Why it's so important to check your cholesterol

As a former international cricketer, Mark Ramprakash has always had to look after his health and wellbeing. But it was only when his father had a health scare that the former England batsman truly realised he had to take care of his health to safeguard his future.

“My father had a stroke, and the whole of his left side was affected - speech, walking and stuff like that,” says Ramprakash, who retired from cricket in 2012. “Happily he did recover, but it was a massive scare. A lot of people aren’t lucky enough to come back from that. So that was a really worrying time for me and the rest of the family.”

Ramprakash’s dad, Deo, an Indian originally from Guyana, is a diabetic with high cholesterol - two conditions more common in South Asians. That genetic legacy prompted Ramprakash, 53, to support the Get Back in the Game campaign to encourage more people to get their cholesterol tested, as high LDL (bad) cholesterol is a major cause of cardiovascular problems such as heart attacks and strokes.

“I very much have a personal investment in this campaign, added Ramprakash, who has joined his former England team-mate Phil Tufnell to make a documentary for the campaign, in which they chat to two men about the heart attacks they’ve experienced.

“They both had high cholesterol,” he says, “their stories were really quite scary, because both were quite active, and what really came through to me was it’s a silent killer you don’t really know about, or weren’t feeling unwell.

“It sort of crept up on them - you can perhaps look and feel reasonably well, but high cholesterol is deadly because there’s not necessarily major symptoms from it. It could have gone either way for those guys, so that was an eye-opener. Some people don’t come back from a stroke or heart attack.”

The Novartis campaign, in collaboration with cholesterol charity Heart UK, is urging people to get their cholesterol tested and managed, particularly if they’ve experienced a cardiovascular event like a heart attack or stroke.

“The campaign is just raising awareness for people to be tested if they’re in a particular age bracket or ethnicity, to monitor it, and get the measurements,” explains Ramprakash.

He hasn’t had any cardiovascular problems, and a cholesterol test last year revealed his levels were normal. “So far, so good,” he says.

“But I urge anyone to go and get tested - you can do that at your local pharmacy. And once you get that measurement, you’re really in a much better place to think what you really need to do, and how you’re going to target lowering your cholesterol if you need to.”

Studies suggest heavy drinking may increase bad cholesterol, and Heart UK says a healthy diet can help lower it. Ramprakash adds: “I don’t drink alcohol, but I have a very sweet tooth - it’s a really bad habit, so I have to really try and be careful with sugar. And my dad is a diabetic, so that obviously can run in the family. That’s really where I have to keep a very close eye on things.

“I think I was quite lucky in that my family had pretty good habits early in my life, and I’ve always been very active from a young age. The fact I’ve never got into the whole alcohol situation has probably saved me a few headaches along the way!”

He says when he became a professional sportsperson at 17, diet and nutrition was, of course, important, and strength and conditioning experts and nutritionists worked with the national team, which he joined at the age of 21. “So you just continue to learn, and that’s a healthy mindset in terms of life in general.

“Certainly, nutrition and the way to look after your body as you get older, that’s really important,” he stresses, pointing out his diet isn’t perfect but he tries to be careful with it. “I do have the odd takeaway, and I’ve got a sweet tooth, but I don’t think it’s necessarily realistic for people to completely cut everything out - you want the good to far outweigh the treats.”

Ramprakash does weights and tries to play golf weekly, as well as coaching cricket. So does he miss being a professional sportsman?”Umm, yes, to be young again, and have the body of a 25-year-old,but I think as I get older, I’ve lost that hunger to do the training. I don’t have the motivation.”