High cholesterol, or dyslipidemia, is a common topic I discuss with my patients, as we see it all the time.

Cholesterol and triglycerides are lipids, or types of fat, that are needed for daily function which means we need them to stay alive; they’re not the enemy.

High cholesterol can lead to the build-up of fatty deposits around blood vessels which can then lead to cardiovascular disease – or things like heart attacks or strokes.

The risk of disease increases when the overall cholesterol level is too high, or the ratio of high density lipids (hero) is too low, and the low density lipids (loser) are too high. Note, I gave them the hero and loser nick names, maybe they’ll stick one day. The hero (or high density) lipids soak up the cholesterol in the blood stream and take it to the liver to be broken down and removed from your body. The loser (or low density lipid) is needed for cellular function, but is the lipid that starts to deposit around blood vessels if it’s too high. This means the cholesterol levels is important, but so the the ratio of high to low lipids, so it’s not just as simple as knowing your cholesterol level.

The funny thing about cholesterol is, that although we know there are risk factors, such as diet, lifestyle, weight, age, smoking or physical activity, you can’t accurately predict what a person’s cholesterol level would be on these risk factors alone. This is because a HUGE factor in what your cholesterol will be depends on your genetics, or as we often say, family history, which is something you can not change or control.

I have seen top athletes with the most pristine diet (nothing that we can modify really), walking in with a very high cholesterol, and I have seen people with poor lifestyles and eating habits with some of the best cholesterol levels I’ve seen (we still have big discussions on lifestyle changes here too).

I say this about people, because to know what your cholesterol level is, you need a blood test. There are no symptoms of high cholesterol and as I mentioned, we can’t know it from your risk factors either.

If your blood test comes back and your cholesterol level is high, we can then look into your diet and lifestyle, and see if there are things we can modify to improve your cholesterol levels.

Here are some websites that I provide to patients on blood cholesterol, and lowering it when it is high. You’ll notice there’s a lot of diet, decreasing saturated fats, optimising weight and increasing exercise.

HEART FOUNDATION – CHOLESTEROL

The above is great link which probably explains everything I’ve been saying more clearly – I LOVE the heart foundation for information

EATING FOR A HEALTHY HEART – Baker Institute

EATING WELL WITH HIGH CHOLESTEROL

CHOLESTEROL – Better Health Channel

The last link is a bit long and wordy but, it’s a reliable source so I’ll leave it here

We generally check the cholesterol levels 3 months after lifestyle modifications to check whether we could lower them.

If, however, there are not lifestyle modifications we can make, or the level is not trending down as we would hope, then we will then discuss mediations, which we call statins which are very safe and well tolerated.

*NB – they are NOT safe in pregnancy, so if high cholesterol is found in a woman of reproductive age, we can not start these until she has completed her family, as she must on reliable contraception if she starts them after completing her family also*

Whether you start them will depend on your own risk factors, preferences and plan going forwards with your health care professional.

Here’s some information on statins.

STATIN MEDICINES – NPS fact sheet

Please don’t think that it’s not all or nothing. Even if you’re being advised to change your diet to lower your cholesterol, it doesn’t mean you can’t sometimes have foods that are higher in saturated fats (like that amazing looking burger above), but it just means that overall, your diet should look a bit different. It can be hard to put diet changes in, and we can get allied health such as dieticians on board for extra support. If you need help with exercise, we can always link you in with an exercise physiologist or, if you have an injury, we can also get physiotherapists involved. We have so many amazing health professionals that can help.

Finding out you have high cholesterol doesn’t have to be seen as a bad thing. For some people it can be the wake up call to change their lifestyle, and for others, it’s a HUGE modifiable risk factor that we CAN CHANGE to ensure you don’t have that heart attack or stroke in 5, 10 or 20 years. That’s the medicine I love, PREVENTING disease, not just acting on it when it happens.

As usual, if you have any questions, please have a chat with your GP.