Jakarta – High cholesterol is a condition that occurs when the level of cholesterol in your blood is high enough to cause problems health, including heart disease and stroke. Sometimes known as hyperlipidemia, high cholesterol is painless and does not cause symptoms anything until someone has severe heart disease.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), heart disease is reason leading cause of death in the United States, and stroke is the fifth leading cause of death.
About 93 million Americans over the age of 20, or nearly 40 percent of the US population, have high cholesterol. Slightly more than half of adults with high cholesterol get medication to lower it, the CDC notes.
Produced by your liver, cholesterol is a solid fatty substance found in every cell of your body, and is considered essential for many life-supporting functions. It helps your body make hormones and vitamin D, and is also found in compounds your body makes to help you digest food, such as bile.
Circulating in the bloodstream in tiny bundles of fat and protein called lipoproteins, cholesterol comes in two main types: low-density lipoprotein (LDL), which contributes to fatty plaque buildup, and high-density lipoprotein (HDL), which is thought to protect against plaque build-up. heart disease and stroke. A blood test known as a lipid panel can measure LDL and HDL cholesterol, as well as triglycerides, the most common type of fat in the blood.
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