Blood lipids

Lipids such as cholesterol, triglycerides and lipoprotein(a) promote atherosclerosis and hence lead to heart attack, stroke and peripheral vascular disease. In addition, extremely high triglyceride levels may provoke pancreatitis, which may be life-threatening.

Depending on the elevated lipid fraction, high blood lipids (hyperlipidemia, dyslipidemia) are differentiated into hypercholesterolemia (high cholesterol), hypertriglyceridemia (high triglycerides), and combined hyperlipidemia (high cholesterol and triglycerides). In addition, lipid fractions such as HDL, LDL, and lipoprotein(a) are considered.

Hyperlipidemias are often caused by a genetic predisposition together with environmental factors. Some lipid disorders, such as “familial hypercholesterolemia” (FH), are strictly genetically inherited and have to be diagnosed and treated specifically.

Treatment of high blood lipids depends on your individual cardiovascular risk. In addition to cholesterol, other risk factors such as age, gender, blood pressure smoking and diabetes add to this risk. If you already had a myocardial infarction, stent implantation, stroke, narrowing of arteries or similar, your risk is anyway very high. For your optimal therapeutic benefit, your individual risk is estimated prior to treatment.

Nutrition is an effective treatment for some but not all lipid disorders. A number of drugs are currently available to reduce elevated blood cholesterol and triglyceride levels. Further substances are currently under development. As an expert in the field, I’ll give you state-of-the-art advice to optimally prevent heart attack and stroke.