Cholesterol is a waxy, fat-like substance in the cells of your body and plays various roles, such as the production of hormones, aid in digestion, and also in the repair of the cells. Even though the body makes all the cholesterol it requires, having extra cholesterol levels may be life-threatening. Sadly, this condition comes at a later stage in many people as high cholesterol typically does not come with noticeable symptoms.

It is known commonly as the "silent killer" because it damages one's health stealthily, going without any warnings and causing major health complications if left unchecked.

In the U.S. alone, millions of adults are living with high cholesterol, most of whom do not know it exists and the dangers that come with it.

High cholesterol is often silent and in fact sometimes isn't symptomatic until the point it causes severe effects. Eventually, if not managed, may end up causing even severe disorders such as heart disease and stroke, PAD, kidney failure, and sometimes cancer, too. That is the reason why high cholesterol never to be taken lightly

1. Heart Disease

Heart disease is one of the most fatal outcomes associated with high cholesterol. When cholesterol builds up in the arteries, it forms a condition called atherosclerosis. This is a process whereby cholesterol, fat, and other materials collect on the inner linings of the arteries to form plaques. As time passes, this plaque narrows and hardens the arteries, reducing blood flow. Less blood supply to the heart causes angina; extreme cases cause a heart attack.

A heart attack occurs when the blood supply to part of the heart is blocked, often by a blood clot formed from the rupture of plaque in the arteries. This blockage can result in irreversible damage to the heart muscle. In some cases, this damage can be fatal, making heart disease one of the leading causes of death in the U.S.

2. Stroke

Cholesterol is not only bad for the heart, but it can also affect the brain. High cholesterol with high blood pressure increases the risk of stroke. When plaque builds up in the arteries leading to the brain, blood flow becomes restricted, depriving the brain of the oxygen and nutrients it needs to function properly. This can result in a clot forming, which can travel to the brain and cause a stroke.

A stroke is the blockage of blood to a portion of the brain and, subsequently, death to brain cells. The intensity of the stroke depends on the area of the brain that has been affected; thus, it can bring long-term effects such as paralysis, memory loss, and speech difficulties.

3. Peripheral Artery Disease (PAD)

Cholesterol-induced plaque build-up can also affect the arteries that are in your legs and arms, which leads to what's called peripheral artery disease (PAD). This occurs as a result of poor circulation when the arteries carrying blood to the limbs have been narrowed or blocked. Those suffering from PAD would develop pain, weakness, or cramping in the leg upon physical activity. Furthermore, they may even struggle to walk.

If PAD is left untreated, it can cause more significant complications, like ulcers and infections that can be followed by tissue death. It can become so serious that it leads to the amputation of the limb affected. In this manner, PAD presents a good example of how high cholesterol causes problems with circulation leading to serious diseases beyond heart or brain failure.

4. Kidney Failure

High cholesterol can also affect the kidneys adversely. The kidneys depend on proper blood flow to clean out the waste products from the body. However, if cholesterol blocks the arteries supplying the kidneys, it decreases the blood flow which further weakens the performance of the kidneys. With time, this can result in impaired kidneys or failure of the kidneys.

Kidney failure can be dangerous and requires the patient to need dialysis or a transplant. Therefore, controlling cholesterol is not only crucial for heart and brain functions but also for protecting your kidneys.

5. Cancer

Even though the connection between cholesterol and cancer is still being looked into, it is believed by many researchers that high levels of cholesterol can lead to particular cancers. Recently, the UCLA discovered a connection that shows how cholesterol may also have a relationship with colon cancer. It is though that cholesterol causes cancer cells to multiply; however, there is much to know about this.

Symptoms of High Cholesterol

Because the condition does not have obvious symptoms, it is dangerous; a person can live with it for years without even realizing how much damage is being done to the body. Certain signs, however, will indicate that your cholesterol level is alarmingly high, especially if it has reached the point of peripheral artery disease, or PAD.

If you have high cholesterol or are at risk due to factors such as being over 40, being overweight, or having a family history of heart disease, it's very important to monitor for any unusual signs, particularly in your legs and feet. Symptoms of PAD, which may indicate that high cholesterol is affecting your circulation, include:

• Pain or cramping in the legs, particularly when walking or exercising
• Ulcers or open sores on the feet or legs that do not heal
• Gangrene, or tissue death, from poor circulation
• Hair loss
• Brittle, slow-growing toenails
• Numbness or weakness
• Shiny skin or changes in skin color, such as paleness or a blue tint
• Erectile dysfunction due to poor blood flow to the pelvic area

How to Lower Your Cholesterol

The good news is that it can be managed. High cholesterol levels can be reduced greatly if you make lifestyle adjustments like adopting a healthy diet, exercising regularly, not smoking, and not having excess alcohol. In most cases, medication may be prescribed to help control the cholesterol.

