To know if your cholesterol is high, you should do a blood test in the lab, and if the result is high, above 200 mg/dL, it is important to consult a doctor to see if you need to take medications, change your diet and/or increase exercise practice, however, if there is a history of high cholesterol in the family, you need to have a blood test once a year from age 20 to diagnose the problem early.
High cholesterol usually doesn’t cause symptoms, however, symptoms of high cholesterol can occur when values are very high, through small elevations of the skin, called xanthomas.
- The best way to identify high cholesterol is to perform a 12-hour fasting blood test.
- Which indicates the amount of total cholesterol and all types of fats present in the blood such as LDL (bad cholesterol).
- HDL (good cholesterol) and triglycerides.
However, another faster way to know if your cholesterol is high is to do a quick test with just a drop of blood from your finger, which can be done at some pharmacies, such as the diabetic blood glucose test, where the result comes from. in minutes. However, there is still no such evidence in Brazil.
However, this test does not replace laboratory tests, but its result can be an alert to see a doctor and should only be used for the detection or follow-up of people who already know that they have a diagnosis of high cholesterol, but who wish have a routine checkup more often. .
Therefore, see what the ideal cholesterol values are in: Cholesterol Reference Values. However, people with diabetes should keep their cholesterol levels even lower than these reference values to avoid heart complications.
Before you have a blood test, you should
In addition, in the two weeks leading up to the test, it is important to continue eating normally without dieting or overeating, so that the result reflects your actual cholesterol levels.
These precautions should also be followed in the case of rapid pharmacy tests, so that the result is closer to the actual one.
When blood test results show that cholesterol is high, your doctor will assess the need to start treatment based on the search for other associated risk factors such as diabetes, hypertension, obesity, a family history of dyslipidemia, if they are not present, at first The patient is informed of the diet and practice of physical activity and , at 3 months, should be reassessed, where it will be decided whether or not to start the medicines. Below are some examples of cholesterol remedies.
To help control cholesterol, you need to eat a balanced diet and exercise regularly. You should also avoid eating processed foods, red meats and cold cuts, such as sausages, sausages and ham, which are high in trans fats and saturated.
Another strategy to lower high cholesterol is to consume more fiber by eating more fruits, raw vegetables, leafy vegetables such as lettuce and cabbage, whole grains and cereals such as oats, linaza and chia.
See what your diet should look like: Cholesterol-lowering diet.