7 Causes of High Cholesterol

More than quarter of the world’s population suffers from high cholesterol. Cholesterol is present in every cell of our body and is essential for its functioning.

Cholesterol levels when they become too high can have a bad effect on our heart and other organs of the body. It is better to be safer than sorry. So control your cholesterol levels.

Here are the 7 main causes of high cholesterol:

• Diet

Cholesterol is normally found in fatty food. Eating too much of saturated fat causes high levels of cholesterol. Unhealthy saturated fats are found in food that comes from animals such as meat, butter, cheese and eggs. These saturated fats are also found in processed, canned and packaged foods.

• Lack of physical activity

When you are less you tend to increase the bad cholesterol in your body and even cause the good cholesterol HDL levels to fall.

• Being overweight

Being overweight is not just bad to look at in appearance, but it can also be a health hazard.Being overweight will only give reason for your bad cholesterol to go high.

• Age and gender

Age and gender play a big role in determining the cholesterol levels in the body. Generally after people reach their 20’s the cholesterol levels in the body begin to rise.

And the tendency of men to experience higher levels of cholesterol is more. For women it usually is more constant and has chances of increasing only after they hit menopause.

• Smoking

Smoking will not only kill you but also kill or lower the good cholesterol in your body. So here is another reason to make you nip the habit in the bud.

• Overall health

For your cholesterol levels to remain constant and at healthy levels, the rest of your body health should be maintained.

• Family history

Research and reality has shown that if you have a family history of cholesterol then the chances of getting high cholesterol are higher.

Now that you know the causes of high cholesterol, you should take steps to keep the reasons to cause it in check.

Written by: Rasha Ashraf