What Other Factors Affect My Choices for Cholesterol Treatment?
High cholesterol is only one risk factor for coronary heart disease, called CHD. The more risk factors you have, the greater your risk. In fact, each additional risk factor can increase your risk dramatically. For instance, if you smoke and you have high cholesterol, your risk for heart disease is much greater than for a nonsmoker with the same cholesterol level.
To decide on a treatment plan for you, your doctor needs to consider all your risk factors. If you have two or more risk factors in addition to high cholesterol, your doctor will treat your cholesterol problem more aggressively than if you have high cholesterol alone.