Your health care team may prescribe medicine if: You have already had a heart attack or stroke or have peripheral arterial disease. Your LDL cholesterol level is 190 mg/dL or higher. You are 40–75 years old and have diabetes and an LDL cholesterol level of 70 mg/dL or higher.
Low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol.
The most important thing your doctor will keep in mind when thinking about statin treatment is your long-term risk of a heart attack or stroke. If your risk is very low, you probably won't need a statin, unless your LDL is above 190 mg/dL (4.92 mmol/L).
How it's treated: Most people with high LDL cholesterol not caused by genetics don't treat it with medications at first. Instead, you can try eating a heart-healthy diet, getting more exercise, quitting smoking, and losing weight if you're overweight. If those steps don't work, you may need medication.
Making simple changes in your lifestyle is often enough to bring borderline cholesterol levels down to the normal range. Some people may also need to take medicine for it. And keep in mind that other things, like diabetes, high blood pressure, and smoking, also affect your heart health; it's not just about cholesterol.
Soluble fiber can reduce the absorption of cholesterol into your bloodstream. Soluble fiber is found in such foods as oatmeal, kidney beans, Brussels sprouts, apples and pears. Add whey protein. Whey protein, which is found in dairy products, may account for many of the health benefits attributed to dairy.
In general: A total cholesterol level of less than 200 mg/dL (5.17 mmol/L) is normal. A total cholesterol level of 200 to 239 mg/dL (5.17 to 6.18 mmol/L) is borderline high. A total cholesterol level of 240 mg/dL (6.21 mmol/L) or greater is high.
Borderline cholesterol is the intermediate stage of a lipid panel showing cholesterol levels of 200 mg/dL to 239 mg/dL. This reading is just past optimal total cholesterol levels but precedes the diagnosis of high cholesterol. If left untreated, high cholesterol can increase the risk of heart disease.
If you're taking a statin medication to lower your cholesterol, you will need to keep taking your prescription, or your cholesterol will likely go back up. Stopping your statin can put you at risk of having heart disease and other preventable health problems like stroke and heart attack from high cholesterol.
A person is considered at high risk for developing heart disease if their total cholesterol level is higher than 240 mg/dL, LDL levels are higher than 160 mg/dL (190 mg/dL is even higher risk), and if the HDL level is below 40 mg/dL.
Hyperlipidemia can be very serious if it's not controlled. As long as high cholesterol is untreated, you're letting plaque accumulate inside of your blood vessels. This can lead to a heart attack or stroke because your blood has a hard time getting through your blood vessels.
Clinical guidelines from the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association currently recommend that statins only be used for cholesterol-lowering in young adults with extremely high levels of LDL cholesterol (≥190 mg/dL).
Do not start a statin in patients ages ≥ 75 years who do not have known vascular disease or type 2 diabetes; start or continue a statin in all patients ages 75 to 84 with type 2 diabetes to prevent cardiovascular events and mortality; and start or continue a statin in patients ages > 75 years who have known vascular ...
A doctor may recommend taking statins if either: you have been diagnosed with a form of CVD. your personal and family medical history suggests you're likely to develop CVD at some point over the next 10 years and lifestyle measures have not reduced this risk.
Statin use is associated with increased calorie intake and consequent weight gain.
Anyone can have high cholesterol, even if you are young, slim, eat well and exercise. That's because high cholesterol can be caused by different things, including your genes. High cholesterol is very common, but most people don't know they have it because it doesn't usually have any symptoms.
Chronic stress leads to consistently high levels of stress hormones, which in turn can lead to consistently high blood pressure, blood sugar, cholesterol, and/or triglycerides.
Types of Cholesterol
Levels of LDL cholesterol higher than 130 milligrams per deciliter (mg/dL) are linked to an increased risk for ischemic stroke.
If your total cholesterol level is 200 to 239, you have a borderline level. The word “borderline” is used because levels of 200 to 239 are close to being high. A total cholesterol of 240 or above is a high level. If your LDL level is 130 to 159, you have a borderline level.
Plus, the risks from high cholesterol aren't immediate. The damage accumulates over years -- even decades. High cholesterol in your 20s and 30s can take its toll in your 50s and 60s.