There also are a number of factors that can affect your cholesterol levels that you cannot control. As men and women get older, their cholesterol levels rise. Elevated LDL cholesterol levels are a particular concern for postmenopausal women. Before menopause, women have lower total cholesterol levels than men of the same age. However, after menopause, women’s LDL levels rise.
There are many reasons for high cholesterol that are due to genetics. Your parents determine how much cholesterol your body makes through the genes they gave you. High cholesterol does run in families. To reduce your risk for heart disease, it is very important to control any other risk factors you may have, such as high blood pressure, smoking (it lowers your HDL), and diabetes. Diabetes (whether early onset type 1 or later onset type 2) poses as great a risk for having a heart attack as heart disease itself. The NCEP guidelines recommend that high cholesterol be treated more aggressively for those with diabetes. Besides their very high short-term risk for having a coronary event, people with type II diabetes also have a particularly high risk of dying from a heart attack. Type II diabetes is the most common form of the disease and affects more than 20 million Americans.
Lowering cholesterol with medication
Drug treatment is used in conjunction with dietary changes to lower cholesterol levels. This will keep the dose of medicine as low as possible, and lower your risk in other ways as well. Several types of drugs are available for cholesterol lowering, including statins, bile acid sequestrants, niacin, and fibric acids. Based on the different types of medications available, your doctor can help decide which one is best for you.
Statins. Proven to be highly effective and well tolerated in most patients, statins are regarded as the treatment of choice for lowering "bad" cholesterol levels. There are many such drugs, and some are sold as combinations with other drugs to either lower LDL cholesterol raise HDL cholesterol or lower blood pressure as well. Statins have a remarkable record for the reduction of cholesterol and prolongation of survival in patients with vascular disease. This is called secondary prevention (because vascular disease has already been present). Primary prevention trials (people who have not yet had a cardiovascular event) also appear positive and the medicines are quite well tolerated by most people. While the frequency of side effects with these medications is generally very low, nausea, gas, constipation, and abdominal cramping may occur. Headache, muscle pain, and liver problems have been reported in some cases. Currently available statins include atorvastatin (Lipitor), fluvastatin (Lescol), lovastatin (Mevacor), pravastatin (Pravachol), rosuvastatin (Crestor) and simvastatin (Zocor).
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