Learn About

Cholesterol & Lipids Disorders

Our team of physicians are board certified physicians by the American Board of Internal Medicine and have been practicing Endocrinology with an emphasis in diabetes, non-surgical weight loss and Thyroid disease. Below are the services that we provide. Please call our office 786-433-2450 if you have any questions or would like to schedule an appointment.

Learn About

Cholesterol & Lipids Disorders

Our team of physicians are board certified physicians by the American Board of Internal Medicine and have been practicing Endocrinology with an emphasis in diabetes, non-surgical weight loss and Thyroid disease. Below are the services that we provide. Please call our office 786-433-2450 if you have any questions or would like to schedule an appointment.

Hyperlipidemia, also known as dyslipidemia or high cholesterol, means you have too many lipids (fats) in your blood. Your liver creates cholesterol to help you digest food and make things like hormones. But you also eat cholesterol in foods from the meat and dairy aisles. As your liver can make as much cholesterol as you need, the cholesterol in foods you eat is extra.

Too much cholesterol (200 mg/dL to 239 mg/dL is borderline high and 240 mg/dL is high) isn’t healthy because it can create roadblocks in your artery highways where blood travels around to your body. This damages your organs that don’t receive enough blood from your arteries.

Hyperlipidemia (high cholesterol) that’s not treated can allow plaque to collect inside of your body’s blood vessels (atherosclerosis). This can bring on hyperlipidemia complications that include:

  • Heart attack.
  • Stroke.
  • Coronary heart disease.
  • Carotid artery disease.
  • Sudden cardiac arrest.
  • Peripheral artery disease.
  • Microvascular disease.

Several things can put you at a higher risk of hyperlipidemia, including:

  • Having a family history of high cholesterol.
  • Having hypothyroidism.
  • Having obesity.
  • Not eating a nutritious diet.
  • Drinking too much alcohol.
  • Having diabetes.
  • Smoking.
  • Certain medications like Beta-Blockers, Birth control pills, steroids among others.
  • Multiple disease processes including Liver disease, Diabetes, Sleep apnea, hypothyroidism among others. 

Your provider will want:

  • A physical exam.
  • Your medical history.
  • Laboratory testing of your cholesterol levels in your blood.
  • Your family’s medical history.
  • To calculate your 10-year Atherosclerotic Cardiovascular Disease (ASCVD) Risk Score.

A blood test called a lipid panel will tell you these numbers:

Type of cholesterol Best number to have
Total cholesterol Less than 200 mg/dL
Bad (LDL) cholesterol Less than 100 mg/dL
Good (HDL) cholesterol At least 60 mg/dL
Triglycerides Less than 150 mg/dL

Some people can just change their lifestyles to improve their cholesterol numbers. For other people, that’s not enough and they need medication.
Things you can do include:

  • Exercising.
  • Quitting smoking.
  • Sleeping at least seven hours each night.
  • Keeping your stress level well managed.
  • Eating healthier foods.
  • Limiting how much alcohol you drink.
  • Losing a few pounds to reach a healthy weight.

People who need medicine to treat their high cholesterol usually take statins. Statins are a type of medication that decreases how much bad cholesterol is circulating in your blood. Your provider may order a different type of medicine if:

  • You can’t take a statin.
  • You need another medicine in addition to a statin.
  • You have familial hypercholesterolemia, a genetic problem that makes your bad (LDL) cholesterol number extremely high.

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