Latest update April 23rd, 2024 12:59 AM
Dec 07, 2014 News
– Dr Zulfikar Bux explains why
Too often I’m visited by patients who complain of feeling unwell and associate their symptoms with having a high
cholesterol level. There are even times where patients are adamant about cholesterol being the cause of their illness and plead for a cholesterol test. Once the test is done and they realize their cholesterol is normal, they start to feel better. It obviously proves cholesterol was not the cause and it may even be a mind over matter situation.
One should not think that elevated cholesterol is harmless, but should also be mindful of incorrectly associating their medical complaints with having a high cholesterol level. As physicians, we try to figure out causes of patients’ symptoms and attempt to remedy their ailments. Treating patients’ cholesterol to treat their mind and not the underlying cause of their symptoms is not what we were trained to do. I am hopeful that we shed some light today and debunk the idea of high cholesterol causing symptoms.
Cholesterol should be considered both our friend and more importantly, our foe. At normal levels it is an essential substance for the body’s normal functioning, but if levels get too high, it becomes a silent danger that puts us at risk for multiple conditions. These conditions will be the cause of symptoms over time and not the elevated cholesterol by itself.
Cholesterol is oil-based and so does not mix with the blood, which is water-based. It is therefore carried around the body in the blood by lipoproteins. Cholesterol is carried by two types of lipoprotein; Low-density lipoprotein (LDL – cholesterol carried by this type is known as ‘bad’ cholesterol) and High-density lipoprotein (HDL – cholesterol carried by this type is known as ‘good’ cholesterol). Cholesterol has four main functions, without which we could not live. It contributes to the structure of cell walls, makes up digestive bile acids in the intestine, allows the body to produce Vitamin D, and enables the body to make certain hormones.
High levels of the bad cholesterol (LDL) will lead to it being stored in arteries and build up over time causing blockage. This bad cholesterol build-up is called atherosclerosis and when it leads to blockage of arteries, we start to see the complications of the cholesterol blockage. These complications can include high blood pressure, stroke, and heart attack.
So as we can see, it’s not the cholesterol that will cause us to feel bad, but it’s the complications associated with cholesterol blockage of arteries. These blockages take years and will not cause symptoms until those years have elapsed. Therefore we should not associate a sudden rise in our cholesterol with any specific symptom.
We can however assist with controlling our cholesterol levels by eating the right food, exercising and avoid smoking. Limiting intake of fat in the diet will help to manage cholesterol levels. Limiting foods, in particular, that contain cholesterol (from animal foods, such as egg yolks, meat and cheese), saturated fat (found in some meats, dairy products, chocolate, baked goods, and deep-fried and processed foods), and trans fat (found in some fried and processed foods) will help to reduce our bad cholesterol levels.
Of course one cannot emphasize enough about regular exercising and avoidance of smoking in assisting the cholesterol reduction process. If we do these well, our chances of having high cholesterol and subsequently having complications from high cholesterol, will be reduced.
In life we will all experience various symptoms from time to time. It may be that nagging headache, or that crushing chest pain or you’re just not feeling well. As Physicians, we will look for causes of these symptoms and treat them; high cholesterol will not be one of those causes.
(The writer is Head of GPHC’s A&E, and an Asst. Prof. of Emergency Medicine)
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