How high is your Cholesterol?
16th March 2026
If you don’t have any sort of heart disease you probably haven’t thought about it.
But if you are 40 or above, its worth getting your cholesterol checked. This is because if you have an inherited form of high Cholesterol (hypercholesteroleamia) you won’t know about it, unless you test for it. You may also discover that you need to make some important lifestyle changes now to prevent disease in the future.
If you are on certain medications such as antipsychotics, steroids or hormones, this can also affect your Cholesterol levels. High levels of cholesterol are thought to contribute to your risk of heart disease and stroke.
Doctors have historically been interested in reducing cholesterol to help prevent heart disease. They are especially interested in LDL values. This is a type of protein that carries cholesterol to the arteries where it can build up to form atherosclerosis. This can clog arteries leading to heart disease, strokes and even contribute to dementia.
Medical intervention has historically used cholesterol lowering agents such as statins to reduce LDLs.
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/9152
But like most things, it is never that simple. Cholesterol is essential for every cell in your body. How cholesterol relates to your health is dependent on so many factors including your sex, family history and other measurements such as obesity and sugar levels (diabetes). Taking a medication is unlikely to be the solution on its own.
Diet and lifestyle have huge impact on the effect of cholesterol and whether it will lead to disease or not.
If you want to improve your Cholesterol there are many things you can do. These include:
Reducing alcohol, stop smoking, reduce your weight to a healthy range for you, exercise regularly, combat stress, and have good quality sleep,
Also, have a diet high in fibre and a variety of plants, nuts and seeds which are low in processed foods, salt and red meat.
If you’re wondering what sort of foods can help combat high cholesterol. The following foods have at least some evidence of benefit to reducing or counteracting high cholesterol and LDL’s.
Wholegrain oats, plant sterols and stanols, nuts & seeds, oily fish (salmon mackerel, sardines)
If you want to check your Cholesterol, you can get this, and an extensive range of other health checks done at our clinic.
Or if you just want to discuss which tests might be of benefit to you, have a chat to with us.