Silent Cholesterol Danger

Plenty of my patients walk into my clinic looking mighty fine. No chest pain, no shortness of breath, even denies report of dizziness. However, their laboratory results show a complete different story. The most common reason for a patient's surprised look, a laboratory result with the elevated LDL - aka "bad cholesterol".

Doc Damian, why is my cholesterol especially the LDL very high even if I don't have any symptoms at all? I often hear this in my clinic, and I understand the surprised and confused look in my patients. Having a high cholesterol is a silent condition. You will not feel your LDL increasing. You won't feel no headaches. No alarm bells that tells the body that the cholesterol is increasing but inside your body LDL cholesterol are depositing in your blood vessel walls, plaque are forming - this is known as atherosclerosis, arteries are slowly narrowing in diameter and risk of heart attack and stroke are increasing over time. 

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), elevated cholesterol levels contributes to approximately 2.6 million deaths worldwide annually. The American Heart Association emphasizes that cholesterol screening is crucial because most individuals with high levels do not experience symptoms until serious cardiovascular disease develops.

Most of my patients often tell me this: "but doc, I only eat fish!". Yes, fish can be heart-healthy especially with the types of mackerel, salmon and sardines. However preparation matters! When I further probe my patients what type of fish do they it, they primarily mention deep-frying. Now this is where we often find mistakes in something that is healthy, the common mistakes are: deep-frying fish, re-using or heavily deep-frying, excessive use of oil, large portion sizes and eating with high-fat sauces. When fish is fried, it absorbs oil, increasing saturated and trans fats — which can elevate LDL cholesterol. Research published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology has shown that fried food consumption is associated with increased risk of coronary heart disease. So remember, it's not the food that we eat is the problem, it's how we prepare the food that we eat!

Then doc, what should we do in order to ensure that we don't further increase the cholesterol in our body? This is why blood chemistry monitoring is essential even if the patients feels healthy, exercises occasionally, no family history, and believes that you eat healthy. You may be surprised, I often find in my practice elevated LDL cholesterol in slim patients, abnormal triglycerides in non-smokers and metabolic syndrome in patients who doesn't have any symptoms. The earlier we detect abnormalities, the easier they are to manage — often with lifestyle modification alone. What happens to our body if LDL are unchecked and left elevated? Well, for one, it increases our risk for developing heart attack and stroke. By the time symptoms persist, the disease may unfortunately already be advanced.

You may look healthy on the outside! But health is not measured by appearance alone. A simple blood test can reveal risks before they become emergencies. Preventive care is always easier and safer than emergency care.

If it has been more than a year since your last lipid profile, this may be your reminder. You may see your friendly internal medicine doctor, and that is me Doc Damian!

Your future heart will always be grateful to you!