High blood fat in your twenties

Linh, in Hanoi, is a food reviewer on social networks. Every day, she spends 3-4 hours preparing and filming videos. The dishes the girl consumes are diverse, from fried spring rolls, sausages, greasy and fried foods, to soft drinks, milk tea…, “the more eye-catching they are, the more people they attract”. She chose a huge meal with three times the portion of a normal person to film, and the views increased to hundreds of millions, earning more contracts.

In the first 8 months of this year, the woman increased from 54 kg to 62 kg, her body was sluggish and heavy. However, Linh has fat stored mainly in her abdomen, thighs, buttocks… while her face is still slim. In early November, she went for a health check at the Medical University Hospital and was alarmed when her blood fat index suddenly increased, her cholesterol was 14 mmol/l. Normal total cholesterol index is

Not believing the diagnosis, she went to another hospital for a check-up, “thinking I was 1.6 m tall, had a balanced body, and couldn’t have high blood fat.” When she received the same results, she lost sleep and ate, worried because she was the breadwinner of the family. The doctor recommended that she lose weight, limit fast food intake, and actively exercise to reduce blood fat index and avoid the risk of cardiovascular complications.

Similarly, Long, 25 years old, 1m73 tall, weighing 100 kg, worried his family because test results showed that blood fat had increased threefold, and the creatinine index used to diagnose and evaluate kidney function was unusually high. often.

Long often eats processed foods, milk tea, and coffee to relieve stress due to work pressure. Thinking about his youth, working out hard, the young man ate and drank freely, not thinking about getting sick. When receiving the results, along with warnings about the risk of kidney failure, Long often had negative thoughts and insomnia.

Cholesterol is a component of blood lipids, playing an important role in nerve fiber cell activity and hormone production, helping the body function normally and healthily. There are two main types of cholesterol: LDL (bad cholesterol) and HDL (good cholesterol). Increased bad cholesterol or triglycerides is the cause of high blood fat.

Doctor Hoang Tien Trong Nghia, Head of the Department of Neurology, Military Hospital 175, said this is a bad sign of health because it is related to problems with atherosclerosis and other diseases. . “The dangerous thing is that the disease often has no typical symptoms, so many people are subjective,” the doctor said.

High blood fat is becoming more and more youthful, appearing more in patients 20-30 years old, instead of 50 years old or older as before. When sick, this group tends to be in shock and does not believe the diagnosis because they think they are young and healthy and cannot carry the disease of the elderly. In addition, many young people do not have regular check-ups and tests, only accidentally discovering the disease, so they are even more worried.

Survey results of the Vietnam National Institute of Nutrition 2022 show that more than 29% of Vietnamese adults have dyslipidemia, of which this rate in urban residents is up to 44.3%. The survey of 4,800 people, published in 2010, found that about one in two urban residents had high cholesterol. Nearly 50% of adults living in urban areas have high blood lipids.

Doctor Lam Vinh Nien, Head of the Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, Ho Chi Minh City University of Medicine and Pharmacy Hospital, said that blood fat does not distinguish between thin or fat, young or old people. “If a person is young and thin but eats a lot of fat, is sedentary, smokes cigarettes, and drinks alcohol, they will still have hyperlipidemia,” the doctor said. However, young people who are obese, overweight, or obese have a higher risk of dyslipidemia (fat disorders).

Explaining the cause, the doctor said that it was mainly due to unhealthy lifestyle, being overweight, and lack of exercise, causing the body to not be able to eliminate waste in time. For example, the habit of eating greasy foods, fried foods, and processed foods causes excess fat to accumulate in the body over time, gradually progressing into disease. Many people still confuse high cholesterol with obesity, thinking that being thin means not having blood fat, so they are subjective and eat unscientifically.

Furthermore, widely available and easily available sugary drinks and foods have led to the consumption of more added sugars, contributing to increased triglyceride levels and decreased HDL (good) cholesterol levels.

One of the most worrying aspects of high cholesterol in young people is its asymptomatic nature. This leads to a false sense of security, allowing the condition to progress uncontrollably until serious complications arise.

If not detected early and treated, high blood fat can lead to fatty liver, pancreatitis, atherosclerosis, arrhythmia, angina, and myocardial infarction. According to 2020 research, the younger you are and the higher your cholesterol level, the greater your risk of cardiovascular disease throughout your life. Many cases of high blood fat that are not detected in time have resulted in high blood pressure and stroke, leading to disability or death.

People 20 years of age and older should have their cholesterol checked every five years even if they appear healthy. When you detect the disease early, you will change your lifestyle accordingly and get appropriate medical intervention.

Focus on a balanced diet rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains and lean proteins. Regular physical activity and maintaining a healthy weight are also important for controlling cholesterol levels. Quitting smoking and limiting alcohol intake can significantly improve heart health.

If your cholesterol levels are high enough to require cholesterol-lowering drugs such as statins, making lifestyle changes may help increase the effectiveness of the drugs.

Absolutely do not believe in advertising to filter blood fat to prevent disease. The blood fat filtering technique is currently only applied to cases of acute pancreatitis accompanied by elevated triglyceride index (over 11 mmol/L).