I saw a local news segment that it was American Heart Month, and the area hospital was screening cholesterol levels for people. Why do you need the cholesterol level, and how is that linked to heart problems?
Having high cholesterol is one of the major risk factors for coronary artery disease, the most common heart problem in America. This disease causes over a half a million heart attacks each year in the US. Cholesterol is a fatty, waxy substance, and there are multiple different cholesterol particle types. The most important one that causes heart disease is the LDL, or the so called “bad cholesterol.” The higher this is, the higher your risk of heart disease. If you have other risk factors for heart disease, such as diabetes, high blood pressure, or tobacco use, then we like to make the LDL as low as possible with medications. In high risk cases, we aim for an LDL of around 70.
To learn more about cholesterol levels, watch this video from VideoMD.com.
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