Serum Lipid Levels: A Brief Guide to Heart Health

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Your heart is one of the most important muscles in your body. It works 24/7 and keeps our bodies alive. It is vital to have a heart check-up even if you are young and healthy. There are many cardiovascular issues that can arise asymptomatically such as high serum lipid levels.

What Does High Serum Lipid Levels Mean?

If you have had a blood test at your doctors practice or perhaps taken an at-home heart health blood test, your results may show that you have high serum lipids. This means, that your body has high levels of LDL cholesterol. In other words, LDL cholesterol is ‘bad’ cholesterol that can cause heart issues. When these levels are particularly higher than what they should be, it poses a risk of disease and illness.

 

What Is the Problem with High LDL Cholesterol?

High LDL cholesterol can block the walls of your blood vessels which affects the hearts’ ability to pump blood through. The result of this can lead to many heart problems and diseases that can become severe. This includes:

  • Heart Attack
  • Cardiovascular Disease
  • Stroke
  • Diabetes
  • High Blood Pressure

Are There Any Symptoms of High Serum Lipid Levels?

Unfortunately, no. There are no major symptoms that your body can display to warn you about your cholesterol levels. This can lead to these issues being ignored and unnoticed. As a result of this, many people will have a heart health blood test. As mentioned previously, these can be bought online and taken at home and then sent to a lab for results. Since it is not obvious that your heart may be at risk, it is extremely beneficial to take a blood test to find this out.

 

What Can Be Done to Maintain Good Heart Health?

Looking after your heart to keep it healthy and strong, does not have to be difficult. There are a number of ways that you can look after this muscle such as:

  • Eat a low-salt diet
  • Eat your 5-a-day
  • Decrease your consumption of red meat
  • Maintain a healthy, balanced weight
  • Don’t smoke
  • If you drink alcohol, do it in moderation
  • Do cardiovascular exercise for 150 minutes per week

It is important to note that even if you do implement these habits to your lifestyle, high serum lipid levels can affect anyone, especially those who have a family history of heart problems.

Conclusion

Serum lipid levels are important to get checked, regardless of your lifestyle habits or how fit and healthy you physically look and feel. Now that these tests can be taken at home, you can receive a heart health report in 5 working days which will break-down your cholesterol levels both good (HDL) and bad (LDL).