Complications of Cholesterol

Cholesterol Complications, Complications Disease From Cholesterol, Cholesterol Health Information

Cholesterol has been found to have many other serious complications. This article highlights those complications. The following complications can occur.

• Atherosclerosis

This is an arterial disorder. This is the most common occurring complication. Substances like fat and cholesterol gets deposited in the arteries which can lead to larger accumulations called plaque. This can damage the artery walls and obstruct the blood flow through the arteries. Such blood restrictions in heart muscle results in chest pain.

There are strong proven evidences for LDL to be bad and HDL to be good. The significance of triglycerides and other lipids are not yet clear. LDL is alone found to deposit on the artery walls forming smaller plaques initially leading to bigger ones which forms fibrous caps along with calcium deposits.

In the long term, these leads to atherosclerosis or hardening of arteries. This process poses the following two risks to the heart.

1. Stenosis – the calcified deposits make the arteries inelastic and narrow.
2. Angina – stenosis can continue till the flow of blood slows down and prevents the transport of oxygen to the heart leading to angina, which can in turn lead to heart attack in severe cases.

The smaller plaques may sometimes break off from the arterial wall and form clots on the surface which can block the arteries to the heart and are the main reason behind heart attacks. This is enhanced by other factors like high BP, obesity, smoking, diabetes, sedentary lifestyle, etc. The presence of more than one risk condition can enhance the chances largely.

Besides, unhealthy cholesterol levels can affect the cardiac muscles directly and lead to heart failure. Elevated levels of another cholesterol component, lipoprotein (a) (its density varies between that of HDL and LDL) can also enhance the risk for angina and in turn heart attacks owing to its property of forming blood clots. This is a serious condition in the case of older women and not men. Lipoprotein (a) concentrations are inherited and are tough to be altered by dietary changes.

• Coronary Artery Disease

In 2003, Coronary artery disease or heart disease has been a leading cause of nearly 500000 deaths in US. But this has been controlled drastically and death rates have declined reasonably owing to better cholesterol management. The risk to get heart disease is increased when the patient has cholesterol levels greater than 200mg/dl. A study has reported the risk to increase nearly 2-4 times in men with greater than 240 mg/dl levels as compared to men with 200 mg/dl levels, indicating that a single point drop in cholesterol levels leads to a 2% reduction in risk.

• Stroke

This occurs in a similar fashion as in atherosclerosis. In atherosclerosis, the plaques form and block the blood flow to the heart. In stroke, the plaques block the flow to the brain. HDL seems to play an important role. Sufficient levels of HDL can prevent ischemic stroke (caused by blockage of carotid arteries, arteries carrying blood to brain) by serving as lipid-carriers. HDL also lowers the risk for obtaining hemorrhagic stroke (caused by bleeding in brain in association with low total cholesterol). Ischemic stroke can occur in people with cholesterol levels of greater than 280 mg/dl.

• Alzheimer's Disease

Research has clearly indicated that high cholesterol levels combined with high BP and family history of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) can add to the risk factors of the disease. Apolipoprotein E (ApoE) is involved in the cholesterol transportation and distribution to the neurons in the course of development or after injury. A variant of this factor, ApoE4 considerably increases the risk for AD, but high cholesterol is an independent risk factor for AD irrespective of ApoE4. Cholesterol is an important component to brain for functions like communication and memory.