Symptoms directly associated with cholesterol are rare. Instead, high cholesterol levels are generally identified from a blood test. Most often, symptoms are from the result of high cholesterol, which would include things such as coronary disease, stroke, and peripheral vascular disease. Let us break each of these down to look at the symptoms in depth.
Coronary Disease
The primary symptom associated with coronary heart disease is called Angina. For this, a person would generally experience a sensation in the chest often described as “pressure”, “squeezing”, or “someone sitting on the chest”. These symptoms can spread to the jaw, neck, or arm regions of the body and while the primary symptom is the feeling of pressure in the chest region, some people will have a feeling of pressure in other areas of the body with or without pressure to the chest. In addition to the reported pressure, other symptoms can include nausea, shortness of breath, sweating, lightheadedness or dizziness, and heart palpitations.
Angina can be directly correlated to coronary heart disease and should be taken seriously. However, other stressors might be considered such as over-exertion, high emotions, or eating a huge meal. In these circumstances, the symptoms would be reduced or eliminated after resting for five to ten minutes. Therefore, if the sensations do not subside, then medical care is required.
Stroke
With a stroke, you have four main symptoms although often times, this is a sudden event with little or no warning. For instance, you might experience a sudden onset of numbness or weakness of the face, arm, or leg, especially on one side of the body. Confusion, difficulty speaking, or understanding, sudden trouble with vision in one or both eyes, dizziness, loss of balance, and lack of coordination are possible. Other symptoms can include nausea and/or vomiting, fever, fainting, convulsions, and even coma
Peripheral Vascular Disease
This disease involves blood vessels. Arteries that carry blood to your extremities become narrow or clogged. The outcome is that the blood flow is slowed or stopped completely. The primary symptoms of this disease are numbness and/or tingling in the lower extremities, cold sensation in the lower extremities, and/or open sores or ulcers on the lower extremities that do not heal normally.