High cholesterol is a condition you have too much cholesterol in the blood due to unhealthy eating, drinking, and other lifestyle factors, potentially causing health problems like stroke and heart disease. In the United States alone, about 93 million Americans over the age of 20 suffer from high cholesterol levels.
Be sure to be on the lookout for the following…
1. Nausea
High cholesterol doesn’t usually manifest itself early on, but when it does, it’s usually when there are already high levels of it in your blood. Nausea, for example, is one of the more common symptoms, and most of the time, it leads to vomiting.
It can knock you down a peg too…
2. Extreme Fatigue
Technically, high cholesterol does not cause bodily fatigue per se, but resulting conditions like coronary heart disease or atherosclerosis can. These two conditions cause plaque buildup in the arteries, blocking blood flow making you feel tired.
This one doesn’t come as a surprise…
3. Angina
Chest pains are also commonplace among people with high cholesterol. Like fatigue, angina is likewise a result of the decreased blood flow to the heart caused by a plaque buildup in the arteries.
It can take your breath away, and not in a good way…
4. Shortness Of Breath
Like the two previous symptoms, frequent dyspnea or shortness of breath happens because of the clogging of the arteries with plaque, impeding the flow of oxygen-laden blood to the heart. Some patients even report losing consciousness as a result.
This condition may also come with body pain…
5. Upper Body Pain
One might occasionally feel a distinct pain in various areas in the upper body, like in the jaw, neck, shoulders, upper abdomen, arms, and back. These pains could also be a result of either angina or clogged arteries.
Sometimes you even have to take a “chill pill” to cool off…
6. Coldness In The Extremities
That strange numbness or coldness you feel in your extremities (arms, hands, legs, and feet) happens due to blood circulation problems rooting from the plaque buildup and even inflammation in the arteries.
The windows of the soul can tell so much more…
7. Yellowish Eyelids
You can tell if someone has high cholesterol just by looking at their eyes. Xanthelasma is a condition where yellowish-white patches tend to build up under the skin around the eyelids, eyes, and sometimes up to the nose.
Anything bumpy is never a good sign…
8. Bumps On The Skin
You may notice some unsightly little bumps appearing on your skin. This is a condition called eruptive xanthomatosis, where small, fat-filled bumps appear on the skin due to high levels of cholesterol in the blood.
Dozing off might be less cozy in the long run…
9. Sleep Problems
Albeit the relationship between the two conditions hasn’t been fully established, but people with high cholesterol levels tend to experience sleeping troubles like sleeplessness, disrupted sleep, and even sleep apnea in some cases.
Not all symptoms are physical…
10. Mental Health Problems
Studies have shown that people who suffer from mental health problems like panic disorders and schizophrenia tend to suffer from abnormally high levels of cholesterol and triglycerides more than people who don’t.
