Hypercholesterolemia increases the risk of heart disease. Diet, exercise, smoking, alcohol, and certain illnesses can affect the levels of both types of cholesterol. Eating a high fat diet will increase your LDL cholesterol, while exercising and reducing your weight will increase your HDL cholesterol and lower your LDL cholesterol. An inherited disorder in which cholesterol is not metabolized properly by the body. However, obesity itself leads the body to produce excessive amounts of cholesterol.
Cholesterol causes deposits to form inside blood vessels.
These deposits, called plaque, are made of fats deposited from the bloodstream. If the deposits get large enough, blood vessels may become clogged, thus decreasing blood flow. These deposits result in atherosclerosis, which can cause blood clots to form that totally stop blood flow. If this happens in the arteries supplying the heart, a heart attack will occur. If it happens in the brain, a portion of brain tissue dies and this results in a stroke.