Hypercholesterolemia

Cholesterol is a waxy substance found in your blood. Your body needs cholesterol to build healthy cells, but high levels of cholesterol can increase your risk of heart disease.

With high cholesterol, you can develop fatty deposits in your blood vessels. Eventually, these deposits grow, making it difficult for enough blood to flow through your arteries. Sometimes, those deposits can break suddenly and form a clot that causes a heart attack or stroke.

High cholesterol can be inherited, but it's often the result of unhealthy lifestyle choices, which make it preventable and treatable. A healthy diet, regular exercise and sometimes medication can help reduce high cholesterol.

Risk factors

Factors that can increase your risk of unhealthy cholesterol levels include:

•     Poor diet. Eating too much saturated fat or trans fats can result in unhealthy cholesterol levels. Saturated fats are found in fatty cuts of meat and full-fat dairy products. Trans fats are often found in packaged snacks or desserts.
•     Obesity. Having a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or greater puts you at risk of high cholesterol.
•     Lack of exercise. Exercise helps boost your body's HDL, the "good," cholesterol.
•     Smoking. Cigarette smoking may lower your level of HDL, the "good," cholesterol.
•     Alcohol. Drinking too much alcohol can increase your total cholesterol level.
•     Age. Even young children can have unhealthy cholesterol, but it's much more common in people over 40. As you age, your liver becomes less able to remove LDL cholesterol.