What is cholesterol?
Cholesterol is a waxy substance that’s present in every cell in your body and is a vital component of your body tissues. Your liver manufactures cholesterol, and you can get it from the foods you eat.
Cholesterol is necessary to help your organs do their job, but too much of it leads to serious problems.
What is high cholesterol?
Cholesterol floats in your blood and seeps into your blood vessel walls, where it builds up, thickens the vessels, and narrows the passage where your blood flows. When your blood has trouble circulating due to high cholesterol, your risk for stroke, heart attack, and heart disease soar.
What’s the difference between good cholesterol and bad cholesterol?
You’ve probably heard of good and bad cholesterol. Cholesterol attaches to different types of proteins as it floats through your blood. When proteins and cholesterol connect, they’re called lipoproteins.
Depending on which type of protein it pairs with, it’s considered good or bad cholesterol. The two types of cholesterol are:
- LDL, or low-density lipoprotein: this is known as bad cholesterol because it builds up and hardens on the walls of your arteries, restricting blood flow.
- HDL, or high-density lipoprotein: the good kind of cholesterol, because it clears excess cholesterol from your blood and transports it back to your liver
What causes high cholesterol?
Both men and women suffer equally with high cholesterol. Several factors contribute to the development of high cholesterol, such as:
- Heredity
- Diabetes
- Smoking
- Obesity
- Poor diet
- Too little exercise
The good news is that most of these causes can be improved with changes in your lifestyle.
How is high cholesterol treated?
If your diagnostic tests reveal that you have high cholesterol, Dr. Carter customizes a plan to help you get your cholesterol back to safe levels. You learn about diet and lifestyle changes that can greatly impact your health. Exercise boosts your HDL, or good cholesterol, so he recommends 30 minutes of exercise several times each week.
If lifestyle changes don’t lower your cholesterol levels, you may need medication to manage it. Dr. Carter can prescribe a medication that suits your specific needs and health history.
If you need attentive care to help you manage high cholesterol, request a consultation with Dr. Carter by calling the office or using the online scheduler to book now.
