Cholesterol is an essential waxy fat that your body needs to build cell membranes, produce hormones, and support nerve function. Cholesterol travels through your blood in lipoprotein particles. While cholesterol is important, having high cholesterol levels over time increases your risk of heart disease and stroke. Interestingly, your cholesterol levels are not always stable, but can fluctuate over time, cholesterol influenced by a variety of factors from lifestyle to physiology.
Why do cholesterol levels fluctuate?
Your cholesterol levels can rise or fall due to lifestyle factors such as diet, exercise, weight, and smoking. Medical conditions, medications, genetics, and hormonal changes also affect cholesterol. Even the change of seasons can affect your numbers.
1. Diet and eating habits
Diet plays a leading role in controlling cholesterol levels. Consuming too much saturated fat and trans fats can increase LDL (“bad”) cholesterol, which promotes plaque buildup in the arteries. Saturated fat is often hidden in red meat, butter, cream, cheese, palm oil, and coconut oil. Trans fat is common in fast food, industrial sweets, and processed foods.
In contrast, a diet rich in unsaturated fats from plant sources such as olive oil, avocados, nuts, and fatty fish will help lower LDL and improve HDL (“good”) cholesterol. A diet rich in green vegetables, fruits, whole grains, and lean proteins not only helps regulate blood lipids, but is also good for your heart in the long term.
2. Physical activity level
Regular exercise is one of the most effective ways to increase HDL levels and improve overall heart health. Even if you can’t get the recommended 150 minutes of exercise each week, short, simple activities like walking, cycling or gardening can still bring significant benefits.
Inactivity, on the contrary, can easily lead to the accumulation of bad cholesterol and reduce the body’s ability to metabolize fat. Daily exercise habits not only keep the heart healthy but also help control weight, thereby indirectly positively affecting cholesterol levels.
3. Gain or lose weight
Weight and excess fat are directly related to cholesterol fluctuations. When you gain weight, especially visceral fat, the body tends to produce more LDL and reduce HDL. Just losing 5% – 10% of your body weight can significantly improve your blood lipid index and reduce the risk of heart disease.
On the contrary, losing weight too quickly or going on extreme diets can also cause lipid disorders, causing cholesterol imbalance. To lose weight safely, combine a healthy diet with moderate physical activity.
4. Smoking
Smoking is one of the factors that worsen your lipid profile. Nicotine and toxic chemicals in cigarettes increase LDL, triglycerides and at the same time decrease HDL. In addition, smoking also damages the walls of blood vessels, increasing the risk of plaque formation.
The good news is that after quitting smoking, cholesterol levels can improve in just a few weeks to a few months, significantly reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease.
5. Medical conditions
Many chronic diseases can affect cholesterol levels, including:
- Diabetes: When blood sugar is high, the body processes fat less well, increasing LDL and triglycerides.
- Hypothyroidism: Low thyroid activity slows down lipid metabolism, leading to increased cholesterol.
- Chronic kidney disease: Impairs the ability to remove cholesterol from the blood.
Treating these underlying conditions well will help you better control your cholesterol levels.
6. Medications
Some prescription medications can inadvertently increase cholesterol, such as:
- Corticosteroids (anti-inflammatories)
- Immunosuppressants
- Birth control pills or hormone therapy
- Beta blockers, diuretics
- Anticonvulsants, HIV antivirals
- Antipsychotics
If you notice unusual changes in your cholesterol levels after taking your medication, talk to your doctor about adjusting your dose or switching medications if necessary.
7. Genetics
Familial hypercholesterolemia is a genetic disorder that causes LDL levels to be very high at an early age. This condition cannot be controlled by diet alone and often requires a combination of medication and a healthy lifestyle.
If someone in your family has heart disease or high cholesterol at an early age, regular screening and testing are essential.
8. Hormonal Fluctuations
Hormonal levels associated with life events such as pregnancy, menopause, or monthly menstrual cycles affect cholesterol. Changes in reproductive hormones, including estrogen and progesterone, appear to temporarily affect cholesterol production and the body’s rate of cholesterol clearance.
During pregnancy, blood cholesterol increases by an average of 30% to 40% to support the growing fetus. After delivery, the numbers usually return to normal within a few months. Premenopausal women also experience predictable cholesterol fluctuations during each menstrual cycle as estrogen rises and falls.
In a study of changes during women’s monthly menstrual cycles, total cholesterol and LDL decreased when estrogen peaked just before ovulation. After ovulation, when estrogen rapidly declined, total cholesterol, LDL, and triglycerides dropped sharply to their lowest levels just before the start of menstruation.
9. The Cycle of the Seasons
It’s not often known that the weather affects cholesterol. Studies show that LDL levels tend to rise in the winter and fall in the summer. Conversely, HDL is higher in the warmer months.
This change may be related to:
- Less physical activity in the cold season
- Eating more calories in the winter
- Reduced sun exposure and vitamin D deficiency
Understanding this will help you maintain healthy habits even when the weather changes.
