This Morning's Dr Chris discusses the signs of high cholesterol

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Serious consequences can occur if someone cannot keep their cholesterol at a healthy level.

High cholesterol can increase a person’s risk of high blood pressure and several forms of heart disease including peripheral arterial disease.

Bupa describes peripheral arterial disease (PAD) as developing “when fatty deposits build up on the walls of your arteries. The fatty deposits can cause your arteries to narrow and this reduces the supply of blood to your muscles and other tissues”.

High cholesterol can lead to peripheral arterial disease as LDL cholesterol forms as plaque in the arteries.

Symptoms of PAD can appear in various areas of the body, including the legs.

Pale and cool skin on the legs and around the feet are signs of PAD.

Other symptoms to look out for are:
• Pain in the foot or calf at rest or at night
• Weakened muscles in the leg
• Sores or wounds on the toes, feet, or legs that won’t heal
• Hair loss from the toes, feet or legs.

Bupa recommend anyone with symptoms of PAD should contact their GP.

They added: “If your symptoms develop or change quickly, you may need immediate medical treatment.”

PAD forms part of a wide gamut of heart diseases, one of the UK’s biggest killers in terms of years of life lost.

Such is the scale of the problem that, on average, someone dies from heart disease every three minutes.

It’s not just in the UK where heart disease is becoming a greater problem.

According to recent data, cardiac deaths rose 17 percent globally during the pandemic.

The research, undertaken by a team from Leeds University, analysed close to 200 studies over two years.

While cardiac deaths have risen, so too have ambulance waits; on average they have risen by a potentially fatal extra 60 minutes.

Leader of the review, cardiologist Dr Ramesh Nadarajah, said: “Heart disease is the number one killer in most countries – and the analysis shows that during the pandemic, people across the world did not receive the cardiac care they should have received.

“That will have ramifications. The longer people wait for treatment for a heart attack, the greater the damage to their heart muscle, causing complications that can be fatal or cause chronic ill health.”

Although researchers also said the number of heart attacks had gone down, they said this was likely to do with heart attacks going unreported rather than a drop in numbers.

Meanwhile, data from the British Heart Foundation showed there were more than 300,000 people waiting for cardiac treatment in England.

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