9.5.06

Cholesterol Education

High blood cholesterol can increase a person's risk for coronary heart disease, but a few lifestyle changes can lower the cholesterol reading and improve health.

Cardiovascular disease is the number one killer of Americans and one of the risk factors for heart disease is high cholesterol. Cholesterol is a substance that occurs naturally in the body and when it is too high, can cause a build up of plaque in the heart vessels, says Dr. Susan Hingle, associate professor of internal medicine at SIU School of Medicine in Springfield. She says a lot of things can affect cholesterol levels.

SOUND BITE: "First and foremost, it is genetic. Some people even with ideal body weight and no bad habits at all still have high cholesterol, so that's genetics and obviously you can't do anything about genetics. Weight is another big factor affecting our cholesterol levels, as is our activity levels. Diet also has a significant impact on our cholesterol level."

Dr. Hingle says cholesterol is measured with a blood test. The total cholesterol level is preferred to be at 200 or less. Other levels include HDL, the high density or good cholesterol, which should measure 40 or higher. The LDL, which is the low density or bad cholesterol, should be less than 70. She offers this advice for improving cholesterol readings.

SOUND BITE: "If a person’s cholesterol is high, there are a lot of things that can be done to help with that. One of them is trying to get down to an ideal body weight. Another is incorporating exercise in your lifestyle as well as healthy eating habits. If those lifestyle changes don’t get it down enough to where we would like, then there are a lot of different medications that can help lower it into a desirable range."

Dr. Hingle advises all adults to see their family physician and have their cholesterol checked regularly. If cholesterol readings are not in a healthy range, ask for recommendations to help lower it.

This is Ruth Slottag at SIU School of Medicine in Springfield.