A diet low in saturated fats and high in fruits, vegetables, and whole grains can help lower your cholesterol levels. Regular physical activity can improve heart health and reduce cholesterol. Lastly, routine cholesterol screenings are crucial to detect high cholesterol early before it causes irreversible damage.

High cholesterol is a major health risk, and its hidden dangers should not be ignored. These effects eventually cause the serious problems like death threats: heart diseases and strokes or renal failures. At times, you are free from all the symptoms in the initial stages. Instead, maintaining healthy life skills and a proper routine test would enable you to treat high cholesterol and preserve yourself for further complications. Do not wait until it is too late; do something about lowering your cholesterol now and reducing the risk of serious complications.

Emergency rooms are handing out significantly fewer opioid prescriptions to people experiencing lower back pain. Researchers reported in the Annals of Emergency Medicine on July 12 that the rate of opioid prescriptions for back pain in ERs dropped by more than half between 2016 and 2022.

Dramatic Decline in Opioid Prescribing

Just a few years ago, in 2016, almost one out of every three visits to the ER for back pain ended with a prescription for opioid painkillers. But by 2022, that number had fallen dramatically to just over one in ten visits. This big drop means that doctors are learning from the available information and changing the way they practice medicine, especially as more people become aware of the widespread problems caused by opioid addiction. It's a positive sign that medical professionals are actively working to curb the opioid crisis.

Understanding the Study and Patient Experience

To figure this out, researchers looked at records from nearly 53 million ER visits for low back pain that happened between 2016 and 2022. These records were gathered by a national health statistics centre. The study found that when people went to the ER for back pain, they were usually in a lot of discomfort, rating their pain at more than 7 out of 10. On average, they had to wait about 37 minutes before a doctor saw them and spent around four hours in the emergency room getting treatment.

Why Opioid Usage Is Risky For Patients

A 2023 study even found that opioids may not be as effective for back pain. Published in the JAMA network, a 2023 study conducted a trial on those who were experiencing back pain. The trial involved 347 adults who had been experiencing pain for up to 12 weeks. Everyone in the study received standard care, which included reassurance, advice to avoid bed rest, and encouragement to stay active. Half of the participants also received a combination of oxycodone and naloxone (an opioid), while the other half received a placebo (a dummy pill).

The study also revealed that while side effects were similar for both groups, there was a significant difference in the risk of opioid misuse. One year later, 20% of the participants who took opioids were at risk of misusing them, compared to only 10% of those who received the placebo. This suggests that even for short-term pain relief, opioids carry a greater risk of future misuse.

NSAIDs Emerge as Preferred Treatment

Now, when you go to the ER with low back pain, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, often called NSAIDs (like ibuprofen), are the most common painkillers prescribed. They're given to almost 29% of patients. It's not just about prescriptions either; fewer patients are actually given opioids while they are being treated in the ER. That number went down from 35% of cases in 2016 to less than 25% by 2020, showing a clear shift away from immediate opioid use during emergency care for back pain.

Next Issues People Must Tackle

Even though there's good progress with reducing opioids, ER doctors still have some areas where they could improve how they treat back pain. For example, many patients with back pain are still getting X-rays that they don't really need. In 2022, about 37% of patients had an X-ray, which is pretty much the same as in 2015. In fact, in 2021, almost 44% of cases involved an X-ray, which was the highest rate. It's tough to get this number down because deciding whether to order an X-ray can be complicated and depends on what both the doctor and the patient think is best.

Doctors may soon have a powerful new tool to help catch a serious eye disease caused by diabetes. Researchers have created an AI-powered retina tracker that is incredibly accurate at finding diabetic retinopathy, a condition that can lead to blindness. In a news release by the Endocrine Society, researchers detail how this new AI technology revolutionizes health and eye care, bringing it to the next level.

Fast, Accurate, and Accessible Eye Screening

This new program, called the Simple Mobile AI Retina Tracker (SMART), showed over 99% accuracy in its ability to screen for diabetic retinopathy. This impressive result was announced recently at a medical conference.

SMART uses advanced AI to quickly and accurately look at images of the retina – the light-sensing part at the back of your eye. What makes it truly special is that it can work on any device with internet access, even basic smartphones.

This means eye specialists can screen patients more easily and quickly. It also allows general doctors to include eye exams during regular visits. Most importantly, it helps bring high-quality eye checks to places where there aren't many eye doctors.

Tackling Diabetic Retinopathy

Diabetic retinopathy is a condition where tiny blood vessels in the eye leak and damage the retina. It's a major cause of blinedness that could be prevented, affecting over 100 million people worldwide.

