Understanding your cholesterol levels

Cosa dovrei fare? If your cholesterol level is too high, you can help bring it down by making some diet and lifestyle changes.

Questi includono:

• Being more active.

• Cutting down on foods rich in saturated fats, such as butter, lard, and full-fat dairy.

• Swapping fatty meats for lean meats, such as chicken.

• Eating more foods with healthy fats, such as olive oil, nuts, seeds, and oily fish.

• Having meat-free days - try Quorn® or soya products instead.

• Eating more fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, especially oats and barley.

• Including more foods fortified with plant sterols or stanols in your diet.

Your doctor or nurse will tell you when you need to be tested again.

Cosa dovrei fare? If your HDL-C levels are healthy, and your chance of CVD is low, you should have your cholesterol tested every five years.

To maintain healthy HDL-C levels, make sure you:

• Stay active.

• Don't smoke or, if you do smoke, stop.

• Try to lose any excess abdominal fat.

• Follow a healthy diet - see the tips above.

• Ask your doctor for any more advice.

It's sometimes possible to get a false reading, so if there's anything unusual about your test results, your doctor may ask for the test to be repeated. If your HDL-C level is high, this can also make your TC level look high, so your doctor usually checks all the components to your blood test - TC, HDL-C and LDL-C levels.

Cosa dovrei fare? If your LDL-C reading is outside healthy levels, speak to your doctor. If it's above 4.9 mmol/L and you have a family history of early coronary heart disease (CHD), you could have familial hypercholesterolaemia (FH), a form of inherited high cholesterol that needs treatment and lifestyle changes.

Others in your family may have the same condition, so it's important to get a proper diagnosis so everyone can get the right treatment. If your LDL-C level is high for other reasons, changing your diet and exercise regime could help get your bad cholesterol back on track.

Your doctor may also prescribe statine, a group of medicines that help lower LDL-C in the blood, particularly if you have FH or other risk factors such as your age, diabetes, smoking or high blood pressure.

Cosa dovrei fare? This reading has been shown to help calculate your likelihood of CVD more accurately than before. So if yours is high, you have a higher chance of developing CVD.

Your doctor may prescribe a statin but will recommend you follow healthy lifestyle advice (see above) too, along with losing weight and quitting smoking if needed. Exercise can be very helpful, as it can help raise HDL-C levels which offsets any rise in non-HDL cholesterol.

Cosa dovrei fare? This reading will help your doctor work out whether your overall cholesterol levels are healthy, which in turn helps them calculate your chance of developing CVD - another reason why it's important to have full cholesterol results, not just TC.

It could be high if your TC, LDL-C and non-HDL cholesterol levels are too high, or if your HDL-C is too low, or a combination of both. Maintaining a healthy TC:HDL ratio long-term can help reduce your likelihood of having CVD in future. You can do this by following the advice above.

Cosa dovrei fare? High triglyceride levels are often seen with low HDL levels - an unhealthy combination linked with early heart disease. It can also cause a painful condition called pancreatite which needs to be seen by a doctor immediately.

People can have raised levels for many reasons, but the most common reasons are lifestyle-related:

• Being apple-shaped - carrying excess weight around your midriff.

• Developing or having diabete di tipo 2.

• Excessive alcohol consumption.

You can keep your triglyceride levels low by losing weight, being more active and eating sensibly, especially by cutting back on alcohol, sugary foods, and saturated fats, and eating more fruits, vegetables, pulses, and whole grains.