Having high cholesterol can cause a number of serious health problems.
A person with high cholesterol has too much fatty substance - cholesterol - in their blood.
Symptoms do not often appear until the condition is serious with sinister signs surfacing when a person's arteries become obstructed.
When an artery becomes obstructed, it becomes more difficult for blood to be transported to vital organs around the body.
These blockages put someone with high cholesterol at high risk for health complications such as heart disease or stroke.
According to the Department of Surgery at the University of California, a complication of high cholesterol level can wake you up at night with pain in your feet.
One of the warning sign of high cholesterol is critical Limb Ischemia (CLI) - which reduces blow flow to your hands and feet.
It can cause 'severe' pain and even ulcers or sores, according to the experts.
According to the Department of Surgery at the University of California, San Francisco, "CLI is a severe obstruction of the arteries which markedly reduces blood flow to the extremities (hands, feet, and legs) and has progressed to the point of severe pain and even skin ulcers or sores".
The severe pain caused by CLI can wake you up or prevent you for drifting off at night.
"This pain, also called "rest pain", is often in the leg and can be relieved temporarily by hanging the leg over the bed or getting up to walk around".
It adds: "CLI is a very severe condition of peripheral artery disease (PAD) and needs comprehensive treatment by a vascular surgeon or vascular specialist."
In order to stave off the threat of high cholesterol complications, you must first get tested for high cholesterol.
How cholesterol tests are carried out
There are two ways of having a cholesterol test:
- Taking blood from your arm
- Finger-prick test.
How to lower high cholesterol
The NHS explains that those with high cholesterol will be advised how to lower it by a doctor or nurse.
You may be advised to make a dietary change or be prescribed medication.
There are certain foods that can help to lower cholesterol. In addition to health, balanced diet adding certain foods into your diet can help.
Replaced foods high in saturated fats with those with unsaturated fats is a great way to help lower cholesterol, according to Heart UK.
There are many foods high in saturated fats such as fatty cuts of meat, butter and lard.
Unsaturated fats include:
- Vegetable oils such as olive, sunflower, corn, rapeseed, nut and seed oils
- Avocado, nuts and seeds
- Fat spreads made from vegetable oils, such as sunflower and olive oil
- Oily fish.
Coconut oils have an image of being a healthy option - some stories mention that they can raise your HDL cholesterol - known as your 'good cholesterol'.
However, as Heart UK points out, this is unlikely to be the case as they only contain a small amount of the type of fat that raises HDL, known as "MCTs".
"More importantly, coconut oil is made up almost entirely of saturated fat. It contains even more saturated fat than butter, so is likely to cause the same health problems."
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