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Risk factors
By Mayo Clinic staffYou're more likely to have high cholesterol that can lead to heart disease if you have any of these risk factors:
- Smoking. Cigarette smoking damages the walls of your blood vessels, making them likely to accumulate fatty deposits. Smoking may also lower your level of HDL, or "good," cholesterol.
- Obesity. Having a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or greater puts you at risk of high cholesterol.
- Poor diet. Foods that are high in cholesterol, such as red meat and full-fat dairy products, will increase your total cholesterol. Eating saturated fat, found in animal products, and trans fats, found in some commercially baked cookies and crackers, also can raise your cholesterol level.
- Lack of exercise. Exercise helps boost your body's HDL "good" cholesterol while lowering your LDL "bad" cholesterol. Not getting enough exercise puts you at risk of high cholesterol.
- High blood pressure. Increased pressure on your artery walls damages your arteries, which can speed the accumulation of fatty deposits.
- Diabetes. High blood sugar contributes to higher LDL cholesterol and lower HDL cholesterol. High blood sugar also damages the lining of your arteries.
- Family history of heart disease. If a parent or sibling developed heart disease before age 55, high cholesterol levels place you at a greater than average risk of developing heart disease.
References
- Cholesterol. American Heart Association. http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=4488. Accessed April 20, 2010.
- High blood cholesterol: What you need to know. National Cholesterol Education Program. http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/public/heart/chol/wyntk.pdf. Accessed April 20, 2010.
- Executive summary of the Third Report of the National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP) Expert Panel on Detection, Evaluation, and Treatment of High Blood Cholesterol in Adults (Adult Treatment Panel III). National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/guidelines/cholesterol/atp3xsum.pdf. Accessed April 19, 2010.
- Arsenault BJ, et al. Beyond low-density lipoprotein cholesterol: Respective contributions of non-high-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels, triglycerides, and the total cholesterol/high-density lipoprotein cholesterol ratio to coronary heart disease risk in apparently healthy men and women. Journal of the American College of Cardiology. 2009;55:35.
- Daniels SR, et al. Lipid screening and cardiovascular health in childhood. Pediatrics. 2008;122:198.
- Ford ES, et al. Concentrations of low density lipoprotein cholesterol and total cholesterol among children and adolescents in the United States. Circulation. 2009;119:1108.
- Cholesterol lowering drugs. American Heart Association. http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=163. Accessed April 19, 2010.
- Guyton JR, et al. Safety considerations with niacin therapy. Journal of the American College of Cardiology. 2007;99:22C.
- Koski RR. Omega-3-acid ethyl esters (Lovaza) for severe hypertriglyceridemia. Pharmacy and Therapeutics. 2008;33:271.
- Cooking for lower cholesterol. American Heart Association. http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=515. Accessed April 26, 2010.
- Kodama S, et al. Effect of aerobic exercise training on serum levels of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol. Archives of Internal Medicine. 2007;167:999.
- Poli A, et al. Non-pharmacological control of plasma cholesterol levels. Nutrition and Metabolism in Cardiovascular Diseases. 2008;18:1.
- Natural medicines in clinical management of hyperlipidemia. Natural Medicines Comprehensive Database. http://www.naturaldatabase.com. Accessed April 23, 2010.
- FDA warns consumers to avoid red yeast rice products promoted on internet as treatments for high cholesterol products found to contain unauthorized drug. Food and Drug Administration. http://www.fda.gov/NewsEvents/Newsroom/PressAnnouncements/2007/ucm108962.htm. Accessed April 26, 2010.
- Miller M, et al. Triglycerides and cardiovascular disease: A scientific statement from the American Heart Association. Circulation. In press. Accessed April 27, 2011.
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