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How you are treated depends on your age, health history, if you smoke, and other risk factors for heart disease, such as:
- Diabetes
- Poorly controlled high blood pressure
- Family history of heart disease
There are steps that everyone can take to improve their cholesterol levels, and help prevent heart disease and heart attack. Here are the most important ones:
- Choose foods low in saturated fat.
- Exercise regularly.
- Lose weight if you are overweight.
- Get routine health checkups and cholesterol screenings.
If lifestyle changes do not help or your cholesterol level remains very high, your doctor may may recommend medication. There are several types of drugs available to help lower blood cholesterol levels, and they work in different ways. Some are better at lowering LDL cholesterol, some are good at lowering triglycerides, while others help raise HDL cholesterol.
The most commonly used drugs for treating high LDL cholesterol are called statins. Other drugs that may be used include bile acid sequestering resins, cholesterol absorption inhibitors, fibrates, and nicotinic acid (niacin).
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