What Causes Cholesterol?

Cholesterol can be controlled, but not all the time. Some factors that cause your cholesterol levels raise depend on you, while others are not within your control.

Here are some factors that do not depend on you:

Genetics

As you may know, genetics are responsible for many diseases that people have. High cholesterol might also be a result of genetics. Some people have a condition called - familial hypercholesterolemia. This means that high cholesterol levels are inherent in the whole family.

Some people have another condition, called – triglyceride. This condition is a type of blood fat that increases cholesterol in your body.

Age

When we grow old, our bodies change and we experience various problems as a result. Cholesterol tends to increase as we age also.

Gender

It might seem weird, but cholesterol depends on your gender too. Some researches show that men tend to have bigger (LDL) cholesterol levels than woman. However after 50, women low-density lipoproteins seem to increase. It is thought that this happens when women are after their menopausal years.

Diseases

Some diseases cause people to have higher cholesterol levels. For example, such disease as diabetes, can lower HDL (good cholesterol) levels in your body and increase the development of atherosclerosis.

And here are some factors that you can influence:

Weight

It is no doubt that excess weight raises cholesterol. People, who are overweight, tend to have much higher blood cholesterol levels than the others.

Smoking

If you didn’t know that, smoking can cause your body to produce more cholesterol. It is proven that smoking people have much higher risk of increased cholesterol level heart disease.

Lifestyle

If you experience a lot of stress at work or in any other area in your life, you might be in danger of raising your cholesterol levels. Bad habits, such as cigarette smoking or alcohol can also negatively result to your health. However, exercises help increase HDL levels and reduce bad cholesterol.

Final Thoughts

As you can see, some factors that increase cholesterol depend on us, while others are not in our control. However, even if you have an inherent disease, you should still try to follow the tips of reducing high cholesterol levels, because a healthier lifestyle in the end will result in a better health.