How is high cholesterol treated?

High cholesterol can be treated with medications that work through the liver or the stomach, but a low-cholesterol diet and exercise are also important. Watch as family medicine physician Jennifer Caudle, DO, discusses these treatment options.

Transcript

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High cholesterol is one of these conditions that often is dependent on a lot of factors. In other words, it doesn't just matter

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what you do, meaning the diet that you m and the weight that you keep, and how much you exercise. [GENTLE MUSIC]

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High cholesterol can be treated in many ways. First of all, there are medications that are approved to treat high cholesterol.

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But remember that equally as important is how we live our lives and the diet that we eat. So a low cholesterol diet and making sure

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that you're getting good exercise and making sure also that you're maintaining a healthy weight are equally as important as the medication options that do

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exist for treating high cholesterol. We have lots of medications that are on the market today that help treat high cholesterol.

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And many of them work in different ways. Some of these medications work through the liver, and that's how they lower cholesterol.

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Some of these medications actually work through the stomach or the gut. And there are other many types of medications as well.

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I think it's really important to keep in mind with high cholesterol, just like many other conditions-- high cholesterol is one of these conditions that often is

01:07

dependent on a lot of factors. In other words, it doesn't just matter what you do, meaning the diet that you eat, and the weight that you keep, and how much you exercise,

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but family history does play a role as well. So if you have a high family history of people with high cholesterol, you

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might be likely to have this as well. So just keep this in mind as you're planning your overall treatment with your physician. [AUDIO LOGO]