How to prevent and treat high cholesterol?

What is cholesterol? Cholesterol is a waxy, fatty substance produced in the liver and found in certain animal foods, such as animal offal, egg yolks, and meat. It is an important substance that is indispensable to tissue cells. The human body needs some cholesterol to function properly, but too much cholesterol increases the risk of heart disease and other diseases.

What are the hazards?

High cholesterol is associated with cardiovascular diseases, including coronary heart disease, stroke, and peripheral vascular disease. High cholesterol can also cause diabetes, high blood pressure, or erectile dysfunction. The root cause of these diseases is that high cholesterol causes fatty plaques to accumulate in arteries throughout the body, causing endothelial disorders, stenosis, or occlusions, leading to the occurrence of diseases.

How to prevent and treat high cholesterol?

Many factors can lead to high cholesterol, which can be roughly divided into controllable factors and uncontrollable factors.

Controllable risk factors include:

Diet: Trans fats, saturated fats, sugars, and cholesterol in foods can raise total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol levels.

Weight: Being overweight can cause your LDL cholesterol levels to rise and your HDL levels to fall. High cholesterol can also be a sign that you're gaining weight.

Physical activity/exercise: Increasing physical activity can help lower LDL cholesterol and raise HDL cholesterol (the "good" cholesterol) levels. It can also help you lose weight.

Smoking: Smoking damages blood vessels, making them more susceptible to the accumulation of fatty deposits, and also lowers the level of high-density lipoprotein ("good" cholesterol). If you have high cholesterol and are a long-term smoker, it is recommended that you actively quit smoking, which will bring you more health benefits.

Diabetes: Research shows that type 2 diabetes can lower levels of "good" cholesterol (HDL) and raise levels of another type of cholesterol, triglycerides. Poor diet and lack of physical exercise are two major factors in the disease.

High blood pressure: Although high blood pressure does not directly cause high cholesterol, high cholesterol often goes hand in hand with high blood pressure because they share many of the same risk factors, such as lack of exercise, unhealthy diet, aging, and obesity. Both conditions are also risk factors for heart disease, with high cholesterol causing the most deaths from heart disease.

Uncontrollable factors:

Gender: After menopause, women's LDL cholesterol levels ("bad" cholesterol) rise, and their risk of heart disease increases.

Age: Your risk may increase as you age. Men over 45 and women over 55 have a higher risk of high cholesterol and heart disease.

Family history: If a father or brother has high cholesterol or early heart disease (before age 55) or a mother or sister has early heart disease (before age 65), an individual's risk of high cholesterol may be increased. It is also possible to inherit a genetic condition called familial hypercholesterolemia (FH), which causes LDL levels to be elevated at a young age. Although rare, it can worsen over time if not treated.

How to lower cholesterol and related disease risks?

To lower your cholesterol and reduce your risk of high cholesterol-related diseases, you can make the following changes.

1. Seek advice from professionals to help you develop a healthy diet and exercise plan and change your lifestyle.

2. Dietary changes are an important part. Stay away from foods high in trans fats, saturated fats and simple sugars, and choose foods such as oatmeal, walnuts, tuna, salmon, sardines and tofu.

3. Stop smoking. It lowers your "good" (HDL) cholesterol. There are many other benefits to your entire body if you quit smoking.

4. Get moving! Even moderate exercise, like a half-hour brisk walk each day, can help control your weight. It also works for other factors that put you at risk for heart disease, like diabetes and high blood pressure. Exercise can lower your triglyceride levels and raise "good" (HDL) cholesterol, both of which are good for the heart.

5. Drug treatment: Statins are commonly used cholesterol-lowering drugs. There are also other types of drugs that inhibit cholesterol absorption, such as ezetimibe, but these all require seeing a specialist doctor to choose the right drug for you, as well as monitoring and rechecking.

(Author: Liu Bo, attending physician, Department of Cardiology, Henan Armed Police Corps Hospital)