What causes cholesterol to be high?
In the UK too much saturated fat in the diet is the most common cause of high cholesterol. Saturated fat encourages the body to make more cholesterol than it needs or can get rid of. In the UK we tend to eat a lot of saturated fat and this is probably why we have the highest rates of coronary heart disease in the world. If you are a cigarette smoker you have about twice the risk of having a heart attack than a non smoker. If you also suffer with high blood pressure and high cholesterol, the 3 factors together multiply the chances of you suffering a heart attack by more than 8 times. However, high cholesterol levels can occasionally run in families, and in this situation it is usually because the body does not cope well with normal amounts of cholesterol being eaten. What happens if my cholesterol level is high? If there is too much cholesterol in the blood and the body can t get rid of it, the unused cholesterol can builds up in the artery walls, leading to the hardening and narrowing
