High cholesterol does not really have any recognizable symptoms until it causes more severe damage like reduced artery blood flow or hardening of the arteries. However, it is important to discover if you have a high cholesterol problem before it begins damaging your system. If you have high cholesterol, it is important to take action to lower it as soon as you can.

You can participate in tests that will tell you if you have high cholesterol or not. These tests assess your total cholesterol levels, including your LDL, or bad cholesterol, your HDL, or good cholesterol, and your triglycerides, which are another type of fat that forms in your blood. If your total cholesterol is higher than 200 mg/dL then you might be on the road to having high cholesterol. However, if your total cholesterol is 240 mg/dL or higher, you have what is considered a high cholesterol rating. If your HDL, or good cholesterol is lower than 40 mg/dL and your total cholesterol is high, this means that you have too much of the bad cholesterol, or LDL, in your system. It is the combination of the two types of cholesterol that determine if your score is low or high.

If you have high cholesterol, you should see your doctor immediately for help with developing a plan to treat your condition. There are many drugs on the market today that are specially formulated for treating high cholesterol, and many of these drugs have proven highly effective.