Controlling Cholesterol Counts Video Transcript

Participants

, Sharonne N. Hayes MD, Lori Mosca MD, MPH, P, Sumit Verma MD

Summary

Cholesterol is one of the most established risk factors for heart disease, yet people are still confused. Learn what cholesterol is and what we can do to control it.

Webcast Transcript

ANNOUNCER: Cardiovascular disease is the leading killer of men and women in the United States, claiming one million lives each year.

LORI MOSCA, MD: Cardiovascular disease includes diseases of the heart, but it also includes stroke and blockages in other arteries in the body. And it's important to know that about half of all the deaths due to cardiovascular disease are due to coronary heart disease.

ANNOUNCER: Coronary artery disease develops when cholesterol is deposited and absorbed into the wall of a vessel within the heart. Here white blood cells trying to consume the cholesterol, lose their battle and rupture, forming plaques. The plaques lead to narrowing of the vessel that can cause intermittent chest pain known as angina. But if the plaque ruptures, a clot is formed that can block the vessel and lead to a heart attack.

LORI MOSCA, MD: Cholesterol is one of the most established risk factors that we have for heart disease. We have proven beyond any shadow of a doubt that it is a major risk factor for heart disease and that better yet, by lowering it, you can prevent heart disease.

ANNOUNCER: There are two major types of cholesterol.

LORI MOSCA, MD: When we talk about total cholesterol, we have LDL cholesterol, which is the bad cholesterol. One way to remember that is "L" is for lousy; we want it lower. And then we have the good cholesterol, which is the HDL cholesterol. "H" is for healthy; we want it higher.

ANNOUNCER: Another consideration in managing cholesterol are triglycerides, which are another form of fat found in the blood.

LORI MOSCA, MD: Triglycerides are also important. They are also contained in the plaque buildup that leads to heart disease and they're very strongly related with the development of heart disease.

ANNOUNCER: When doctors measure a person's cholesterol levels, the goal is to have LDL cholesterol levels less than 100mg/dL. For HDL cholesterol, the higher the better, greater than 40 mg/dL for men and 50mg/dL for women and triglyceride levels should be less than 150 mg/dL. Physicians agree that the closer patient's levels are to these optimal levels, the less risk they face of heart attack or stroke.

LORI MOSCA, MD: We really don't talk too much about the total cholesterol anymore. It's not really as predictive in terms of future heart disease risk as knowing the specific levels of the good, the bad, and the triglycerides.

ANNOUNCER: But how does one manage unhealthy cholesterol levels? The first step is understanding where the cholesterol comes from.

LORI MOSCA, MD: Cholesterol comes from two sources. There is the cholesterol that you eat in food and there is also the cholesterol in your body. So it's very important when we think about methods to lower cholesterol we have to think about reducing it in the diet, but we also, in some situations, need to reduce the amount that our body makes.

ANNOUNCER: There are many dietary steps an individual can take to manage their cholesterol. These include limiting fat from the diet, particularly saturated fats and transfats, limiting cholesterol-rich foods, and boosting fiber. But results from dietary changes can be mixed.

LORI MOSCA, MD: The impact of diet on cholesterol levels varies widely from person to person. Some people get discouraged, and some doctors get discouraged, because when we look at the sort of average reductions that we see in cholesterol levels with dietary therapy, on average they're often not very impressive. In some studies we might see five or ten percent reduction.