Does High Cholesterol Run in Your Family? 4 Ways to Check-In on Your Cholesterol Health

High cholesterol is an extremely common medical condition in America. In fact, 95 million Americans over the age of 20 have total cholesterol levels higher than 200mg/dL. (The recommended total cholesterol level is 170mg/dL.) Sadly, even small children can have high cholesterol, 7% of American kids between the ages of 6 to 19 suffer from the condition.

According to MedlinePlus, the National Institutes of Health & National Library of Medicine’s online resource for patients, cholesterol is a “waxy, fat-like substance that’s found in all the cells in your body.”

Cholesterol is made by your liver and is vital for living. It helps most of your organs function, including your brain and skin. However, having too much cholesterol in your body can be damaging. High cholesterol is a common contributing factor to coronary heart disease, heart attacks, stroke, and Type 2 diabetes.

You can cause high cholesterol by poor lifestyle habits and eating foods rich in cholesterol, saturated fat or trans fat, such as meat, dairy, processed foods, fried foods, and certain candies and baked goods.

But foods rich in cholesterol, saturated fats, and trans fats aren’t the only contributors to high cholesterol. Having a family history of high cholesterol—familial hypercholesterolemia (FH)—means you’re born with an inherited gene defect that causes high cholesterol.

According to the American Heart Association, familial hypercholesterolemia affects 1 in every 250 Americans, and if left untreated, it can have dire consequences. FH is considered a life-threatening disease and should be taken seriously. If high cholesterol runs in your family, here are steps you can take to understanding and handling your cholesterol.

Visit your doctor:

High cholesterol is a condition you most likely can’t see or feel; however, people with FH often have fatty deposits that appear around eyes, hands, knees, elbows, and Achilles tendons.

Typically people do not know that they have FH. The best way to confirm if you have high cholesterol is to visit your primary care doctor. Explain to your doctor your concerns about having high cholesterol and which family members have had it.

Your doctor will most likely do a physical exam and order blood work. Your cholesterol can be checked by a simple blood test. Depending on your family history and blood test results, your doctor may diagnose you with familial hypercholesterolemia. It’s also possible to genetically test whether you’re carrying the gene variant for FH.

Make lifestyle changes:

If the blood test shows that you indeed have high cholesterol but you do not carry FH, there are simple lifestyle changes you can make to help lower your count. Quitting smoking, losing weight, and adding exercise to your weekly routine can help prevent or lower high cholesterol.

In addition to cutting foods rich in cholesterol and trans and saturated fats, adding cholesterol-lowering foods to your diet such as oats, fiber-rich foods, fish, avocados and nuts can have a positive effect on your numbers. When using oil, the Mayo Clinic recommends cooking with olive oil, which has unsaturated fats.

Get medicated:

Individuals with familial hypercholesterolemia need more than just lifestyle changes to keep their numbers low. Typically they need to start a regime of cholesterol-lowering medication, otherwise known as statins.

These drugs will help reduce the production of cholesterol in the body. Statins have been instrumental in helping lower cholesterol levels for millions of Americans; however, reported side effects include muscle pain, liver damage, memory loss, and confusion.

It’s important to speak with your doctor about any concerns you may have. According to the American Heart Association, other forms of FH treatment include bile acid sequestrants, PCSK9 inhibitors, and LDL apheresis, a “dialysis-like procedure” that removes cholesterol from your blood.

Encourage other family members to get tested:

Familial hypercholesterolemia is hereditary, and if you have children, there’s a 50% chance you’ll pass FH down to your child. If left untreated, men with FH typically have a heart attack before the age of 50, and women before the age of 60. Testing can save lives and help you or your loved ones get on the path to cholesterol management.