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Does High Cholesterol Make You Tired

Are High Triglycerides Making Me Tired

Reversing Joint Pain, Fatigue, High Cholesterol: The Goldberg Clinic

Fact Checked

Having high triglycerides alone dont make you tired, but conditions such as diabetes or thyroid disease that raise triglyceride levels, can make you feel drained and tired.

Prompt treatment of these medical problems, paying stricter attention to what you eat and eliminating bad help habits will lower triglyceride levels, and eliminate fatigue.

What Happens During A Cholesterol Test

A health care professional will take a blood sample from a vein in your arm, using a small needle. After the needle is inserted, a small amount of blood will be collected into a test tube or vial. You may feel a little sting when the needle goes in or out. This usually takes less than five minutes.

Cholesterol tests are usually done in the morning, as you may be asked to refrain from eating for several hours prior to the test.

You may also be able to use an at-home kit to test for cholesterol. While instructions may vary between brands, your kit will include some kind of device to prick your finger. Youll use this device to collect a drop of blood for testing. Be sure to follow the kit instructions carefully.

Also, be sure to tell your health care provider if your at-home test results shown your cholesterol level is higher than 200 mg/dl.

Unfortunately These Drugs Can Be An Insidious Cause Of Fatigue

Statin medications are in the top 3 of most prescribed medications. More than thirty million Americans are currently taking cholesterol medication. In Canada, one in ten people is taking a statin drug. But doctors feel that number should be closer to one in four people. Thats 25% of the Canadian population!

Lipitor is thought to be the best selling medication in history. In 2008, Lipitor alone reached sales of more than $12 billion. Clearly, these drugs are prescribed at incredibly high rates.

Perhaps the surge in cholesterol medication use could be behind the high levels of fatigue purported by many North American citizens.

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Unexpected Signs You Have High Cholesterol

Your eyes, legs toenails and skin may indicate signs of high cholesterol. If you dont treat high cholesterol it leads to plaque build up in your artery walls, known as atherosclerosis, and limits blood flow. If you are diagnosed with high cholesterol your body has so much bad cholesterol that it doesnt even know what to do with it.

Natural Remedies And Lowering Cholesterol

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Its very important to talk to your health professional before using any:

  • supplements
  • natural remedies
  • or complementary therapies.

Sometimes they can do more harm than good. They may interact with any medication that youre taking, which can be dangerous. They can also make your medication less effective. Your doctor needs to know everything that you are taking to ensure that the combination is safe.

If youve been prescribed cholesterol-lowering medication, make sure you take it as directed by your doctor. This is one of the most effective ways to keep your cholesterol levels down.

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Will High Cholesterol Make Me Feel Bad

No. For most people, high cholesterol has no symptoms at all, according to the AHA. But when it causes plaque buildup in larger arteries in your heart, coronary artery disease can result, which can involve angina , chest pain, arrhythmia , and shortness of breath that can leave you low on energy, notes the NHLBI.

Coronary artery disease is the most common heart disease, but many people have no idea they have it until they suffer a heart attack, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention . For them, a heart attack is the first sign that theyd been living with high cholesterol.

The AHA advises having your cholesterol checked every four to six years or more frequently, if youre at risk starting at age 20. If your numbers are too high, you can take steps to lower your risk for both heart disease and stroke. Besides following a healthy diet and getting regular exercise, take medications as instructed if your doctor prescribes them.

You Experience Leg Pain While Exercising

If you experience a burning pain or feel like your legs are tired or heavy it may indicate poor blood flow to your legs, which could be related to high cholesterol. Pain may impact one or both legs, as well as any part of the leg from the calf to your buttocks. Most of the time the pain subsides with rest but then reoccurs when you do the same level of activity again, such as walking two blocks.

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Physical Signs Of High Cholesterol You Should Know About

Cholesterol is a fatty substance which is developed naturally in the body. It performs several vital functions like rebuilding walls surrounding the bodys cells and converting basic materials into certain hormones.

You only need a small amount of cholesterol and almost all of them are produced by your body. Most of the cholesterol in your body is produced in your liver. The rest of them come from your diet. This kind of dietary cholesterol is present in foods such as eggs, meat, and dairy products.

If you have too much cholesterol in your bloodstream, you have high cholesterol. High cholesterol increases your risk of heart disease, stroke, and peripheral vascular disease. For this reason, knowing the cholesterol levels in your blood is quite important to prevent any future heart disease and blockages of blood vessels.

There are two main types of cholesterol you should be aware of:

In other words, high levels of LDL cholesterol can cause more plaque accumulation and increase the risk of a heart attack, stroke and other diseases. On the other hand, high levels of HDL cholesterol can actually help prevent heart attacks and strokes. HDL gains its good name by removing LDL cholesterol from the arteries and tissues and bringing it back to the liver where the excessive LDL cholesterol is broken down.

