Can High Cholesterol Cause Joint Pain? Check Out The Facts!
As you all know cholesterol is a fatty substance found in the cells of our body. Cholesterol is an essential component for making your body healthy. The proper amount of cholesterol is beneficial to make certain hormones, vitamin D, and also helps the process of digestion.
The liver naturally produces the adequate amount of cholesterol you need. There are cholesterol are of two types. Low-density lipoprotein(LDL) cholesterol and high-density lipoprotein (HDL)cholesterol. LDL is the bad cholesterol that causes several risk factors. The food that you intake also influences to raise the bad cholesterol in the body.
You know that cholesterol is needed for the proper functioning of our body. But what if it raises? It will negatively impact your body.
As aforementioned earlier, high cholesterol levels lead you to several risk factors like cardiovascular disease.
According to a review publishes online in the British journal of sports medicine, high cholesterol can cause joint pain and other tendon complications.
Researchers study the tendon complications of 2612 participants. The research says that people who have experienced tendon pain and abnormal tendon structure are facing a high level of cholesterol.
The high rate of triglyceride and high-density lipoprotein is the reason behind joint pain. In addition, people who have high cholesterol are diagnosed with other complications.
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How Osteoarthritis And High Cholesterol Are Linked?
There is a common question that does high cholesterol cause joint pain? Because most people believe that high cholesterol mainly affects the heart. That’s a fact. But that doesn’t mean it is only harmful to heart health. It is bad for your joints too.
A research team at The Prince Charles Hospital has discovered that there is a link between high cholesterol and joint pain.
Normally you think that joint pains occur due to obesity, injury, calcium deficiency, etc. Actually, you don’t know what is happening in our joints and what causes them to break down.
The research proved that there is a close relationship between cholesterol and osteoarthritis.
The cholesterol level in the body directly influences osteoarthritis. A test is conducted to know about the effects of cholesterol on the condition.
The test showed that cholesterol placed oxidative stress on cartilage cells which makes them suffocative. The ultimate result is breaking the cartilage cells and causing severe joint pain.
Generally, osteoarthritis is a degenerative condition that causes severe pain in the joints. It makes our daily activities difficult such as getting out of bed, walking up stairs, and other motor activities.
The research also suggests that a special type of antioxidant drug can slow down the destruction of cartilage cells.
Future research may uncover more antioxidants that can help to repair damaged joints.
How To Find High Cholesterol?
High cholesterol is the enemy that negatively causes our lives. Normally high cholesterol doesn’t have any symptoms until it becomes a worse situation.
In some situations, you may feel some symptoms like numbness, nausea, slurred speech, high blood pressure, shortness of breath, extreme fatigue, etc.
However, these symptoms occur when you have cardiovascular diseases such as stroke or heart attack. Joint pains are visible in the final stage of high- cholesterol.
There is only one way to identify cholesterol is taking a blood test. A blood test can show whether you are diagnosed with cholesterol or not.
A lipid profile can measure cholesterol levels in the blood. It separates the amount of HDL, triglycerides, and LDL and also gives the total cholesterol.
Triglycerides are also a type of bad fat that is similar to low-density lipoprotein cholesterol. The high levels of LDL and triglycerides can increase bad conditions for health. There is a common belief that cholesterol is diagnosed mostly in aged people.
This is absolutely wrong. The changed lifestyle has affected their health irrespective of their age and sex. It is better to take advice from the healthcare team about your health history and how often you need to have your cholesterol checked.
Healthy adults should check their cholesterol levels every 4 to 5 years. People who have heart disease and diabetes should follow a blood test once a year.
Children who have obesity and heart-related problems should take a blood test more often to know about their cholesterol levels.
What Causes High Cholesterol?
Several factors influence high cholesterol. Lack of exercise, smoking, drinking, obesity, age, and family history are some common causes of high- cholesterol.
Food consumption contributes to high cholesterol. Trans fat and saturated fat are the main fats that increase the cholesterol level in the body.
Saturated fat is mainly found in cakes, biscuits, bacon, cheese, sausages, etc. on the other hand, trans fat mainly appears in the foods like Nondairy coffee creamer, stick margarine, frozen pizza, etc. overconsumption of these types of food is harmful to the health.
