It is known that having high blood cholesterol levels can have serious effect on your health condition as it increases the risk of having a heart disease and suffering from fatal heart attacks and strokes as a result of atherosclerosis, a condition where the arteries become narrow and hard due to excess cholesterol build up within artery walls. But failing to reduce cholesterol, or manage cholesterol levels in the proper time and manner can have a significant impact on your wallet as well.

According to the Journal of the American Heart Association, failing to lower cholesterol and the poor health conditions that come as a result have cost more than $13 billion in lost wages including hospitalization costs per year, for people who experienced first time heart attack or stroke and more $13 billion per year have been spent from recurring heart attacks. The total costs for indirect health problems resulting from unmanaged high cholesterol levels are about $53.6 billion per year.

The risk of having a heart attack is doubled if one’s having a hereditary history of heart disease in the family in addition to high cholesterol levels and the risk for mortality due to a heart attack becomes 4 times higher and 6 times higher is one is suffering from high blood pressure or diabetics. All can add up to significantly large sums of money fro m your pocket in addition the physical risk.

The prevention of a second occurrence of unmanaged cholesterol condition can add up to 13.2 billion dollar for hospitalization costs. About half of that money goes for heart disease mortality costs due to unmanaged cholesterol levels and more than $7 billion for the treatment of people with a history of heart disease or stroke.

But beyond the extremely high financial price, failure to lower cholesterol or neglecting an obligatory annual cholesterol test can be extremely pricey in regards to your health and the quality of your life. The conclusion is simple: lowering both physical and financial costs, as a result of unmanaged high cholesterol levels, can be achieved by monitoring and reducing cholesterol as quickly and effectively as possible.