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If you have been diagnosed with high blood cholesterol, it is important that you continue your treatment. Follow-up care can vary depending on your cholesterol levels, your risk of having a cardiovascular complication such as a heart attack or a stroke, and your response to treatment.

High blood cholesterol is treated with heart-healthy lifestyle changes and medicines to control or lower your high blood cholesterol. Lipoprotein apheresis is a procedure that can be used to treat familial hypercholesterolemia.

Your doctor may diagnose you with high blood cholesterol based on your medical and family history, your physical exam, or whether you have consistently high low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol levels on repeat lipid panel blood tests. Your doctor may do more tests to see if other medical conditions may be causing high blood cholesterol.

High “bad” LDL cholesterol usually does not cause symptoms, so most people do not know they have it until they are tested during a routine doctor’s visit. Very high levels may cause symptoms such as fatty bumps on your skin, called xanthomas, or grayish-white rings around the corneas in your eye, called corneal arcus. These mostly develop in people who have familial hypercholesterolemia. Undiagnosed or untreated high blood cholesterol can lead to serious problems, such as heart attack and stroke.

Your doctor may order a blood test called a lipid panel to screen for unhealthy cholesterol levels. Adopting a heart-healthy lifestyle starting in childhood and continuing throughout your life can help prevent high blood cholesterol.

Your risk for high blood cholesterol may be higher because of your age, family history and genetics, race or ethnicity, or sex.

The most common cause of high blood cholesterol is an unhealthy lifestyle. However, the genes that you inherit from your parents, other medical conditions, and some medicines may also cause high blood cholesterol.