What Causes High Blood Cholesterol?
A variety of things can affect the cholesterol
levels in your blood. Some of these things you can control and others you
cannot.
You can control:
- What you eat. Certain foods have types of fat
that raise your cholesterol level.
- Saturated fat raises your low-density
lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol level more than anything else in your diet.
- Trans fatty acids (trans
fats) are made when vegetable oil is hydrogenated to harden it. Trans
fatty acids also raise cholesterol levels.
- Cholesterol is found in foods that come from
animal sources, for example, egg yolks, meat, and cheese.
- Your weight. Being
overweight
tends to increase your LDL level, lower your high-density lipoprotein (HDL)
level, and increase your total cholesterol level.
- Your activity. Lack of regular exercise can lead
to weight gain, which could raise your LDL cholesterol level. Regular exercise
can help you lose weight and lower your LDL level. It can also help you raise
your HDL level.
You cannot control:
- Heredity. High blood cholesterol can run in
families. An inherited genetic condition (familial hypercholesterolemia) results in very high LDL
cholesterol levels. It begins at birth, and may result in a heart attack at an
early age.
- Age and sex. Starting at puberty, men have lower
levels of HDL than women. As women and men get older, their LDL cholesterol
levels rise. Younger women have lower LDL cholesterol levels than men, but
after age 55, women have higher levels than men.
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