If you live away from your parents, you don’t often get to know about their health – simply because parents have the tendency of giving you filtered information if you are staying apart. Recently, due to lockdown, I moved in with my parents and got the rare opportunity to spend time with them. This also led to the diagnosis of my mom’s high-cholesterol levels.

During my initial days itself I noticed that my mom was breathing very heavily. She would always reject my concern saying it was happening because she was in a hurry to finish her work. But I observed that she would pant regardless of the urgency of her work.

I insisted on getting her regular health screening done, owing to which we got to know that while all other parameters were fine, her cholesterol and triglyceride levels were moderately high. We immediately booked an appointment with the cardiologist and here is all that I learned about treating and managing the condition.

What exactly is cholesterol?


Cholesterol is a waxy, fat-like substance that is found in the cells of your body. Cholesterol is important as it is required to make hormones, vitamin D and helps digest your food.

Cholesterol is made by our body and we also get it from certain foods like eggs, yolk, meat and cheese.

But excessive cholesterol in the body can combine with other substances and form plaque. Plaque sticks to the wall of your arteries and its build-up is called atherosclerosis. This can lead to coronary artery disease, can narrow your arteries and even block them in some cases.

What causes high cholesterol?


Living an unhealthy lifestyle is the first most common cause of high cholesterol. Living an unhealthy lifestyle includes:

– Unhealthy eating habits: Eating too much saturated and trans fat can raise your LDL (bad cholesterol) levels. Meat, dairy products, chocolate, baked goods, fried and processed foods contain saturated and trans fat.


– Lack of physical activity: Too much sitting and no physical activity lowers your HDL (good cholesterol) and raises your LDL (bad cholesterol).


– Smoking: Smoking raises your LDL and reduces your HDL, especially in women


– Genetics: Genetics can also play a role in increasing your cholesterol levels. For example, familial hypercholesterolemia is the inherited form of high cholesterol. Some medication can also lead to an increase in your bad cholesterol.

Problems caused by high cholesterol


If too much plaque gets deposited in your arteries, the area of plaque can rupture. This can lead to the formation of a blood clot on the surface. A large blood clot can completely block the blood flow.

When the flow of oxygen-rich blood is restricted to your heart, it can cause angina or heart attack.

Plaque can also get deposited in other arteries that bring the oxygen-rich blood to your brain and limbs. This can lead to stroke, peripheral arterial disease and artery disease.

Ways to lower cholesterol


One can lower their cholesterol by making heart-healthy lifestyle changes. Eating more green leafy vegetables, including fibre-rich foods in their diet and eliminating table sugar and simple carbs can go a long way in keeping the cholesterol levels in check.

Regular exercise of any kind also helps in reducing cholesterol. If you cannot go to a gym or do push-ups and squats, you can simply choose to do a brisk walk for 30 minutes a day.

Medication in most cases is needed initially to lower the levels, however, maintaining a healthy lifestyle is the only long term solution to keeping cholesterol levels in check.