Can Stress Cause High Cholesterol? Why Tension May Spike Your Readings up to 20 Percent
Experts reveal the four simple habits that help you feel calmer faster
Key Takeaways
- Stress may raise cholesterol through hormonal and inflammatory changes.
- Chronic stress can also lead to unhealthy lifestyle habits that increase cholesterol.
- Cardiologists share four simple and unique ways to help lower stress fast.
So many of us think that high cholesterol is only caused by eating a diet rich in saturated fats or not exercising, right? Not quite. It turns out your stressful days could be quietly contributing to high cholesterol, even when you’re doing everything else right. We spoke with two cardiologists to understand how stress can cause high cholesterol—plus what you can do to feel calmer and protect your heart health.
How stress affects your body
You probably think of stress as simply feeling overwhelmed, but Arash Bereliani, MD, FACC, board-certified cardiologist and medical director of The Beverly Hills Institute of Cardiology and Preventive Medicine, offers an analogy that explains what’s actually happening inside your body when you’re tense.
“Stress is your body’s alarm system,” says Dr. Bereliani. “When your brain senses a threat, whether that’s a car cutting you off or an email from your boss, it releases two main hormones: adrenaline and cortisol. Your heart beats faster, your blood pressure rises, your muscles tense and your liver dumps sugar and fat into your bloodstream so you have quick fuel to fight or run. This system is brilliant in short bursts. The problem is that most modern stress never turns off, so the alarm keeps ringing for months or years, and that constant low-grade activation is what starts to damage the heart and blood vessels.”
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The problem with high cholesterol levels
“Cholesterol is a waxy, fat-like substance your body actually needs to build cells and make hormones,” explains Dr. Bereliani. “It travels through your blood inside carriers called lipoproteins. LDL is often called the ‘bad’ carrier because it drops cholesterol off in your artery walls. HDL is called the ‘good’ carrier because it picks cholesterol up and takes it back to the liver. Triglycerides are a separate blood fat that mostly comes from sugar, refined carbs and alcohol.”
The problem? When “bad” cholesterol levels remain high, they can increase the risk of heart disease, heart attack and stroke. “High cholesterol simply means you have too much of the particles that deposit into artery walls,” Dr. Bereliani adds. “There are no symptoms, which is why it is often found only through a blood test.”
Can stress cause high cholesterol?
The main contributors to high cholesterol are the things you often think about: a family history of high cholesterol, a diet rich in ultra-processed foods and saturated fat, lack of exercise, being overweight, smoking, hypothyroidism and even certain medications, says Hima Mammillapalli, MD, FACC, interventional cardiologist at Memorial Katy Associates in Houston, TX. “For women specifically, menopause deserves special attention because declining estrogen levels often lead to increases in LDL cholesterol,” he adds.
But what about stress? Our experts agree that stress can cause high cholesterol. This happens in two ways: “When cortisol and adrenaline stay elevated, they signal your liver to produce more glucose and more fat particles to fuel a crisis that never actually comes,” says Dr. Bereliani. “That extra fuel does not get burned, so it stays in circulation as triglycerides and LDL.”
“On top of that, ongoing stress creates inflammation, which makes LDL particles more likely to stick to and irritate the artery wall,” adds Dr. Bereliani. “So stress does not just raise the number, it makes the cholesterol you have more dangerous.”
The second factor at hand is how stress impacts our behavior. “When we are chronically stressed, we tend to develop unhealthy habits,” says Dr. Mammillapalli. “We tend to sleep less, exercise less and eat more calorie-dense comfort foods. These can all cause an increase in cholesterol levels.”
4 cardiologist-approved ways to lower stress
So you want to reduce your stress, and you’ve given the things like meditation, deep breathing and positive thinking a try to no avail. What else can you do? We asked our experts to share four unique strategies that could help.
Start your day outside
“Get outside within an hour of waking up,” recommends Dr. Bereliani. “Ten minutes of morning daylight on your face, no sunglasses, sets your body clock so cortisol peaks in the morning where it belongs instead of at 10 pm. Better sleep follows, and better sleep does more for cholesterol and high blood pressure than most supplements on the shelf.”
Carve out time to worry
Try picking a time to give yourself permission to engage with your worries. “Set a timer for 15 minutes and write down your worries,” says Dr. Mammillapalli. “If a worry comes up at another time during the day, gently remind yourself that you will think about it during your ‘worry time.’”
Take a break from social media
Comparison can steal your joy if you let it, and social media is a breeding ground for doing just that. “It seems like everyone on social media is living their best lives while we somehow seem to be nowhere near there,” says Dr. Mammillapalli. “In reality, this is far from the truth, but our brains do not know that. Take a break, whether it’s a day at a time or even longer.”
Skip texting and get talking
“Hum, sing in the car or talk on the phone instead of texting,” says Dr. Bereliani. “The vibration in your throat stimulates the vagus nerve, and real human voices calm the nervous system in a way screens never will.”
And it’s important to keep in mind that while stress can raise cholesterol, Dr. Bereliani says it’s just one piece of the puzzle. “In most cases, stress raises cholesterol mildly to moderately, generally no more than about a 20 percent increase,” adds Dr. Bereliani. “Stress is rarely the whole story, and it is almost never the only thing to address.” Remember to also support healthy cholesterol levels through diet, exercise and maintaining a healthy weight.
The bottom line on stress and high cholesterol
Our mental and physical health are connected in more ways than we think. While you may support healthy cholesterol levels through nutrition and movement, taking care of your mental health is just as important. If you’ve been feeling more stressed than usual, talk to your doctor about whether it could be contributing to your cholesterol levels. And in the meantime, try one of our cardiologist-approved tips to channel more calm into your life.
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