High cholesterol treatment

MinuteClinic providers will review your medical history and lifestyle factors and perform a risk assessment. Following the examination, your MinuteClinic provider will discuss the results with you and provide a personalized treatment plan. Our providers are trained to provide screening, monitoring and treatment for people with high cholesterol and related conditions.

1. You may have to answer a few questions about symptoms to help us prepare for your visit prior to scheduling your appointment.

2. Check-in varies depending on how you scheduled your appointment:

   If you made your appointment online:
   Check in using the email or text message we sent to confirm your appointment. If you prefer to check in using the electronic kiosk, make sure you have your confirmation code.

   If you made your appointment in the clinic:
   Sign in at the electronic kiosk.

   If you made a MinuteClinic Virtual Care® appointment:
   To join your virtual visit, use the link in the email or text message we sent you to confirm your appointment. Please join 15 minutes before your scheduled visit time. You will need your date of birth and ZIP code to join the visit.

3. When it's time for your appointment, a provider will call your name.
4. Your provider will conduct a thorough examination based on your reason for visit, presenting symptoms and health history. Charges will be based on examination and services provided during the visit.
5. At the end of your visit, you are provided with a visit summary, receipt and educational material about your diagnosis. At your request, we can send your primary care provider information about your visit.

Your MinuteClinic® provider will prepare a personalized treatment plan for reducing your cholesterol. They will talk to you about making lifestyle changes to improve your health and any necessary medication. Upon evaluation, your provider may refer you to another health care setting for further testing and assessment.

Lifestyle changes such as regular exercising and a healthy diet are the primary priorities in treating high cholesterol. This includes:

• Drinking in moderation (if you drink alcohol)
• Eating heart-healthy foods
• Enjoying regular physical activity
• Maintaining a healthy weight
• Quitting smoking (if you are a smoker)

If you have made these significant lifestyle changes and your cholesterol levels remain high, your MinuteClinic provider may prescribe medication. The drugs your provider prescribes will depend on the circumstances of your situation, including risk factors as well as your age and health.

• Physical activity: Everyone benefits from regular exercise. Choose activities you enjoy, such as brisk walking, hiking, swimming and biking. Add fun activities — like basketball or a dance class — into your lifestyle instead of “workouts” you have to guilt or pep-talk yourself into doing.

Just 150 minutes of moderate-intensity activities per week (equal to 30 minutes of aerobic exercise 5 days a week) can lower both cholesterol and high blood pressure. Regular moderate-intensity activity boosts your HDL (good) cholesterol levels, which helps to remove LDL (bad) cholesterol out of the bloodstream. Conversely, a sedentary lifestyle lowers HDL.

• Maintain a healthy weight: Being overweight or obese increases LDL cholesterol and lowers HDL levels. Losing excess body fat can improve your cholesterol levels. A weight loss of even just 10% helps to improve your cholesterol levels.
• Stop smoking: Smoking lowers HDL cholesterol. When a person with elevated cholesterol levels smokes, their risk of coronary heart disease increases more than it would otherwise. Smoking compounds the risk factors for heart disease, hypertension and diabetes.
• Drink alcohol in moderation: For the average healthy adult, this means women of all ages can have up to 1 drink a day, men 65 years old or younger can have up to 2 drinks a day and men 65 and older can have up to 1 drink a day.

Too much alcohol can lead to serious health issues, including liver damage, hypertension, heart failure and stroke.