Cholesterol Symptoms

Like hypertension sometimes there are no symptoms to high blood cholesterol until it is too late. A stroke or heart attack might be the first sign of high cholesterol causing artherosclerosis, (hardening of the arteries). For this reason it is important to have regular cholesterol monitoring and to try to keep cholesterol within healthy limits which will be set according to your risk factors for heart disease, stroke or other diseases.

At other times the high cholesterol may be blocking arteries sufficiently that a patient has begun to experience symptoms. For instance when there is a build up of plaques in the coronary arteries (arteries going to the heart) the decreased blood flow and therefore decreased oxygen getting to the heart sometimes results in angina or chest pain.

These plaques can form in any arteries in the body and symptoms can vary depending on which artery is experiencing blockage.

Xanthoma- irregular yellow patches or nodules on the skin , caused by deposits of lipids are sometimes seen particularly in patients with heterozygous familial hypercholesterolemia, high cholesterol with genetic causes.