Commercials on TV tout cholesterol-lowering foods, and the news is full of dire warnings about high blood cholesterol. So, naturally, you want to learn a little bit more about why cholesterol is such a health concern and what it can mean for your health.
For the 86 million adults in the United States over the age of 20 who have total cholesterol levels of 200 milligrams per deciliter (mg/dL) or more, these concerns are valid, as higher cholesterol numbers put you in the line of fire for some serious diseases.
In this month’s blog post, Dr. Scott Lafferty and the team here at Lafferty Family Care dive into cholesterol and some of the serious complications that are linked to worrisome cholesterol levels.
Most of us refer to cholesterol problems as high cholesterol, but there’s much more to it than that. Cholesterol is just one piece of the overall puzzle and it’s more correct to discuss the issue in terms of lipids.
Lipids is a catchall term for fatty, waxy, or oily substances in your body that play critical roles in how your cells function. A basic lipid panel measures things like:
LDLs are considered bad because they contribute to the plaque that accumulates when there’s damage or inflammation inside the arteries. On the other hand, HDLs are good because they help cart away excess cholesterol in your bloodstream to get rid of it.
Your body converts some of the food you eat into triglycerides, which can be used for energy or stored in your fat cells. But high triglyceride levels in the blood can adversely affect your cardiovascular health.
So, while cholesterol and triglycerides are essential for many processes in the body, they can be problematic when the levels are out of balance.
As you might imagine, if there’s arterial plaque that’s compromising the blood flow through your body, a lot can go wrong.
Having concerning cholesterol levels places you at greater risk for some serious health issues that include:
As you can see, this list contains some life-altering, if not life-threatening, health problems.
Given the importance of knowing your numbers, we offer comprehensive and advanced lipid testing. Not only do we test HDL, LDL, and triglyceride levels, we test for other lipoproteins and inflammatory markers to get a clear picture of your cardiovascular health.
This type of screening is invaluable because if we find that your levels are concerning, we can take swift action to rebalance them, which is a key component to any overall wellness and heart attack prevention plan.
To stay one step ahead of cholesterol problems, please contact our office in Rogers, Arkansas, to schedule your advanced lipid testing today.
