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Causes
What Causes High Cholesterol?
Heredity is the main factor determining your cholesterol. Then, depending on your genetic makeup, your diet is next in line as a risk factor for high cholesterol. Foods containing cholesterol, saturated fats, or trans fats all contribute to your total cholesterol pool. People with the right genes to handle cholesterol usually have no problem handling a regular fatty diet. For a large portion of the population, however, a bad diet drives the cholesterol up.
Many foods that come from animals are high in both saturated fat and cholesterol. Some non-animal foods also are high in saturated fat; these include foods made with coconut and palm oils and trans fats, or hydrogenated vegetable oils like shortening and margarine.
These are other factors that influence your cholesterol levels:
- Weight. Being overweight usually raises your LDL cholesterol. Losing weight may lower your LDL level, as well as your triglycerides, and boost your HDL cholesterol.
- Exercise. Getting regular exercise may lower your LDL cholesterol and raise your HDL cholesterol.
- Age and gender. Until menopause, women usually have lower total cholesterol levels than those of men. After age 50, women often have higher total cholesterol levels than men of the same age. For both men and women, total cholesterol levels rise until about age 65.
- Alcohol. Although alcohol boosts HDL cholesterol, it has no effect on LDL cholesterol, and excessive alcohol consumption raises triglycerides. Too much alcohol also damages the liver, brain, and heart.