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There are steps that everyone can take to improve their cholesterol levels and help prevent heart disease and heart attack. Here's the bottom line:
- Choose foods low in saturated fat. (See cholesterol for more information.)
- Exercise regularly.
- Lose weight if you are overweight.
- Get routine health checkups and cholesterol screenings.
If your cholesterol levels are high, these recommendations are very important steps for bringing your cholesterol under control.
If lifestyle changes do not help, or if your cholesterol level is severely elevated, your doctor may consider drug therapy. Your doctor will start or consider medication when:
- Your LDL cholesterol is 190 mg/dL or higher.
- Your LDL cholesterol is 160 mg/dL or higher AND you have one risk factor for heart disease.
- Your LDL cholesterol is 130 mg/dL or higher AND you have either diabetes or two other risk factors for heart disease.
- Your LDL cholesterol is 100 mg/dL or higher AND you have heart disease. (If you have diabetes, even if you don't have known heart disease, medication may be considered for an LDL cholesterol of 100 mg/dL)
- Your LDL cholesterol is greater than 70 mg/dL AND you have had a recent heart attack or have known heart disease along with diabetes, current cigarette smoking, poorly controlled high blood pressure, or the metabolic syndrome (high triglycerides, low HDL, and obesity).
There are several types of drugs available to help lower blood cholesterol levels, and they work in different ways. Some are better at lowering LDL (bad) cholesterol, some are good at lowering triglycerides, while others help raise HDL (good) cholesterol.
The most commonly used drugs for treating high LDL cholesterol are called statins. Other drugs that may be used include bile acid resins, cholesterol absorption inhibitors, fibrates, probucol, and nicotinic acid.
If you are prescribed medication, do not stop taking it without consulting your doctor.
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