Risk Factors for High LDL Cholesterol

Physical Signs of High Cholesterol Levels

1. Sore Hands and Feet
2. Frequent Tingling

What Happens If You Have High Cholesterol

Do high cholesterol levels lead to fatigue, cold extremities & shivering? – Dr. Sanjay Panicker

What does high cholesterol mean?

High cholesterol means there is too much cholesterol in your blood. This can clog up your arteries the large blood vessels that carry blood around your body. Over time, this can lead to serious problems.

How does cholesterol clog up your arteries?

Excess cholesterol can be laid down in the walls of your arteries. Fatty areas known as plaques can form, and these become harder with time, making the arteries stiffer and narrower. This process is called atherosclerosis.

  • Narrowed arteries

    When the arteries become narrower, its harder for blood to flow through them. This puts a strain on your heart because it has to work harder to pump blood around your body. Eventually, the heart can become weak and cant work as well as it should.

  • Blood clots

    Blood clots can form over the fatty, hardened parts of the arteries. The blood clots can block the artery completely, cutting off the blood flow. Bits of the blood clots can break away and become lodged in an artery or vein in another part of the body, which can cause a heart attack or stroke.

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High Blood Sugar Causes Fatigue

Fatigue is one of the most common symptoms of high blood sugar. In people with diabetes, it is referred to as diabetes fatigue. Many people with the condition feel tired all the time regardless of how well they sleep, how healthily they eat, or how much they exercise on a regular basis. Research has shown that up to 61% of people who are recently diagnosed with the condition experience fatigue. However, fatigue doesnt just occur in those with diabetes. It can also happen in people with normal or prediabetic blood sugar levels if they experience a sudden spike in their blood sugar.

When the body experiences a spike in blood sugar levels, it goes into overdrive trying to create enough insulin to balance it out. If there isnt enough insulin or the body isnt responding to the insulin as it should, your body will start to pull from fat to create the energy it needs. When this happens, energy is used from the splitting of a molecule known as adenosine triphosphate, or ATP. When ATP expels one of its three phosphates for energy, it turns into another molecule known as adenosine diphosphate, or ADP. If there are no energy sources to pull from, the ATP cannot regain the phosphate it gave away, leading to fatigue.

How Sleep Affects Your Lipids

Researchers are still exploring the links between getting adequate sleep and cholesterol levels. In some studies, no significant connections between sleep and lipid profiles have been noted, while other studies have found that too little or too much sleep affected HDL, LDL, and/or triglycerides.

The effect sleep has on lipids also appears to affect genders differently. For women, HDL and triglyceride levels appeared to be more affected by sleep duration. In one study, HDL was lowered by up to 6 mg/dL, and triglyceride levels were increased by up to 30 mg/dL, in women who slept less than six hours or more than eight hours. In most of the studies conducted to date in women, however, LDL did not appear to be significantly affected by sleep patterns.

Sleep patterns may have a different effect on men. In the same study, LDL increased by up to 9 mg/dL in men who slept less than six hours. However, triglycerides and HDL cholesterol did not appear to be significantly affected.

Additional evidence suggests that getting too much sleep or too little sleep placed individuals at higher risk of metabolic syndromea constellation of signs and symptoms that include lowered HDL, obesity, and elevated triglyceride, blood pressure, and glucose levels.

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How To Handle Side Effects

Donât stop taking your cholesterol drugs even if they donât make you feel great. Instead, talk to your doctor. There are a few ways they might be able to help you feel better:

Take a brief break. If you have muscle pain, your doctor may tell you to stop taking your drug for a short time and then start it again within a month. The time off can show if your medicine is causing the pain or if itâs due to another problem.

Check your other meds. If you take cholesterol drugs and other medicines, you might be more likely to have side effects. Tell your doctor about everything you take, including prescription drugs, over-the-counter meds, and supplements.

Get a lower dosage. Your doctor may try to reduce how much of your medicine you take. You might also be able to take a pill every other day instead of daily.

Switch treatments. If your side effects are too hard to handle, you might be able to try a different statin such pravastatin and rosuvastatin , which are less likely to cause muscle aches.The cholesterol drug ezetimibe may allow you to take a lower statin dose and thereby help relieve your muscle pain, for example.

Consider OTC treatments. Statins may lower levels of a substance in your muscles called coenzyme Q10, and that can cause pain. You may try taking CoQ10 supplements to get relief. Another option, L-carnitine, might help, too. But always talk to your doctor before you start taking any medicine, even ones you buy without a prescription.

Maybe Shes Born With It

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High cholesterol due to genetics is called familial hypercholesterolemia . People with FH are born with high cholesterol because their bodies cant process LDL correctly.

