Are you feeling sluggish and often tired? Do you have pain in your lower left calf? Or how about a throbbing in your big toe? Then you may, or may not, have a cholesterol problem.
Of course these "symptoms" are nonsense, but they remind us that high levels of blood cholesterol do not provide any symptoms - you might never know until it's too late. But there is something you can do: get your cholesterol tested, and do it sooner rather than later.
A long-term study presented in the Annals of Internal Medicine found that elevated cholesterol levels before age 35 was strongly associated with the presence of build-up (cholesterol calcification) at age 45. Subjects with high levels of 'bad' cholesterol when they were young were three to five times more likely to have calcification at age 45 than those with low levels.
This suggests that testing for cholesterol should begin quite early. Doing so could help nip a serious health problem in the bud rather than waiting until the risk of heart attack and stroke is much higher.
Cholesterol is a waxy, fat-like substance made in the liver. It is found in certain foods such as food from animals including dairy products, eggs and milk. Cholesterol is not immediately bad for you as the body needs a certain amount to function properly. That amount, however, is quite low; too much and health problems can develop.
When too much cholesterol is present, plaque (a thick, hard deposit) forms in the arteries, narrowing the passage for blood flow to the heart. Over time, the arteries can harden, leading to heart disease.
Cholesterol travels through the blood attached to a protein, called a lipoprotein. Lipoproteins are classified as high or low density, or very low density, depending on how much protein there is in relation to fat. The so-called 'bad' cholesterol is the low density (or very low) type (LDL). The more LDL, the greater the risk of heart disease. Triglycerides are another form of very low density lipoproteins.
On the other hand there are high density lipoprotein (HDL) also called the 'good' cholesterol. The name reflects that HDL helps to rid the body of LDL, managing its levels in the blood.
A blood test for cholesterol will provide two numbers, one each for LDL and HDL. A good level of HDL is at least 60mg/dL. Levels of 40 to 60 are considered okay; the optimal level of LDL cholesterol is under 100 mg/dL. To simplify, we can calculate a ratio of total to good cholesterol.
This ratio, a measure of the relative amounts of each type is easy to calculate. Take the total cholesterol number and divide it by the HDL number. The result is your cholesterol ratio. A figure below 5 to 1 (5:1) is good; the ideal is about 3.5:1.
What's yours?
Editor's note: Dr. Paul Martiquet is the Medical Health Officer for Rural Vancouver Coastal Health including Powell River, the Sunshine Coast, Sea-to-Sky, Bella Bella and Bella Coola.
