Brandi Marie
According to my.clevelandclinic.org, the answer is yes. It says this: "High blood pressure (hypertension) and high cholesterol are linked. Cholesterol plaque and calcium cause your arteries to become hard and narrow. So, your heart has to strain much harder to pump blood through them. As a result, your blood pressure becomes too high." (Cleveland Clinic) It makes sense that if your arteries are full of crap caused by cholesterol that your heart would have to work harder resulting in high blood pressure. You picked an excellent question because I don't think people stop and think about this enough. I know I didn't and I am 38. I knew they were both issues affecting the heart but never stopped to think about how they could go hand in hand so I appreciate you posting your question because I am learning a lot that I definitely didn't know before. I have been struggling with high blood pressure yet nobody has ever said I have high cholesterol but I have been sick for a very long time and no doctors can seem to figure me out so after reading your question I wondered what the signs/symptoms of having high cholesterol might be and was surprised to see I have every single one on the list. Here's that list which I found on the visitcompletecare.com website: What are the warning signs of high cholesterol? Nausea. Numbness. Slurred speech. Extreme fatigue. Chest pain or angina. Shortness of breath. Numbness or coldness in extremities. High blood pressure. According to WebMD there are diseases linked to high cholesterol such as coronary artery disease, cardiovascular disease and peripheral vascular disease. Memorial Healthcare's website says at least 60% of people that have high cholesterol also have high blood pressure. That's more than half but I am unsure if this is just Americans or if they mean 60% of the world's population. I wonder how big of a role race and genetics make when it comes to high cholesterol. Could some people be more at risk of high cholesterol/high blood pressure simply because of their race and/or their genes or is it all about the food they eat? I guess I just found a question I can post lol. My whole life I have always heard high cholesterol being completely blamed on foods with high cholesterol content but I definitely wonder if certain people could be more at risk regardless of what they choose to eat and if they were somehow able to know they were at a higher risk then perhaps they could take preventative measures to help avoid the risks of developing more serious health issues later on. In the United States, food in general isn't very healthy and seems to get worse as the years go by. People will eat pretty much anything without worrying about what's in it or what it could end up doing to your body. Most of us could do better at knowing what we are putting into our bodies. I am one of those people but from now on I am going to be more mindful about what I eat. I thought I was but I realize I don't know how much cholesterol anything I eat has in it or if it contains good cholesterol or bad cholesterol. Again, I think you asked a really good question and I am grateful to you for asking it. This is important to know about and I didn't know how little I knew about it until you asked. Thank you! Resources I used: Cleveland Clinic https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/11918-cholesterol-high-cholesterol-diseases Complete Care https://www.visitcompletecare.com/blog/how-do-you-know-if-you-have-high-cholesterol/ WebMD https://www.webmd.com/cholesterol-management/diseases-linked-high-cholesterol Memorial Healthcare https://www.mhs.net/blog/2023/05/all-about-cholesterol-and-high-blood-pressure
