Medical

How to Prevent High Cholesterol level in Blood?

By Hamna Aslam

Posted on November 7, 2022

How to Prevent High Cholesterol in Blood?

Cholesterol is a substance which can be found in human blood. Our body needs cholesterol to build healthy cells, but an increased amount of cholesterol and blood can put a person at a risk of heart disease.

High levels of cholesterol in body lead to the development of fatty deposits in your blood vessels. What time these deposits increases, making it a lot difficult for blood to flow through your arteries. These deposits, sometimes break suddenly, and from a clot that causes a heart stroke.

Usually, high level of cholesterol is inherited. However, it can also be caused due to unhealthy living choices. This is preventive and treatable. A person can switch to a healthy lifestyle, proper diet, regular exercise along with medication can help in the reduction of cholesterol level in the blood.

Symptoms Of High Levels Of Cholesterol In Blood

There is no specific symptom of high levels of cholesterol and blood. However, a blood test can signify and its abnormal presence can be detected. People with high cholesterol, usually have high blood pressure, which can open doors to many lethal diseases if not taken care of properly. Few other symptoms are:

Loose stools
Weight Gain
Poor appetite
Heart Pain
Stomach Distention
Bumping
Fatigue
Depression

Risk Factors Of High Levels Of Cholesterol

There are many risk factors that increase the chances of high levels of cholesterol in blood.

Unhealthy Diet:

A person who eats too much unsaturated fat or trans fat is at risk of having high cholesterol levels in blood. Saturated fats are normally found in full fat dairy products as well as fatty cuts of meat.

However, trans fats are usually present in packaged, snacks and desserts.

Obesity:

Obesity is one of the most common factor for high cholesterol level. It includes an increased body mass index BMI, which is normally of 30 or greater than 30.

Alcohol Consumption:

Drinking too much alcohol, put the person at the risk of high cholesterol level in blood.

Lack Of Exercise:

Exercise and physical vitality is very important for normal functioning of body. Exercise helps to boost your body’s HDL, which is the good cholesterol.

Smoking:

Smoking is injurious to health and smoking cigarettes may lead to lower levels of HDL in the body.

Age Factor:

Although young children can also have high levels of cholesterol in the blood, but usually people who are over 40 years of age are at a high risk of having high cholesterol levels in their blood. As you age, your liver is less likely to remove LDL cholesterol from your body.

How To Prevent High Levels Of Cholesterol In Blood

You can adopt a healthy lifestyle which can lower your cholesterol, and it can also be windy from having high cholesterol in the first place. Some of the preventive measures are:

Dietary Changes:

Eating whole grains, fruits, vegetables, and a low salt diet. Usually your body makes all the cholesterol which is needed so you don’t need to take it from other sources e.g. food. So you should not be taking food having high ratio of saturated and trans fats.

Limit food, high in saturated fat, which comes usually from animal products, such as cheese, meat, tropical oils etc.
Avoid using food which is high in saturated fat, trans fat, sodium and added sugars.
Eat food which is rich in fiber, such as, whole grain oatmeal, beans, lentils etc. consume unsaturated fats, which helps in the prevention of low-density lipoprotein LDL, which is also known as bad cholesterol while increasing high-density lipoprotein HDL which are known to be as good cholesterol.
Consume limited amount of animal fat and avoid using saturated fats as much as you can.

Physical Changes:

Include morning walk in your daily routine and lose extra pounds while maintaining a healthy weight. Obesity, raises levels of LDL “bad cholesterol” in your body. This excess body fat slows down body’s ability to remove LDL cholesterol from blood before it increases the risk of heart disease and stroke.

And you should calculate your body mass index (BMI). Try to maintain a healthy weight.
You can also ask a nutritionist or a doctor about how to maintain a healthy weight.
You can take and follow fitness plan to help you reach your desired weight.

Quitting Smoking:

Smoking is injurious to your blood vessels and speed up the hardening process of the arteries, therefore, greatly increasing the risk for heart disease.

If you are a smoker, you should quit smoking as soon as possible, because it can lead to high cholesterol level.
If you are a chain-smoker, you should switch to non-tobacco alternatives such as nicotine pods and try to quit it gradually. However, it is the best to quit smoking once and for all.

Inculcate Exercise:

Inculcate exercise in your daily routine for at least 30 minutes per day. Physical activity can help to maintain a healthy weight and also lower your cholesterol level in blood pressure.

It is recommended to do almost 2 hours and 30 minutes of exercise, such as brisk, walking, or by cycling every week
Children and adults should do physical activity for at least one hour daily.
Use stairs instead of elevator, park a little farther away, do jumping jacks, etc to make physical activity a part of your daily routine.

Avoid Alcohol:

Avoid consumption of alcohol. Increases the levels of cholesterol and triglycerides in blood. Therefore, too much alcohol must be avoided.

Avoid Stress:

Mental health is also very important. So, avoid taking stress and get plenty of sleep.

In a nutshell, high level of cholesterol in the blood is lethal and can lead to many of other serious health risks. Therefore, prevention must be done to avoid high levels of cholesterol in the blood. There are many easy ways and some simple lifestyle changes which can help in the prevention of high levels of cholesterol. Therefore, care must be taken and risk factors must be minimized by making some simple lifestyle changes and avoiding things like alcohol, stress, smoking etc.