FH is one of the most common inherited diseases, affecting 1 in 220 adults. People with FH have a 13 times greater risk of heart disease. Untreated FH can result in chronically high cholesterol levels and heart disease.

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Why Should I Lower My Cholesterol

Evidence strongly indicates that high cholesterol can increase the risk of:

This is because cholesterol can build up in the artery wall, restricting the blood flow to your heart, brain and the rest of your body. It also increases the risk of a blood clot developing somewhere in your body.

Your risk of developing coronary heart disease also rises as your blood’s cholesterol level increases. This can cause pain in your chest or arm during stress or physical activity .

/6how The Symptoms Can Reflect In Legs

The most dangerous thing about cholesterol build-up is that the condition shows no symptoms until it reaches a dangerous level and starts affecting your daily life. The only way to diagnose and prevent it is by getting a regular blood check-up. When the cholesterol level rises in the blood to an extreme level, it starts affecting the Achilles tendon of your legs. This, in turn, can lead to visible symptoms in your legs. Here are some that you need to look out for:

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Does High Cholesterol Cause Tiredness

Actually, cholesterol is not always bad. For example, it is required to help hormones and vitamin D. The problem comes when it increases higher than normal. High cholesterol is dangerous, even could be life-threatening if left untreated. What are the symptoms? Does it cause tiredness, too?

Symptoms Of High Cholesterol

Fibromyalgia, Rheumatoid Arthritis, GERD (heartburn), Hypertension, High Cholesterol, Fatigue

Often, there are no specific symptoms of high cholesterol. You could have high cholesterol and not know it.

If you have high cholesterol, your body may store the extra cholesterol in your arteries. These are blood vessels that carry blood from your heart to the rest of your body. A buildup of cholesterol in your arteries is known as plaque. Over time, plaque can become hard and make your arteries narrow. Large deposits of plaque can completely block an artery. Cholesterol plaques can also break apart, leading to formation of a blood clot that blocks the flow of blood.

A blocked artery to the heart can cause a heart attack. A blocked artery to your brain can cause a stroke.

Many people dont discover that they have high cholesterol until they suffer one of these life-threatening events. Some people find out through routine check-ups that include blood tests.

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Bloating And Digestive Issues

The main reason for increased cholesterol levels is overeating fatty and fried food affects our liver and produces bad cholesterol in the body. If you are facing high cholesterol, then you may feel bloated even after eating significantly less.

Your stomach makes you feel heaviness and disinterest in appetite. The excess flow of lipid substance directly affects the metabolism and triggers the digestive system in your body, and you feel bloating and heaviness.

If you are constantly feeling these issues, then you must go for a lipid profile test.

High Cholesterol And Obesity

Understanding why some people have high cholesterol and some do not has a lot to do with the interplay of your genes coupled with your environment. Your genes and your environmentin this case, what you eat and how much you exercisecombine to form a baseline risk for developing high cholesterol. If you eat a diet that is high in fat, like high-fat meats, fried foods and high-fat cheeses, you are increasing your risk of both obesity and high cholesterol.

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What Is Cholesterol

When you hear the word cholesterol, you probably think that its bad. However, cholesterol isnt always a bad thing. In fact, cholesterol plays a vital role in helping the body produce vitamin D and certain hormones, and even form cell membranes.

There are different types of cholesterol. Low-density lipoprotein is the type of cholesterol that is often associated with negative effects on health. Its comprised of more fat than protein. Too much of it can accumulate and form lipid plaques in your arteries, leading to heart disease.

High-density lipoprotein cholesterol, on the other hand, has the power to suck up excess cholesterol. It delivers the essentials to your body first and then cleans up anything that would otherwise lead to buildup. Rather than totally avoid cholesterol, you need to know how to get the right type in your diet and how to regulate your numbers.

Why Take A Statin

How Much Cholesterol Per Day

Its not that elevated cholesterol is bad, its the consequences associated with high cholesterol levels that are bad. Cholesterol medications are prescribed to help lower the risk of cardiovascular disease.

Cardiovascular or heart disease continues to be the number one cause of death in the world. But as youll soon see, taking a statin may not actually lower your risk of heart disease at all!

You likely grew up hearing that fat was bad. Eating foods like butter, bacon, and red meat would raise your cholesterol levels and thus increase your risk of dying from a heart attack. But recent research is suggesting that this simply isnt true.

A meta-analysis of more than 23 difference studies showed that low-carb diets actually have beneficial effects on your health . And a massive study of more than 600,000 participants found that high levels of saturated fat consumption were not connected to cardiovascular disease. For a deeper dive into the connection between cholesterol and heart disease, check out this article.

In summary, you were prescribed a statin medication to help lower your cholesterol. Which was thought to lower your risk of heart disease. But new research suggests that just may not be as irrefutable as we once thought.

Instead, your cholesterol medication could be adding to your fatigue!

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