To develop SMART, researchers trained the AI using thousands of retinal images from a diverse group of patients across six continents. When they tested the AI on new images, it could detect diabetic retinopathy almost every time, processing each image in less than one second. The tracker could also tell the difference between diabetic retinopathy and other eye conditions.

Symptoms And Issues Associated With Diabetic Retinopathy

According to the US National Eye Institute, Diabetic retinopathy is an eye problem that can affect anyone with diabetes. It happens when high blood sugar damages the tiny blood vessels in your retina, the light-sensing part at the back of your eye. Early detection and managing your diabetes are key to protecting your vision.

Diabetes harms blood vessels throughout your entire body. In your eyes, this damage begins when high blood sugar changes the tiny blood vessels that feed your retina. These changes make it harder for blood to flow, leading to some blood vessels getting blocked or starting to leak fluid or blood.

Warning Signs

In its early stages, you usually won't notice any problems with your vision. However, some people might notice subtle changes, like difficulty reading or seeing things far away. These changes might even come and go.

As the condition gets worse, blood vessels in your retina can start to bleed into the jelly-like fluid that fills your eye. If this happens, you might see dark, floating spots or streaks, almost like cobwebs. Sometimes these spots clear up on their own, but it's crucial to get medical help right away. If left untreated, scars can form at the back of your eye, or the bleeding might start again or get worse.

Who Will This New AI Help?

Developing this new AI has the potential to make eye care available to a vast number of people globally, simply by using mobile technology. Experts believe this innovation could screen billions worldwide, significantly cutting down vision loss from diabetic retinopathy. It could also completely change how healthcare is provided.

Anyone with diabetes can get diabetic retinopathy, whether they have type 1, type 2, or gestational diabetes (diabetes that develops during pregnancy).

Your risk goes up the longer you've had diabetes. In fact, over half of people with diabetes will develop diabetic retinopathy eventually. The good news is that you can significantly lower your risk by keeping your blood sugar levels under control.

Women with diabetes who become pregnant, or those who develop gestational diabetes, are at a higher risk. If you have diabetes and are pregnant, you should get a full eye exam with dilated pupils as soon as possible.

This research highlights how AI can be a positive force, helping to bridge gaps in medical care and offering hope to millions who are at risk of losing their sight.

It is not uncommon for doctors to misidentify a health condition or misdiagnose due to lack of information or conflicting symptoms. However, many times these mistakes can lead the patient to get the wrong treatment, and cause problems like prolonged treatment, more health problems as well as patients feeling unheard.

A new report suggests that doctors are often missing a common, hormone-related reason for high blood pressure. This overlooked condition, called primary aldosteronism, could be affecting a significant number of people with high blood pressure without them even knowing. According to a study published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, most doctors fail to identify this condition, even though it is the most common cause of high blood pressure.

More Common Than Thought

Research shows that as many as 30% of high blood pressure patients seen by heart specialists, and 14% of those seen by general doctors, actually have primary aldosteronism. This condition occurs when the adrenal glands (small glands located on top of your kidneys) produce too much of a hormone called aldosterone.

Despite how common it might be, many people with high blood pressure are never given a simple blood test to check for primary aldosteronism. In other cases, they might finally be tested years after their high blood pressure diagnosis. By this time, the condition can already lead to serious health problems.

Misdiagnoses in other health problems are also very common. According to a 2023 study published in the JAMA journal, every year, a staggering number of people—around 795,000—either die or are left with permanent disabilities because of mistakes in their diagnosis or related issues in healthcare. Even with a more conservative estimate, the number is still very high, at about 549,000 people harmed.

Why Is It Important to Diagnose?

People with primary aldosteronism face a higher risk of heart and blood vessel problems compared to those with regular high blood pressure.

Aldosterone helps control the balance of sodium (salt) and potassium in your blood. When aldosterone levels are too high, your body can lose too much potassium and hold onto too much sodium, which directly leads to higher blood pressure. Studies have shown that individuals with primary aldosterosteronism are:

• Nearly 2.6 times more likely to have a stroke.
• Twice as likely to experience heart failure.
• 3.5 times more likely to develop an irregular heartbeat.
• 77% more likely to end up with heart disease.

A simple and inexpensive blood test could help identify more people with primary aldosteronism, ensuring they get the right treatment.

New Guidelines and Treatment Options

The new report suggests that everyone diagnosed with high blood pressure should have their aldosterone levels checked. If primary aldosteronism is found, specific treatments for that condition should be given.

There are prescription medications available to treat primary aldosteronism. These include drugs like spironolactone and eplerenone, which help lower blood pressure and increase potassium levels in the body.

Doctors might also recommend surgery to remove one of the two adrenal glands if only one gland is making too much aldosterone. Patients are also usually advised to follow a balanced low-sodium diet and try to lose weight to help manage the condition.