Hypercholesterolemia increases your risk of heart disease. The most common cause of high cholesterol is eating foods that are high in saturated fat or cholesterol. Excess cholesterol causes deposits to form inside blood vessels. These deposits, called plaque, are made of fats carried by the bloodstream. Atherosclerosis, a condition in which blood vessels become hardened and narrowed by the fatty deposits, may result.
Atherosclerosis causes decreased blood flow.
Blood clots may form in these narrowed vessels and totally stop blood flow. When this happens in the heart it causes a heart attack. Atherosclerosis causes more deaths from heart disease than any other single condition. Hypercholesterolemia is a silent disease. There are often no symptoms until complications have already developed, such as the chest pain of a heart attack or calf pain with walking, which may be caused by narrowed or blocked arteries to the legs.