Conozca sus niveles de colesterol

What should I do? If your cholesterol level is too high, you can help bring it down by making some diet and lifestyle changes.

Entre ellas figuran:

• Ser más activo.

• Cutting down on foods rich in saturated fats, such as butter, lard, and full-fat dairy.

• Cambiar las carnes grasas por carnes magras, como el pollo.

• Eating more foods with healthy fats, such as olive oil, nuts, seeds, and oily fish.

• Días sin carne: prueba Quorn® o los productos de soja.

• Eating more fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, especially oats and barley.

• Incluir en su dieta más alimentos enriquecidos con esteroles o estanoles vegetales.

Su médico o enfermera le dirán cuándo tiene que volver a hacerse la prueba.

What should I do? If your HDL-C levels are healthy, and your chance of CVD is low, you should have your cholesterol tested every five years.

To maintain healthy HDL-C levels, make sure you:

• Mantente activo.

• No fumes o, si fumas, deja de hacerlo.

• Intenta perder el exceso de grasa abdominal.

• Sigue una dieta sana: consulta los consejos anteriores.

• Pide más consejos a tu médico.

It's sometimes possible to get a false reading, so if there's anything unusual about your test results, your doctor may ask for the test to be repeated. If your HDL-C level is high, this can also make your TC level look high, so your doctor usually checks all the components to your blood test - TC, HDL-C and LDL-C levels.

¿Qué debo hacer? Si la lectura de su LDL-C está fuera de los niveles saludables, hable con su médico. Si es superior a 4,9 mmol/l y tiene antecedentes familiares de cardiopatía coronaria precoz, podría padecer hipercolesterolemia familiar (HF ), una forma de hipercolesterolemia hereditaria que requiere tratamiento y cambios en el estilo de vida.

Otros miembros de su familia pueden padecer la misma enfermedad, por lo que es importante obtener un diagnóstico adecuado para que todos puedan recibir el tratamiento adecuado. Si tu nivel de LDL-C es alto por otros motivos, cambiar tu dieta y tu régimen de ejercicio podría ayudarte a recuperar el colesterol malo.

El médico también puede recetarle estatinas, un grupo de medicamentos que ayudan a reducir el LDL-C en sangre, sobre todo si padece HF u otros factores de riesgo como la edad, la diabetes, el tabaquismo o la hipertensión arterial.

What should I do? This reading has been shown to help calculate your likelihood of CVD more accurately than before. So if yours is high, you have a higher chance of developing CVD.

Your doctor may prescribe a statin but will recommend you follow healthy lifestyle advice (see above) too, along with losing weight and quitting smoking if needed. Exercise can be very helpful, as it can help raise HDL-C levels which offsets any rise in non-HDL cholesterol.

What should I do? This reading will help your doctor work out whether your overall cholesterol levels are healthy, which in turn helps them calculate your chance of developing CVD - another reason why it's important to have full cholesterol results, not just TC.

It could be high if your TC, LDL-C and non-HDL cholesterol levels are too high, or if your HDL-C is too low, or a combination of both. Maintaining a healthy TC:HDL ratio long-term can help reduce your likelihood of having CVD in future. You can do this by following the advice above.

What should I do? High triglyceride levels are often seen with low HDL levels - an unhealthy combination linked with early heart disease. It can also cause a painful condition called pancreatitis which needs to be seen by a doctor immediately.

People can have raised levels for many reasons, but the most common reasons are lifestyle-related:

• Tener forma de manzana: llevar un exceso de peso alrededor de la barriga.

• Desarrollar o padecer diabetes de tipo 2.

• Consumo excesivo de alcohol.

You can keep your triglyceride levels low by losing weight, being more active and eating sensibly, especially by cutting back on alcohol, sugary foods, and saturated fats, and eating more fruits, vegetables, pulses, and whole grains.