Cholesterol Disorder And Dyslipidemia

Hello,

I am Dr. Hardik Thakkar. I am an MD in internal medicine practicing in Mumbai. Today I would be speaking on a very special topic which is called as cholesterol disorders and dyslipidaemias. As we know the Indian population has a very huge burden of cholesterol issues in the population. We are genetically predisposed to have dyslipidaemias. Also, the Indian diet is such that we have foods which are rich in fats which is like ghee and oil use, especially a lot of Indian foods I mean Indian sweet dishes they are rich in the Ghee, even when you are having roti and even diet people have a habit of using ghee with that. So, because of these dietary habits what happens is Indian patients tend to have high cholesterol levels so they have high total cholesterol, high LDL.

LDL cholesterol is the one which is the bad cholesterol. It is the one which forms plaques in the heart and that is one which gives rise to heart blocks and leads to heart attacks. So, our target is to keep this total cholesterol and the LDL cholesterol low. There is one more cholesterol called as the HDL cholesterol which is a good type of cholesterol so this can be increased by physical activity and certain drugs and the LDL target should be more than 40 in men and more than 35 in women. Apart from this, triglycerides that is also a type of fat actually in the blood which should be less than 150 milligrams per DL. Anything above that is harmful. It gives rise to blockages in the heart and leads to heart attacks. Apart from that very high amounts of triglycerides can also lead to pancreatitis.

So, we need to have these lipid profile parameters under control. So, what are the parameters? The total cholesterol should be less than 200, HDL more than 40 in case of men, more than 35 in case of women and LDL should be less than 100 and in diabetic especially less than 70. So, this is the target and triglycerides should be 150. So, only if you achieve these targets will it give you a mortality and morbidity benefit. Apart from this, we also want the patients to have a low-fat diet, diet which is rich is MUFA which is monounsaturated fatty acids, sunflower oil, rice bran oil these are the healthy oils which can be used every day, avoid using coconut oil or palm oil or ghee or dalda or anything which has trans-fats in it. These trans-fats are the ones which are very bad for health. So for more information on treatment modalities, for cholesterol issues and lifestyle changes, you can consult me online through my profile on lybrate via www.lybrate.com.

Thank you.