyperlipidemia, hypercholesterolemia, means there’s too much LDL (bad) cholesterol in your blood. This condition increases fatty deposits in arteries and the risk of blockages. Another way your cholesterol numbers can be out of balance is when your levels of HDL (good) cholesterol is too low. With less HDL to remove cholesterol from your arteries, your risk of atherosclerotic plaque and blockages increases. Once you receive your lipid profile results, you will see a range next to each test result. Then you can see where your results fall base on the range that is provided to you.

Remember Any question you may have do not hesitate to ask your health care teams. Your doctor will make recommendations based on the type of hyperlipidemia you have, your health, and other factors. Your body is the Temple of God, please take good care of it.

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