Cholesterol and You

September is National Cholesterol Education Month.

• Your blood cholesterol level has a lot to do with the chances of getting heart disease. High blood cholesterol is one of the major risk factors for heart disease.
  




• When there is too much cholesterol (a fat-like substance) in your blood, it builds up in the walls of your arteries. Over time, this buildup causes "hardening of the arteries" so that arteries become narrowed and blood flow to the heart is slowed down or blocked.
  




• High blood cholesterol itself does not cause symptoms, so many people are unaware that their cholesterol level is too high.
  




• When you reach 20, you should have a cholesterol level screened every 5 years.

Total Cholesterol Level Category
Less than 200 mg/dL Desirable


LDL Cholesterol Level LDL Cholesterol Category
Less than 100 mg/dL Optimal

What Affects Cholesterol Levels?
These are things you can do something about:

■ Diet. Saturated fat and cholesterol in the food you eat make your blood cholesterol level go up.
Saturated fat is the main culprit, but cholesterol in foods also matters. Reducing the amount of
saturated fat and cholesterol in your diet helps lower your blood cholesterol level.

■ Weight. Being overweight is a risk factor for heart disease. It also tends to increase your cholesterol.
Losing weight can help lower your LDL and total cholesterol levels, as well as raise your
HDL and lower your triglyceride levels.

■ Physical Activity. Not being physically active is a risk factor for heart disease. Regular
physical activity can help lower LDL (bad) cholesterol and raise HDL (good) cholesterol
levels. It also helps you lose weight. You should try to be physically active for 30 minutes
on most, if not all, days.

Things you cannot do anything about also can affect cholesterol levels. These include:

■ Age and Gender. As women and men get older, their cholesterol levels rise. Before the age
of menopause, women have lower total cholesterol levels than men of the same age. After the age
of menopause, women’s LDL levels tend to rise.

■ Heredity. Your genes partly determine how much cholesterol your body makes. High blood
cholesterol can run in families.

Information provided by: US Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health