Cholesterol serves a valuable purpose in your body, despite its generally negative connotation. A waxy substance carried through the blood on lipoproteins such as low-density lipoproteins and high-density lipoproteins, cholesterol comes both from food and from manufacture in the liver. Too much cholesterol can cause an abnormal rise in blood pressure that is called hypertension.
Causes
Although controlling dietary cholesterol is important, only around 25 percent of the cholesterol in your body comes from what you eat. Since your body makes all the cholesterol you need, usually around 1,000 mg per day, according to the American Heart Association -- and sometimes more than you need -- keeping dietary intake below 300 mg or even lower helps control overall cholesterol levels. Some people have a hereditary tendency toward high cholesterol levels, so for these people, limiting dietary sources of cholesterol may be a key to keeping levels in a healthy range. Whereas 66 percent of people over age 65 have hypertension, the University of Maryland Medical Center states, in many cases, the actual cause isn't known, although a number of risk factors, including high cholesterol, contribute to your risk.
Interactions
High cholesterol levels can cause an increase in plaque buildup on the inside of your arteries. Plaque consists of cholesterol and other debris that sticks to the walls damaging and narrowing the interior of the blood vessels. When blood vessels narrow, your heart has to pump harder to move blood from the heart to the rest of your body. When the heart pumps harder, blood pressure rises. As you age, blood vessels become stiffer and less flexible, which also increases blood pressure. High cholesterol levels can also increase constriction in the blood vessels.
Risks of Uncontrolled High Cholesterol and Hypertension
High cholesterol levels and hypertension can increase your risk of developing heart disease. Both can disrupt blood flow to the heart and other vital organs. Plaque buildup can injure the blood vessels, causing blood clots to form. If clots of bits of plaque break off and travel to the brain, they can block arteries that supply the brain with oxygen, leading to stroke. If they travel to the heart, a heart attack can result. High cholesterol and hypertension generally have no symptoms, so you may not know you have them, although severe hypertension can cause headache from decreased blood flow.
Treatment
You can treat both hypertension and high cholesterol levels with lifestyle changes as well as medications. Smoking is a major risk factor for both hypertension and high cholesterol, since it damages blood vessels walls and decreases HDL, the "good" cholesterol that removes LDL, the "bad" cholesterol from your bloodstream, the American Heart Association explains. Maintaining a normal weight, exercising regularly and avoiding saturated fats also benefits both conditions.
