|  | Conditions Treatments | Cholesterol

Causes of High Cholesterol Levels

While cholesterol is a necessary element in the body, high cholesterol levels pose a serious health risk, since too much cholesterol causes heart disease and stroke. Understanding the causes of high cholesterol can help you to control its levels and avoid the unwanted side effects of high levels.

  1. Diet

    • Diet plays a huge role in determining the body's cholesterol levels. A high cholesterol level results from foods high in saturated fat and cholesterol, such as meat, dairy, pastry, or cakes. Generally, high cholesterol levels can be found in any highly processed or packaged foods. Many snack foods, such as chips or candy, are guilty of causing high cholesterol. Overindulgence in alcohol can also lead to high cholesterol levels, so physicians recommend no more than two bottles a day to keep the levels down.

    Exercise

    • Roughly speaking, the cholesterol in the body can be divided into two groups: the good high-density lipoprotein (HDL) and the bad low-density lipoprotein (LDL). Controlling these elements is key to healthy cholesterol levels, and exercise can help increase the amount of good cholesterol-clearing HDL and lower the number of bad, artery-clogging LDL. If one does not exercise and becomes overweight, the HDL levels are adversely affected and overall cholesterol levels go up.

    Genetics

    • Family history comes in to play as a cause of high cholesterol. With a condition called familial hypercholesterolaemia, the high cholesterol levels are inherited from an older relative and run in the family. This makes knowing your family's health history important in predicting your own risk factors. In addition, a lipid disorder is a familial trait which disrupts the work of HDL and LDL.

    Uncontrollable Causes

    • Some causes of high cholesterol are simply a by-product of place and time. Age and gender, for example, factor into a person's cholesterol levels, since the chance of high levels becomes greater for people over 55, and there is always a greater chance of high levels in men. In addition, the area you live in can affect cholesterol, since cholesterol levels often vary greatly between different areas.

    Other Conditions

    • Hgh cholesterol can come as a side effect of another condition affecting you. For example, a thyroid condition can lead to a change in metabolism which raises the cholesterol. Kidney disease can also raise the cholesterol levels, as can having diabetes. Some medications also cause high cholesterol levels, such as steroids, beta-blockers, or certain diuretics.

Cholesterol - Related Articles