Family Tree Summary

While constructing the family tree, I also captured the diseases and ailments that are running on

the both sides of my family. In the family tree, I noticed five diseases that my family members

are suffering from. Out of them, there are two diseases that are infected to most of the family

members in the three generations. The two prominent diseases that top the list are Diabetes and

Cholesterol. While Diabetes mainly runs in every family members of my father’s side,

Cholesterol has its victims on both on mother’s as well as father’s side. The interesting point is

that Diabetes has impacted the two of the older generations of my father’s side; Cholesterol has

impacted all the three generations. I have often heard that Cholesterol is the silent killer and a far

serious cause of many other diseases. I wanted to know more about Cholesterol and how this

ailment can be handled to save from the damages that it is capable of causing.

What is Cholesterol?

Cholesterol is a sticky wax like chemical compound that is found in all the blood cells of the

body. The Cholesterol is building block of membrane for cells and is also required for making

hormones, vitamins and substances and chemicals that digests the food. Human body produces

the Cholesterol that is required by it along with some other food sources like egg, yolks, meat

and cheese. However, if this Cholesterol increases in the excessive levels, it gets combined with

the blood and starts forming plaque and gets stick to the walls of arteries that carried blood cells.

This situation in arteries leads to the coronary artery diseases and that may lead to cardiac arrest

or commonly known as heart attack.

What are the different types of Cholesterol?

cholesterol produced in other parts of the body to carry it back to the liver.

LDL or Low Density Lipoprotein. It is also known as “bad” cholesterol as it blocks the arteries

carrying blood when reaches the high level. LDL is responsible for plaque building.

VLDL or Very-Low Density Lipoprotein. It is also “bad” cholesterol as it is also responsible for

building up plaque in the arteries. However, it is different from LDL as LDL carries cholesterol

only.

Reasons for high Cholesterol

The most common causes of high cholesterol are:

 Unhealthy Eating Habits: The eating habits of people in the last few decades have

changed drastically due to increase in income and appetite for convenient food. Eating a

lot of bad food that contains LDL (bad cholesterol) is one of the main causes of high

amount of cholesterol. Saturated fat is one type that is found in certain dairy, poultry and

meat products like cheese and read meat products and even in ham, pork and beef. It is

also found in products like fast food, deep fried food, cheese, chocolate, baked and

processed food along with reheated and food that is prepared with unhealthy ingredients

that are high on saturated fats.

 Lack of physical activity: many people are in the service or tertiary industries which

requires lot of sitting for long hours. Working for long and extended hours at work place

and not including the physical activities and exercise helps build up bad cholesterol in the

body. Lack of physical activities lowers the HLD (good) cholesterol which is also not

good for the body and increase the risk of chronic diseases.
  Smoking & Drinking: Smoking and consuming alcohol in excessive quantities on a

daily basis lowers the HDL (good) cholesterol and increase the LDL (bad) cholesterol.

This is especially harmful to women and impacts their body much faster than males.

Apart from that, cases have been found where genetic causes are also responsible for high levels

of cholesterol in the body. Certain medical conditions or prolonged use of certain medicines

increase the tendency of the body to absorb more cholesterol.

Factors responsible for risk of high level of cholesterol

a) Age is one of the reasons which can cause high levels of cholesterol. As the age

increases, the chances of having high level of cholesterol also increase. However, the

lifestyle changes have found it common in youngsters and children to have high

cholesterol level.

b) It is sometimes hereditary and runs in the family.

c) Overweight is one of the most common factors of having high levels of cholesterol in the

body.

d) It has also been observed that certain races are more prone to high levels of cholesterol

than other races. For example, African and Afro-American are diagnosed with high levels

of cholesterol than whites.

Health problems due to high cholesterol

Usually high cholesterol has no straight symptoms that can be identified. It is detected when

some chronic disease grips the body like cardiac arrest. The easiest way to get detected about

high levels of cholesterol is through regular blood tests. For the young kids and youngsters up to

the age of 25, blood test to know the cholesterol levels should be done every five years starting
with 9 to 10 year of age. The periodicity of such tests should be every three years in the age

group of 25 to 40 years and after attaining the age of 40 years, this test should be done every 1 or

2 years. Apart from the usual guidelines stated above, factors like family history, overweight and

lifestyle should also be kept in mind.

Remedial actions to lower cholesterol

The most effective way to lower the bad cholesterol levels and increasing the good cholesterol

level is to adopt a healthy life style that includes healthy eating plan with disciplines, regular

exercise, physical activity or playing a sport and most important keeping the weight of the body

in control. In case the cholesterol levels are not checked by adopting the healthy style, then the

person can take help of medication in consultation with expert physician.

NIH: National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. (2016). Cholesterol. MedlinePlus, retrieved

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Wedro, B. Cholesterol Management. [Link], Retrieved from

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MacGill, M. (2017). What causes high cholesterol? MedicalNewsToday, Retrieved from

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American Heart association (2018). HDL (Good), LDL (Bad) Cholesterol and Triglycerides.

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