People who have a body mass index of 30 or greater have a chance of high cholesterol levels.
Our body needs proper exercise for maintaining a healthy life. But most of us lack this. You are fully packed with our time in a hurry-burry life. There is no time for exercising. Lack of exercise can increase the bad cholesterol in the body. Smoking and excessive alcohol consumption equally contribute to high-level cholesterol.
Cholesterol is much more common in people who have 40 years old or above the age category. When you get older, the capacity of the liver becomes less and it can’t able to remove bad cholesterol from the cells.
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/895934919595468737/sent/?invite_code=bb567fa71d35490c83c9363f89c59937&sender=895935057028543889&sfo=1How Can You Lower Cholesterol?
When it comes to cholesterol, the number matters. When you have high cholesterol, you should take care of your health by treating your body in a better way.
You should increase high-density lipoprotein cholesterol and decrease the count of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol.
The high amount of LDL is dangerous to your heart health and other body parts as well. Let’s look at the ways you can reduce the bad cholesterol level in the body.
- Avoid unhealthy foods
What you eat will reflect your body. As aforementioned earlier, saturated fat and trans fat are harmful to your health. Red meat and dairy products contain high saturated fat.
Avoiding the consumption of saturated food helps to decrease bad cholesterol and increase high-density lipoprotein levels in the body.
This is the same in the case of trans-fat. Trans fat also causes several risk factors. Cookies, crackers, and cakes have high-level trans-fat. Decreasing the consumption of trans-fat is also helpful for increasing good cholesterol levels in the body.
Some foods can replace junk foods and other processed foods. Omega-3 fatty acids are beneficial for your heart health.
Consuming herring, walnuts, flaxseed, salmon, and mackerel increases high-density lipoprotein cholesterol. Oatmeal, kidney beans, sprouts, and apples are rich in soluble fiber.
It helps to decrease cholesterol. Recent studies suggest that adding whey protein to your daily meal helps to control high cholesterol. It is given as a supplement to lower bad cholesterol.
- Follow a regular exercise
Exercise is important to lead a heart-healthy life. Doing regular exercise has several benefits. Exercise can control your blood pressure and cholesterol. To reduce your bad cholesterol, it is mandatory to follow regular exercise.
Increase your physical activity and burn bad cholesterol. Engaging in physical activities can help you to shed the excessive calories in your body and it can lower total cholesterol.
Take suggestions from your doctor before you start. Because the exercise may vary depending on your body. It’s better to exercise at least 30 minutes per day and find 20 minutes to do vigorous aerobic activity. Losing weight can influence your high cholesterol.
The more you do physical activities, the more you can lose weight. It may be riding your bike or playing your favorite sport etc. It’s better to talk with your friend who is a sportsman. He/she can give you some tips while doing exercise.
- Follow a heart-healthy diet
Doing regular exercise without any diet can’t give you any results to lower your cholesterol. You should consider the amount of food that you intake and avoid high-fat content foods.
Fruits and vegetables are the main sources of foods that help to lower cholesterol. When you plan to follow a diet, ensure that vegetables and fruits are included in your daily meal.
Different foods lower cholesterol in different ways. You know the importance of soluble fiber and polyunsaturated fats in lowering cholesterol levels. Include oats, barley, and other whole grains in your food.
In addition, beans, eggplant, okra, nuts, and vegetables do the same function. Just like exercise, you can not follow a diet on your own. Take advice from physicians before you start.
- Drink alcohol at a moderate level
Actually, drinking alcohol at a moderate level doesn’t affect your cholesterol level. Alcohol consumption at a moderate level is linked with high HDL cholesterol.
Consuming one drink a day for women of all ages and men older than age 65 is fine. When you consume too many drinks it will gradually affect your liver and lead to cardiovascular diseases like heart failure and strokes.
In addition, there are medicines that help you to reduce high cholesterol. Drugs like spirulina can reduce total serum cholesterol.
When it comes to joint pain, try to add calcium content to your foods. It may give better relief to the breakage of cartilage. Lead a healthy life by following the aforementioned precautions. Everyone wants to be a healthy life, not a cholesterol life.
