If you’ve taken DocHQ’s Cholesterol Check and found your total cholesterol to be high, you might be wondering what the risk is of further illness if you don’t try to lower it.
Firstly, having high cholesterol does not mean you have a disease. It simply means you’re at higher risk of heart disease and stroke. Importantly though, you are in control, and you can take active measures to lower it.
It should be noted that some risk factors have more of an affect than others in terms of predicting illness or even death. Making lifestyle changes can therefore also have a big affect on reducing your chance of developing heart disease.
Ways to do this include:
- Reducing your total cholesterol by 10%. This can result in decreasing your heart attack risk by 20% to 30%.
- Mainitaining a healthy bodyweight can reduce your risk of cardiac disease by 45%.
- If you’re a smoker, stopping smoking can lower your risk of heart attack by 50% within a year.
- Reducing your salt intake can make a big difference: consuming just 1,200mg less per day cuts your need for blood pressure treatment by half and decreases death by stroke by 22%.
- Take up regular exercise – according to analysis of 248 drug studies and 27 exercise research studies, it’s as effective as drugs in reducing the risk of dying from heart disease or stroke.
It’s worth getting your cholesterol checked whatever age you are. DocHQ’s Cholesterol Check will provide you with the results you need to take charge of your cardiovascular health via a simple fingerprick test.
