Cholesterol is a fatlike substance that helps your body make hormones and aids in many other bodily processes. While your liver produces much of the cholesterol your body needs, you can also take in cholesterol through food. Due to a number of factors, too much cholesterol can build up in your blood, which increases your risk for heart disease and stroke.
Poor Diet
Eating a diet high in fat, especially saturated fat, can lead to high cholesterol. The National Heart Lung and Blood Institute states that saturated fat, which is found mostly in fatty cuts of meat and whole-fat dairy products, raises your LDL, or "bad" cholesterol, more than any other dietary factor. The Mayo Clinic recommends you get no more than 10 percent of your daily fat intake from saturated fat. Another fat to avoid is trans fat, which is found in many fried foods and commercial baked goods. You also want to keep your cholesterol intake to a minimum. The Mayo Clinic states that a healthy person should take in no more than 300 mg of cholesterol daily. High-cholesterol foods include egg yolks, whole milk and organ meats such as liver.
Failure to Exercise
Lack of activity can be a double whammy for your cholesterol levels. Lack of exercise can lead you to become overweight, which, according to the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute, can raise both your LDL and total cholesterol and lower your HDL, or "good," cholesterol levels. However, even if you are overweight, you can still lower your cholesterol with exercise, according to the Mayo Clinic. At least 30 minutes a day of moderate exercise such as swimming, walking or bike riding can lower overall cholesterol and raise HDL cholesterol.
Genetics
High cholesterol can run in families, according to the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute. The condition is called familial hypercholesterolemia and begins at birth. It results in very high LDL levels, no matter how healthy your lifestyle is, and can lead to a heart attack at an early age if not caught and diagnosed early. Gender also plays a role in high cholesterol. Starting at puberty, men have lower levels of HDL cholesterol than women and higher levels of LDL cholesterol. After age 55, however, women often have higher LDL levels than men, the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute states.
