Hypercholesterolemia occurs when you have high low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol and low levels of high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol. Another name for this condition is dyslipidemia.

If youve been diagnosed with hypercholesterolemia, a doctor or healthcare professional will likely recommend lifestyle changes and possibly medications to lower your cholesterol. Making these changes can help lower your risks of health conditions related to hypercholesterolemia such as coronary heart disease or peripheral artery disease.

Lifestyle factors are the most common cause of hypercholesterolemia. However, there are other hypercholesterolemia causes, usually because of genetic changes that can cause your body to develop high cholesterol levels. An example is familial hypercholesterolemia (FH).

FH can cause severely high cholesterol levels, often at a much younger age than what is typical. Doctors will treat most people with FH with the same cholesterol-lowering medications as those with lifestyle-related hypercholesterolemia.

However, if you have severely high cholesterol levels because of a genetic condition (sometimes even greater than 500 milligrams per deciliter), a doctor may recommend a treatment called lipoprotein apheresis. This treatment involves starting an IV and connecting it to a machine that cleanses your blood of excess cholesterol.

Hypercholesterolemia treatments typically involve a combination of lifestyle changes and medications to lower cholesterol. Your healthcare professionals recommendations will probably depend upon how high your cholesterol levels are and if you have other risk factors for heart disease such as obesity or diabetes.

If youre at high risk, a doctor will likely recommend taking medications to lower your cholesterol.

Its important to keep in mind that these are just general guidelines. A doctor will always have the most reasoned information on your condition and the best way to treat it.

Lifestyle changes, such as exercise and quitting smoking, can help lower high cholesterol levels. So can making dietary changes. These lifestyle changes can be especially important in treating high cholesterol in children.

Choosing fresh foods in favor of preprepared foods can help lower your LDL cholesterol levels.

Diet approaches to try include:

Diet approaches to avoid include:

If you have hypercholesterolemia, aim to keep your dietary cholesterol intake to fewer than 200 mg per day. The average daily cholesterol intake for adults is 293 mg per day.

Many medications commonly used to treat high cholesterol arent safe for use in pregnancy. The medications that have potentially harmful effects on a baby include:

You can, however, take bile acid sequestrants to lower cholesterol when youre pregnant. These medications keep your stomach from absorbing the bile acid that your liver needs to make cholesterol. Because they block a body process and arent absorbed into the bloodstream, bile acid sequestrants are safe for pregnancy.

If youre expecting and have high cholesterol or your cholesterol increases while pregnant, talk with a doctor about safe treatment approaches.

Whether or not hypercholesterolemia is curable depends on why you have the condition in the first place. Genetic conditions that result in hypercholesterolemia are generally treatable but not curable.

If your hypercholesterolemia is lifestyle-related, its possible that the lifestyle changes you continue to implement could cure your high cholesterol. However, some people require medication therapies that will continue to treat high cholesterol.

Hypercholesterolemia treatments primarily include lifestyle changes and medications. Each of these treatments helps to improve your heart health and lowers the risks of experiencing a heart attack or stroke.

Ask a doctor how often you should have your cholesterol checked and how you can treat high cholesterol if you have it. Make sure to let a doctor know if you have any family history of hypercholesterolemia or high cholesterol.

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Hypercholesterolemia Treatment: Diet, Medications, and More - Healthline