High cholesterol signs and symptoms: Look at your fingers and toes
Cholesterol is important for your body and health. It is a waxy substance that travels through your bloodstream. Healthy arteries that carry blood from your heart, nourish the tissues of your body. But along with other fats and substances cholesterol can form plaque on the walls of your arteries, harming your cardiovascular health.
Keeping your cholesterol in check is extremely important. Uncontrolled and high cholesterol levels can lead to medical emergencies like blockages in blood vessels that result in a heart attack or stroke.
The body gives out various signals if the cholesterol is high, even though the usual symptoms are not there. Health experts say that you need to be aware of a certain set of physical symptoms to avoid any untoward incident.
How are cholesterol levels connected with fingers and toes?
One of the biggest warning signs of high cholesterol includes painful fingers and toes. The sensation could be the direct result of an accumulation of cholesterol that clogs the blood vessels in the legs and hands.
Pain, numbness, and tingling in the fingers and toes, according to doctors, are caused due to interruptions in the blood flow to specific body parts. When your cholesterol levels are high, it causes the blood to flow thickly interfering with the normal flow to the nerves, resulting in tingling.
Doctors say cholesterol also leads to fatty growth under the skin, forming a condition known as xanthoma. These are lumpy growths appearing on the feet and hands and vary in size – can be extremely small or the size of a grape.
Xanthomas are painless but tender to the touch and can feel itchy and scratchy.
Other symptoms include physical changes in the legs and feet resulting in the white or yellow colour of the nails and skin. According to doctors, your toenails may grow more slowly or become thickened, or deformed in case of high cholesterol levels.
How to prevent high cholesterol?
Even though there is no cure for cholesterol, lifestyle changes, and timely treatment can help prevent the worsening of your condition.
To prevent high cholesterol from accumulating in the blood vessels and arteries, your healthcare provider may recommend that you should:
Regularly exercise
Maintain a healthy weight
Limit your alcohol consumption
Quit smoking
Eat foods that are high in fiber or low in saturated fat, salt, and added sugars (whole grains, fruits, vegetables, lean meat)
Stop taking stress
