The silent danger: Vascular killer cholesterol

Created: 01/13/2022, 1:47 PM

From: Susanne Sasse

Stand firm: a slice of cake is not a good reward for weight loss success.

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Roasts, cookies, long evenings on the couch - slowly the guilty conscience stirs.

What about health and blood cholesterol?

The most important answers.

Risk factors for harmful cholesterol levels are poor diet, little exercise and being overweight.

Liver, kidney, thyroid and hereditary predisposition can also be causes.

We explain how to get your cholesterol under control.

A few facts in advance: The human body needs the natural substance cholesterol.

Because the fat is a very important part of the membranes that surround the cells.

And it is essential for metabolic processes.

However, an excess of cholesterol in the blood or in the vascular walls is one of the greatest risk factors for cardiovascular diseases.

High LDL values ​​(LDL = Low Density Lipoprotein) increase the risk of heart attack or stroke.

That is what makes high values ​​so dangerous

High cholesterol doesn't hurt.

They are often only noticed after something has happened - such as a heart attack.

More and more cholesterol has been deposited in the blood vessel walls unnoticed.

Plaques have narrowed the vessels.

This is called arteriosclerosis.

Plaques can also lead to inflammation.

The body supports the damaged vessel walls with blood platelets and new tissue.

This makes them tighter, more rigid and brittle.

If deposits tear, dangerous blood clots (thrombi) can form.

So the values ​​are lowered

“The starting point is decisive,” says Professor Dr. Ulrich Laufs from the Scientific Advisory Board of the German Heart Foundation and Director of the Clinic and Polyclinic for Cardiology at the University Hospital Leipzig: "A healthy lifestyle and eating style, no obesity, no tobacco consumption and sufficient exercise." Medicinal therapies are indicated when the cholesterol levels are significantly increased or lifestyle changes are not enough to lower LDL cholesterol. "The best scientifically proven way to reduce the risk is through cholesterol-lowering drugs, so-called statins," explains Prof. Laufs. “How high the cholesterol levels can be is individual and depends on factors such as the overall risk of cardiovascular diseases.“People at very high risk should have a value below 70 mg / dl. If the risk is moderate, a value below 115 mg / dl is sufficient.

The influence of diet

The body produces two thirds of the cholesterol itself, mainly in the liver.

We ingest a third through food - animal foods.

Research has shown that the body can slow down its own cholesterol production if it gets too much cholesterol from the diet.

If you treat yourself to a breakfast egg at the weekend, you don't need to feel guilty.

The Leipzig cardiologist Professor Ulrich Laufs.

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Overall, the cholesterol content of an individual food has less of an influence on the blood cholesterol level than the type and amount of the dietary fats consumed.

It is therefore much more important to pay attention to a healthy diet as a whole, emphasizes Prof. Laufs.

However, there are also people who have elevated triglycerides, which are different blood lipids than LDL cholesterol.

Those affected should especially avoid alcohol, sugar and products made from white flour.

This genetic predisposition affects around ten percent of those affected with greatly increased blood lipid levels.

Hereditary drugs

"There are people of normal weight with a healthy lifestyle who still have too much harmful LDL cholesterol in their blood," says Prof. Laufs.

Every 250th person in Germany is affected by this so-called familial hypercholesterolemia.

"The LDL receptors that pull cholesterol out of the blood don't work well in them," explains Laufs.

The reason for this has not yet been clarified.

It may have been beneficial to have high levels of blood lipids earlier in human development.

However, since they did not live that long in earlier eras, atherosclerosis did not become a problem either.

“A change in diet hardly helps in people with a hereditary predisposition.

You are innocent of the high blood lipid levels.

Medication is used here. "