Which is worse with respect to heart disease, high cholesterol or hypertension?

Question

I have read that the medical community has attributed too much blame to high cholesterol as a precursor to heart disease.

Answer 1

They both are contributors but heart disease works this way....... Your blood pressure is measuring the force at which you blood is pushed through your arteries. When you have chronic hypertension, the forces causes gouges or nicks in you arterial walls. When this happens, your body must repair the damage. It does so by using cholesterol to "paste" up the damage. It normally will use your HDL or "good" cholesterol, which is what you want b/c it creates a smooth and nice repair. When there isnt enough HDL available, your body must use your supply of LDL or "bad" cholesterol. This is very lousy, unstable "paste" and makes a bad repair job. These bad repair jobs are what cardiologists refer to as "hardening" of the arteries" b/c LDL is not flexible. If at some point these bad repair jobs rupture, then your body will use platelets to clot the area and that is a heart attack.......The true answer is that they are both precursors for heart disease as well as a few others. But the key and starter of this chain of events is HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE. It is the most to blame. Keep your blood pressure below 120/80 and you will be fine.

Answer 2

1

Answer 3

They cause different kinds of heart disease, and high cholesterol can lead into HTN. Cholesterol is a waxy fat that for some reason in some people builds up in critical blood vessels such as the coronary arteries. This can cause clots, which in the case of a coronary artery produces a heart attack.
HTN means that your heart must work extra hard to pump blood throughout the body. Over time this can cause the heart to become enlarged or misshapen (cardiomegaly and congestive heart failure). In addtion HTN is really, really bad for diabetics. It can cause blindness, kidney failure, and strokes.
The mistake the medical community made with cholesterol was first in assuming that high density lipoproteins (HDL) and low density lipoproteins (LDL) were the same. Another error was in assuming that people were simply eating too much cholesterol. It's now recognized that there is a big genetic component to developing high cholesterol.

Answer 4

Yes you could have or get heart disease with or without those said risk factors. American Heart Association and American College of Cardiology identify 5 risk factors for heart disease, coronary heart disease, those are: Family history Diabetes Smoking High Blood Pressure High Cholesterol If you have the genetic disposition to have heart disease, what you eat, how you conduct the other risk factors, and whether or not you exercise, won't start or stop heart disease. They only contribute to it getting worse or better.

Answer 5

Hypertension, does not just affect your heart. It is a factor in many diseases. Untreated hypertension will absolutely affect your heath.
I don't think the medical community is stressing one over the other. Both very important risk factors to heart disease and vascular disease in general.

Answer 6

both are associated with higher risk of heart attack, and with a higher incidence of eachother as well. in other words, someone with high blood pressure is more likely to have high cholesterol, and vice versa... and is also more likely to suffer a heart attack. it's not a matter of which one is "worse" for you. it's most important to acknowledge that elevated levels of either one (and both together) are associated with risk of many conditions, diseases and side effects that extend even beyond a simple heart attack, and it's important to have a goal of keeping both levels under control.

higher levels of cholesterol are positively assoicated with atherosclerosis, which is a deposit of fatty substance on the inner walls of your arteries. atherosclerosis, when left untreated, causes the pathways of your arteries to have less room, therefore causing your blood to work harder to push through, and invariably causing higher blood pressure as a result. when the vessels eventually close off due to complete blockage, that part of your heart receives insufficient oxygen and begins to die, which is commonly known as a heart attack. a diet high in saturated fats and a lifestyle that allows tummy weight to accumulate and leaves little room for exercise will cause you to be at a higher risk for all these things.

heart disease is not as cut and dried as choosing one risk factor to work on. it's affected by many health and lifestyle choices that, in sum, either work to your benefit or your detriment depending on whether you're choosing to do healthy or unhealthy things to yourself.

i have included some resources for your information from the American Heart Assoc's website. hopefully they will be valuable in your search for more answers!

Answer 7

i have both and my dr is always more concerned with the hypertension first, cholesterol second!! they do go hand in hand in contributing to heart disease.

Answer 8

Neither factor is definitively "worse".

you can compare the relative risks using a 10 year CVD risk score. These graphs will help you.

You can calculate your own risk here:

http://hp2010.nhlbihin.net/atpiii/calculator.asp

and play with the variables to your hearts content.

Answer 9

Hypertension. Although, a combination of the two would be worse.

Answer 10

Hypertension


THIS CAUSES DAMAGE which leads to atherosclerosis HARD FIBROUS SCAR TISSUE which leads to Coronary Heart Disease


THE LIPID HYPOTHESIS IS INVALID