Heart disease remains the leading cause of death for men and women in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. One of the main risk factors for heart disease is high cholesterol levels. Cholesterol, a type of fat, exists in two main types: LDL, which keeps cholesterol in the blood vessels, and HDL, which removes cholesterol from the body. Doctors diagnose patients with a total blood cholesterol of 240 mg/dL or higher or an LDL of 160 mg/dL or higher with high cholesterol. You can control many of the risk factors that cause high cholesterol.
Dietary Cholesterol Intake
The cells in the body produce about 75 percent of your total cholesterol and the remaining portion comes from the foods you eat, known as dietary cholesterol. Since animals produce cholesterol, only animal food products contain dietary cholesterol. The American Heart Association recommends healthy adults limit their intake of dietary cholesterol to 300mg or less per day to avoid high cholesterol. Patients with high cholesterol or with other risk factors for heart disease should consume no more than 200mg of dietary cholesterol per day.
Fat Intake
Since the formation of the National Cholesterol Education Program in 1985, scientists have learned that certain types of fat may influence blood cholesterol levels even more than dietary cholesterol, according to the Harvard School of Public Health. Saturated fat can cause high cholesterol and should account for less than 7 percent of your total calories each day. Trans fat not only increases LDL cholesterol levels but lowers HDL cholesterol levels, therefore increasing the risk for high cholesterol and heart disease even more. For this reason the American Heart Association recommends consuming less than 1 percent of your total calories in trans fat.
Genetics
Because your body produces the majority of your cholesterol, you may inherit genes that cause your body to produce too much cholesterol. The most common inherited condition that causes high cholesterol is known as familial hypercholesterolemia and affects 1 in 500 people in most countries, according to The Genetics Home Reference. Those with high cholesterol due to genetics must work even harder to reduce the other lifestyle-related risk factors.
Lifestyle
Lifestyle choices affect your cholesterol levels. Smoking cigarettes damages the walls of the blood vessels. This increases the likelihood that cholesterol will accumulate along the walls of the blood vessels and lead to heart disease. Smoking also decreases HDL, the good cholesterol. Obesity, defined as a body mass index of greater than 30, also increases the risk for high cholesterol. Failing to participate in routine physical activity causes high cholesterol levels.
References
- American Heart Association: Two Sources of Cholesterol
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Heart Disease Facts and Statistics
- National Heart Lung and Blood Institute: How is High Blood Cholesterol Diagnosed?
- American Heart Association: Cholesterol
- Harvard School of Public Health: Fats and Cholesterol
- Genetics Home Reference: Hypercholesterolemia
