Having elevated levels of LDL cholesterol and/or triglycerides in your blood will need treatment with medication if your cholesterol diet, regular exercise, and healthy lifestyle measures do not succeed in bringing them down.
The proper diet, regular physical activity, and a corrected lifestyle alone can bring down your cholesterol by 20 percent within three to six months.
If you are one of the lucky ones, you may be able to bring your blood LDL cholesterol and triglyceride levels within normal limits with these natural measures alone and without the need for drugs.
At times, you will be required to start the medical treatment immediately upon being diagnosed with high cholesterol, if you harbor any risk factors such as diabetes, a history of heart disease, a heavy family history of high cholesterol, obesity, etc. In such cases, your doctor may not wait to see the results of your diet and exercise program.
Once treatment with medication has been initiated, you will have to continue it lifelong. If stopped midway, your cholesterol levels will rise again and expose you to the risk of complications such as a heart attack and stroke.
It is not as if you are treating a flesh wound, which once cured you can stop your drugs and dressing. It is like treating high blood sugar of diabetes for which medication is a lifelong commitment.
Hyperlipidemia or high cholesterol as we know it is a metabolic disorder in which your body is not able to efficiently metabolize the fats and therefore, their levels in the blood rise.
You need to boost your metabolism in order that the body’s lipids are more efficiently taken care of and kept within their normal limits.
It could be without drugs in the form of the right diet, regular exercise, and a healthy lifestyle. In such cases, you should continue with these measures throughout life.
If your doctor feels that you require cholesterol-reducing drugs and has put you on them, then you have to take them for life — Period.
And, of course, keep on periodically checking your blood for cholesterol levels. This will help to know whether your cholesterol-lowering measures and medications are working or not.
Most people are prescribed statins for life. This is because statins reduce your risk of heart attack and stroke over your lifetime, and more so as you get older.
However, once you stop taking the statin your cholesterol will usually go up again and the risk of complications rise.
Statins are one of the most researched drugs, and there’s lots of reliable evidence showing they’re very safe to take for life. This includes research funded by the British Heart Foundation.
