High cholesterol can block blood vessels, increasing the risk of heart disease or stroke. However, what are the characteristics of people with high cholesterol?
High cholesterol generally does not cause any symptoms so sufferers are often unaware of it.
Specific symptoms will only appear when high cholesterol has triggered complications, such as coronary heart disease, stroke, heart attack, and peripheral artery disease.
For that, read the explanation and learn some ways to lower high cholesterol below.
What are the characteristics of people who have high cholesterol?
It turns out that people who have high cholesterol generally do not show any specific symptoms.
According to the Mayo Clinic, high cholesterol has no specific symptoms. A blood test is the only way to detect high cholesterol disease.
Cholesterol level checks will show total cholesterol levels, good cholesterol levels (HDL), and non-HDL cholesterol levels.
However, the target cholesterol level will depend on several factors, such as age, existing health problems, and the risk of cardiovascular disease.
High cholesterol can trigger plaque buildup in the blood vessels, increasing the risk of more serious health problems.
Blood vessels can become narrowed or blocked so they cannot work efficiently.
High cholesterol will increase the risk of certain health problems depending on the location of the blocked blood vessel.
This will also trigger the emergence of specific symptoms according to the conditions experienced.
How to lower high cholesterol
High cholesterol can generally be treated by changing habits so some people do not need to take medication.
As reported by the Cleveland Clinic, there are several ways to lower high cholesterol naturally, such as:
- Exercising
- Quit smoking
- Get enough sleep at night, or at least seven hours.
- Manage stress by doing relaxation activities
- Eat healthy food
- Limiting alcohol intake
- Lose weight and keep it stable
However, some people need to take cholesterol medications, such as statins, to lower cholesterol levels in the blood.
Other medical treatments may be given if you cannot take statins, have other medical conditions, and have genetic factors that make cholesterol levels very high.
Understanding the characteristics of people with high cholesterol is very important because this condition does not have any specific symptoms.
For this reason, regular cholesterol checks need to be carried out in order to detect this health problem early.