National Cholesterol Week: Travel Insurance and High Cholesterol

Added 14/10/2013

Nurse smiling with laptop

This week (14-20 October) is National Cholesterol Week, so we’re taking the opportunity to raise awareness of the importance of declaring high cholesterol when you buy travel insurance.

According to Heart UK, the cholesterol charity, 3 out of 5 people in the UK have raised or abnormal levels of cholesterol. Although your levels of cholesterol in your blood is likely to increase as you get older, it can also increase as a result of eating too much saturated fat, gaining weight or not doing enough exercise. Some people also inherit high cholesterol from their parents.

Although cholesterol plays a vital role in our bodies, helping to make vitamin D, some hormones and bile for digestion, increased levels can increase the risk of heart attack and other diseases.

About half of all heart attacks are caused by high cholesterol and high cholesterol levels also increase the risk of angina, stroke and other circulatory medical conditions.

Most people don’t know that they have high cholesterol as there are no visible symptoms, so it’s important to go along to your doctor for a test to find out if you are at risk.

If you know you are at risk there are some very easy lifestyle changes that you can make to reduce your cholesterol level, such as changing your diet to reduce your intake of saturated fat and doing more exercise. For more information about improving your cholesterol level with a healthy diet visit Heart UK.

Why it’s important to declare high cholesterol when you buy travel insurance

In order to be properly covered by your travel insurance for emergency medical expenses whilst you are away your insurer will need to have a full picture of your current health. This means that you need to declare any existing medical conditions, including raised cholesterol — even if it is controlled by medication.

If you don’t declare an existing medical condition you could find that you are not covered for emergency medical treatment which is related, either directly or indirectly, to that condition.

High cholesterol may not seem that serious by itself, but because it can significantly increase your risk of related illnesses including heart attack, stroke and other circulatory conditions it is very important to declare it when you buy travel insurance.

In many cases declaring high cholesterol won’t increase your travel insurance premium, but it will ensure that you are properly covered if the unexpected happens.

Declare your medical conditions and get a travel insurance quote >>

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