Hyperlipidemia (High Cholesterol)

Making Healthy Lifestyle Choices in Fremont, CA

Hyper lipidemia—or, as it is more commonly known, high cholesterol—is a serious and dangerous condition that can affect your health in many ways. Do you have high cholesterol? Knowing your risk factors and knowing how your lifestyle affects your cholesterol can help you protect your health as you seek to make the right choices for a long and healthy life.

Our team at Washington Township Medical Foundation has provided the following resources related to hyper lipidemia for your understanding and benefit:

• High Cholesterol: Assessing Your Risk
• Cholesterol Quiz
• Controlling Your Cholesterol
• Understanding Your Cholesterol Numbers
• Lifestyle Changes to Control Cholesterol

What Causes High Cholesterol?

High cholesterol is a term for an aggressively or dangerously high concentration of fats—also known as “lipids”—in the bloodstream. This condition can be caused by a number of genetic disorders or acquired disorders. There are no symptoms of high cholesterol. The only way to know is by getting tested by your doctor. Ask your Fremont internist when it is time to start getting routine cholesterol tests. Lifestyle causes include consuming too high a level of unhealthy fats, being inactive, or being obese.

Some of the risk factors for high cholesterol include:

• A body mass index (BMI) of 30 or higher
• A waist circumference of 40 inches or higher for men, or 35 inches or higher for women
• Inactivity / sedentary lifestyle
• Smoking
• Diabetes mellitus
• Eating too much saturated fat or foods with high levels of cholesterol