High Cholesterol

Healthy adults should have their cholesterol checked every 4-6 years because high cholesterol doesn’t cause symptoms. A blood test is the only way to learn if your cholesterol levels are too high. At South Brooklyn Care in the Brighton Beach neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, Elvira Neculiseanu, MD, and Aleksandre Toreli, MD, specialize in high cholesterol management. They evaluate your risk to determine how often you need screenings, creating personalized care plans that lower your cholesterol and protect you from cardiovascular disease. Call the South Brooklyn Care office today or request an appointment online for cholesterol screening and management.

Why do I need high cholesterol management?

High cholesterol is among the top risk factors for cardiovascular disease. When excess cholesterol circulates in your bloodstream, it’s more likely to build up on the artery walls and create fatty plaque.

Without management, the plaque keeps enlarging and narrowing the artery, a condition called atherosclerosis. Atherosclerosis eventually blocks blood flow, causing a heart attack or stroke.

Does high cholesterol management boost good cholesterol?

Cholesterol is produced by your liver and comes from foods and beverages. No matter where it comes from, all cholesterol is the same.

So how do you get good and bad cholesterol? That happens during digestion. After you eat cholesterol-containing foods, your small intestine turns cholesterol into a lipoprotein — pieces of fat wrapped in a protein cover.

The type of lipoprotein determines whether it’s good or bad cholesterol. Low-density lipoproteins (LDL) make up the “bad” cholesterol because they stay in your bloodstream and cause atherosclerosis.

High-density lipoproteins (HDL) are called “good” cholesterol because they collect LDLs and carry them to your liver, eliminating excess cholesterol.

During high cholesterol management, your treatment plan aims to lower LDLs and total cholesterol while increasing HDLs.

What should I expect during high cholesterol management?

After running blood tests to verify your cholesterol levels, your South Brooklyn Care provider develops a cholesterol management plan that includes:

Lifestyle changes

The foods you eat, especially certain fats and added sugars, change the levels of LDLs and HDLs. Being overweight boosts blood levels of cholesterol. Smoking lowers HDLs and raises LDLs while drinking too much alcohol increases total cholesterol levels.

Changing your lifestyle often brings your cholesterol levels back to normal, helping you avoid medication.

Medication

When lifestyle changes don’t help, your provider prescribes medication to lower your cholesterol.

Treating underlying conditions

Your provider treats conditions that cause high cholesterol, including high blood pressure (hypertension) and diabetes.

Restoring circulation

Your provider eliminates the plaque blocking your artery using a minimally invasive procedure called angioplasty and stenting. After guiding a narrow catheter (flexible tube) through your blood vessels to the clogged artery, they inflate a balloon that pushes the plaque out of the way. They then insert a stent (wire mesh tube) to hold the artery open.

Call South Brooklyn Care or request an appointment online to learn more about high cholesterol management and how it can improve your health.