Contents:
- Medical Video: High Cholesterol and Familial Hypercholesterolemia, Animation
- What is Tangier Disease?
- What are the signs and symptoms of tangier disease?
- Treatment of tangier disease
Medical Video: High Cholesterol and Familial Hypercholesterolemia, Animation
Today more and more people are suffering from heart disease. Mostly, it is due to an inactive lifestyle and poor diet, so that bad cholesterol levels rise and good cholesterol decreases. When that happens, someone will be very susceptible to heart attack. However, do you know if the condition of abnormal cholesterol levels can be experienced from birth? Yes, this condition is called tangier disease.
What is Tangier Disease?
Cholesterol can be divided into several types, including triglycerides, high density lipoprotein (HDL) or good cholesterollow density lipoprotein (LDL) which is known as bad cholesterol.
Tangier disease is a genetic problem that makes good cholesterol levels drop in the body. resulting in a significant decrease in the level of good cholesterol (HDL) in the blood. Normally, a person's HDL level is at least 40 mg / dL of blood. While in Tangier disease, HDL levels are not more than 5 mg / dL.
Actually the name of this disease is taken from the name of an island in the Virginia area, United States, which is the first place this health disorder was found for the first time.
Even so, tangier is a rare disease that occurs due to the mutation of genes in the body. Tangier is also a hereditary disease that can attack both men and women.
What are the signs and symptoms of tangier disease?
Under normal circumstances, good cholesterol will clean plaques that come from bad fats around blood vessels. Plaques that accumulate can make blood flow clogged and eventually lead to heart attacks, even strokes.
Well, this also happens when someone doesn't have enough good cholesterol. The plaque will continue to accumulate and no one will clean. This condition will cause various symptoms such as:
- Big tonsils and orange. Tonsils of tonsils in Tangier's disease are usually orange and appear enlarged. This is caused by fat deposits in these body parts.
- Nerve function disorders. Nerve blood vessels can become blocked due to this, so it is very possible for people with tangents to experience nerve dysfunction.
- The cornea became cloudy. The cornea is a circular black part of the eye. The presence of fat deposits on the cornea makes the part look cloudy, especially visible on the inside edge.
Other symptoms that arise may be similar to the symptoms of heart disease, stroke or other chronic diseases. If you experience certain symptoms, don't hesitate to see a doctor immediately.
Treatment of tangier disease
Until now, no special therapy has been found that can cure tangier disease.
Treatment carried out until now aims to increase HDL levels in the blood. The main strategy for dealing with tangier disease is to maintain a healthy lifestyle and maintain a low-fat diet.
Although it sounds creepy, people with Tangier disease can live to old age with conditions to maintain a daily lifestyle and diet. This is needed so that heart diseases and blood vessels are not lethal.
