Cholesterol - 1 - Condition & Symptoms

Possible Action Steps

Together, review high cholesterol words and terms (high blood cholesterol, family history, saturated fat, unsaturated fat, HDL, LDL, triglycerides, cholesterol, trans fat, "know your numbers", CAD, heart disease, atherosclerosis, risk factors, stroke, etc)
Discuss the symptoms of heart disease
Discuss what it means when people talk about the risk factors for high blood cholesterol
Discuss lifestyle/behavior risks for high blood cholesterol and heart disease
Discuss the role of stress and high blood cholesterol
Clear up misconceptions that may exist about the role of diet and heart disease
Test cholesterol knowledge

Supporting Resources

Possible Action Steps

Learn about high cholesterol and be able to explain what it is in one or two sentences
Learn about heart disease and be able to explain what it is in one or two sentences
Discuss what lifestyle/behavior risk factors are probably contributing to the individual's high cholesterol
Together, prepare a list of individual's risk factors for high cholesterol and heart disease
Work with individual to compare their actual blood cholesterol numbers to their target blood cholesterol numbers
Discuss the relationship between high blood cholesterol and heart disease/stroke
Discuss the long term health implications of high cholesterol
Take the high cholesterol quiz and discuss the individual's right and wrong answers. Discuss the individual's blood pressure, cholesterol, and weight numbers. Stress the importance of knowing your numbers and why each number is important.
Begin to connect these causal factors to their lifestyle
Discuss the importance of having cholesterol checked regularly

Supporting Resources

Possible Action Steps

Discuss individual's genetic/family risk for high cholesterol. Identify family members/other relatives that have or have had high cholesterol
Discuss individual's behavior/lifestyle risk factors for high cholesterol: overweight, smoker, difficulty coping with stress, inactivity
Get the results of most recent blood cholesterol test. Look for total cholesterol, LDL, HDL, and triglyceride levels.
Start paying attention to triggers for stress
Start paying attention to coping mechanisms for stress
Ask doctor for current and past blood cholesterol numbers. Ask doctor what blood cholesterol numbers should be. Write down the actual and target numbers.

Supporting Resources

Possible Action Steps

Find out the individual's total cholesterol level from the most recent blood test
Determine if the individual's total cholesterol number is best (less than 200), borderline high (200-239), or high (240 or higher).
Have individual select one lifestyle-related risk factor for heart disease to positively change (reduce or stop smoking, lose weight, reduce fat in diet, get more active, control stress)
Together, develop a simple plan to start to reduce lifestyle risk factors for atherosclerosis (reduce number of cigarettes by one or two each day; once or twice a week eliminate one greasy snack food and replace with fresh fruit; remove visible fat/skin from meat before cooking; try to respond to stress in a healthy way)

Supporting Resources