High cholesterol symptoms: Hair loss in three specific areas of the body can be a sign

High cholesterol: Nutritionist reveals top prevention tips

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High cholesterol means you have too much cholesterol in your blood. Cholesterol is a waxy substance that performs many important roles on the body, such as helping your metabolism work efficiently. However, you need to maintain healthy levels – tipping the balance can cause a tsunami of serious complications. Symptoms of high cholesterol often surface when high levels start to narrow the arteries in your legs.

This narrowing reduces the supply of blood to your muscles and other tissues, giving rise to a slew of sinister symptoms.

This complication is formally called peripheral arterial disease (PAD).

Many people who have PAD have no symptoms, so you may not know that you have the condition.

However, according to Bupa, hair loss from your toes, feet or legs can indicate PAD.

“The most common symptom of peripheral arterial disease is cramp-like pain, aching or tiredness in your calf when you walk, climb stairs or exercise,” says the health body.

Other signs include:

• Pain in your foot or calf at rest or at night
• Weakened muscles in your legs
• Pale, cool skin on your legs and feet, especially when your feet are put up
• Sores or wounds on your toes, feet or legs that won’t heal.

How to prevent PAD

Lowering high cholesterol levels is integral to staving off the threat of PAD and other cholesterol complications.

For starters, you should get tested for high cholesterol.

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Since high cholesterol does not typically cause symptoms, you can only find out if you have it from a blood test.

“Your GP might suggest having a test if they think your cholesterol level could be high,” explains the NHS.

“This may be because of your age, weight or another condition you have (like high blood pressure or diabetes).”

There are two ways of testing for cholesterol:

• Taking blood from your arm
• Finger-prick test.

How to lower high cholesterol

The most effective weapons against high cholesterol is eating a healthy, balanced diet and upping the amount of exercise you do.

Healthy eating can make a huge difference to your cholesterol levels and your heart health, whether your cholesterol has crept up over the years or you have a genetic condition.

As cholesterol charity Heart UK points out, “we all need some fats in our diet.

“It’s getting the right balance of the different types of fats that will help keep your cholesterol and triglycerides [another blood fat] levels and your heart healthy.”

The healthy kind of fat to pack into your diet is unsaturated fat.

There are different types of unsaturated fat known as monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats, and they do different jobs in the body.

“It’s good to eat a range of foods so that you get both,” advises Heart UK.

Unsaturated fats are found in plant foods and oily fish, and they are usually liquid at room temperature.

They’re found in:

• Oils from vegetables, nuts and seeds, such as sunflower, safflower, rapeseed, olive, peanut, walnut and corn oil
• Spreads based on these oils
• Nuts and seeds
• Avocado
• Oily fish such as herring, pilchards, mackerel, salmon and trout.

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