What Causes Hypercholesterolemia?
What causes cholesterol?
The development of high cholesterol can be influenced by many factors:
Diet – Your cholesterol levels can increase by a high intake of saturated fat, excess calories and dietary cholesterol. Also, your HDL levels can decrease and LDL level increase if you are overweight.
Heredity – The way your body makes and handles cholesterol can be a matter of genes, as well as diet and lifestyle.
Medical conditions – Elevated cholesterol can be caused by conditions such as liver disease, diabetes, kidney disease or thyroid disease.
Age and gender – Men and women at around the age of 20 start to rise their cholesterol level. Compared with men of the same age, pre-menopausal women usually have lower levels of cholesterol. After menopause, women’s risks for heart disease increase since their LDL cholesterol levels typically go up.
Physical activity – Lack of exercise can cause a raise in the LDL levels and a lowering in the HDL levels. Increased physical activity will cause the opposite.
High cholesterol and heart disease
Cholesterol is a waxy fatty-like substance (is actually a lipid – or fat) that is naturally created from other nutrients in the liver. But cholesterol can enter the body through what you eat because it is generally obtained from animal products in the diet such as red meats, diary products, etc. And since it is a fat, it will not simply dissolve in the blood. Instead, a combination of lipoproteins and cholesterol is known to form. There are four known types of lipoproteins as it follows:
VLDL – very low density lipoprotein
Chylomicrons (kilowmykrons)
LDL – low density lipoprotein
HDL – high density lipoprotein
Chylomicrons are the lipoproteins that transport fats that have been broken down in the gut after a meal - to tissues in the body where they are used and stored. These broken down fats are also known as triglycerides. Either to be used or stored, VLDL handles triglycerides and cholesterol in the same way. The fatty acids and glycerol are split from the cholesterol by an enzyme when chylomicrons and VLDL reach tissues.
Until they reach the liver where they are broken down, the remains of the chylomicrons continue to circulate in the blood. At the same time, the remains are also cleared from the circulation by the liver, after they are converted into LDLs. Special receptors that attract LDL are filled all over the liver’s surface, and these help remove LDL from the bloodstream, while breaking it down for use in the cells.
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