What are the uncontrollable and controllable risk factors for high cholesterol?

The risk factors you can’t control are your age (for men, 45 years or older; for women, 55 years or older) and your family history of early heart disease (for men, father or brother affected before age 55 years; for women, mother or sister affected before age 65 years). 

The risk factors you can control are lowering high blood cholesterol, which is high total cholesterol and high LDL ("bad") cholesterol; raising HDL ("good") cholesterol; quitting smoking; controlling high blood pressure; controlling diabetes; losing weight if overweight/obese; and keeping physically active. 

If you have diabetes, your risk of heart disease is high. To reduce your risk, you will need to lower your cholesterol under the supervision of your doctor.