Jen Forik ANP-BC, AGACNP, PN-L1, CF-L2
Picture this, you go to your primary care physician, have blood work drawn, and then receive a message through the portal that your cholesterol is high. Now what? Cholesterol is a medical term we may hear quite often, but do you truly understand its impact on your health and cardiovascular system? The good news is, usually on your first visit to the doctor you will be told to change your diet and exercise to try and lower your cholesterol before they prescribe you medication. So let’s dive into the impact cholesterol has on your health.
What is cholesterol?
Cholesterol is essential and needed in developing hormones, vitamin D, and also assists in digestion, but on a normal day, your body makes enough cholesterol for these important bodily functions. When we eat unhealthy foods in excess, your risk of high cholesterol increases.
What are some risk factors for high cholesterol?
- Unhealthy eating habit in excess such as highly processed foods, saturated fats, dairy, meats, baked goods, and fried foods
- Being overweight can increase your risk
- Limited to no physical activity
- Smoking can increase your LDL (bad cholesterol), and lower your HDL (good cholesterol)
- Age
- Heredity
- Alcohol
- Race
How does cholesterol affect your health?
Cholesterol is in the foods you eat but, in excess, can combine with other substances in your body to form plaque in your blood vessels. Build up of these plaques is called atherosclerosis which can lead to coronary artery disease, or narrowing of the blood vessels.
This can lead to:
- Chest pain: Buildup of plaques can narrow your blood vessels and limit the supply of blood flow to your heart, this can lead to chest pain or angina.
- Heart attack: If plaques tear or rupture, a clot can form at the tear/rupture site causing complete blockage of the vessel. The plaque can then travel downstream and cause further blockage. If part of your heart is without blood supply, this can lead to a heart attack
- Stroke: Similarly, a stroke can occur when a clot blocks blood flow to the brain.
How to decrease your risk of high cholesterol:
- Exercise most days of the week for at least 30 mins or more
- Quit smoking
- Limit alcohol
- Manage stress
- Get adequate sleep 7-9 hours
- Limit saturated fats, and highly processed foods
- Eats meats, vegetables, nuts, seed, some fruit, little starch, no additive/processed sugar
Yearly visits to your primary care team with bloodwork is a good starting point. Think of your first set of bloodwork as a baseline test as if you just did “Grace” or “Isabel” for the first time. Your time may not be so great, so naturally as an athlete what do you do? You get in the gym more, you focus on your form, and you work on the basics. Similarly with your cholesterol if you focus on your diet, increase exercise, limit your processed foods and alcohol, your numbers should improve.
As we know, nutrition is the base of the CrossFit theoretical hierarchy of an athlete. What you put in your body is fuel, the more nutrient dense food you provide for your body, the better. Knowing your personal risk of high cholesterol and other chronic illnesses can help you adjust your lifestyle and lead to a healthier you!
