Causes of High Cholesterol

What Are The Causes of High Cholesterol Levels?

High cholesterol is a common health issue, but what causes it? We know that it can trigger all sorts of serious complications, including atherosclerosis, heart attack and other cardiovascular problems – but again, what are the causes of high cholesterol? What factors make a person’s cholesterol levels rise in the first place?

There are actually many possible reasons why cholesterol levels would rise but the most common is if you are eating a high cholesterol diet.

Eating unhealthy foods cause all sorts of health problems, including obesity, heart disease and consequently high LDL levels.

You need to have fats in your diet to be healthy, but eating too many foods that are laden with grease and saturated fats, will definitely cause your cholesterol levels to increase.

At the same time, not eating enough healthy foods like vegetables, fruits, whole grains and natural fibers also increases the risk of cardiovascular problems.

Can You Stop Cholesterol From Rising?

This is a rather open-ended question to answer because there are some factors that lead to high cholesterol that you really can’t do anything about.

For example, if high cholesterol runs in the family, or if your particular age and gender are among the high-risk group, you certainly can’t do anything to change that.

In fact, studies have shown that cholesterol levels do increase with age so you can expect your numbers to be higher when you are in your 60’s than when you are younger. Often that is due to dietary changes and becoming sedentary. You need to exercise to keep everything in proper working order!

That is not to say your levels are low if you are young. Many ‘youngsters’ can have high cholesterol levels.

However, there are other factors that you can control, such as your weight, your diet and your lifestyle. For example, active people who play sports or exercise regularly are less likely to suffer from high cholesterol. Even if they eat fatty foods like everyone else, their faster metabolism burns these fats easier and so their cholesterol levels do not increase as quickly or at all.

Smoking and alcohol consumption are also considered to be among the top causes of high cholesterol. If you want to avoid cholesterol problems in the future, it’s best that you quit these habits right now.

Do you see a pattern? A healthy diet, exercise and healthy lifestyle habits are ways to lower the causes of high cholesterol and other health problems.

It’s really not that difficult to avoid high cholesterol levels as long as you have the will and determination to control your habits. There are plenty of low cholesterol diets and low-fat foods out there that can replace the fatty varieties if you feel you eat too much. With some creativity, you can easily incorporate a little bit of exercise into your daily routine no matter how busy you may be too.

So, avoiding the causes of high cholesterol is as easy as you want it to be. It may entail a little sacrifice in the beginning but eventually, you’ll get used to a better lifestyle and your body will thank you for it.

I personally think that it is easier to prevent and control in a natural manner than listening to many of the ‘cholesterol lies‘ we have come to believe to be truth. One of the biggest cholesterol lies is about statins…and that is that statins are the solution to lowering high cholesterol. I think it’s about time to look at lowering cholesterol naturally!