HYPERLIPIDEMIA: A RISK FACTOR FOR CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASE

Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death, a number of factors including hyperlipidemia, cigarette smoking, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, obesity, age, sex, genetics have been recognized as contributing to the risk of developing cardiovascular disease.

Hyperlipidemia refers to elevated levels of lipid and cholesterol in the blood and is also identified as dyslipidemia. 

The medical term for high blood cholesterol is lipid disorder, or hyperlipidemia.

Causes

For many people, abnormal cholesterol levels are partly due to an unhealthy lifestyle -- most commonly, eating a diet that is high in Fat. Other lifestyle factors are:

• Being overweight
• Heavy alcohol use
• Lack of exercise and living an inactive lifestyle 

There are many types of cholesterol. The ones talked about most are:

• Total cholesterol - all the cholesterol combined
• High density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol - often called "good" cholesterol
• Low density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol - often called "bad" cholesterol                                                                                                                                                                           
• Your General targets should be:                                               -LDL: 70-130 mg/dL (lower numbers are better)                        -HDL: more than 40-60 mg/dL (high numbers are better)     -Total cholesterol: less than 200 mg/dL (lower numbers are better)                                                                             -Triglycerides: 10-150 mg/dL (lower numbers are better)        

Dietary modification is effective in achieving and maintaining improved serum lipid levels.

Nutritional care is provided by a dietitian, ensure you see a dietician for nutritional care that includes individual dietary and self assessment, formulating an appropriate dietary regimen, education and follow up assessment.

The key nutritional interventions are as follows

• Reduce dietary fat and cholesterol
• Read food labels and choose foods with low cholestorol and saturated fat levels

• Choose whole grains instead of refined flour

• Choose low-fat protein source

• Remove skin of chicken or turkey to reduce fat

• Limit or exclude red meat as it high in saturated fat

• Choose less fatty fish
• Limit Fried food, and use healthy oils in cooking

•  Increase the amount of fiber you eat, by increasing your fruit and vegetable group

• Many diary product are extremely high in fat, they should be avoided or replace with a low fat or fat free diary products  
• Lose extra weight, a weight loss of 10 percent can go a long way to reversing your risk of hyperlidemia                                                                                                       

Check your family history of high cholesterol, Are you prone to high cholesterol based on genetics? If so take steps to minimize your risk through diet and exercise