Effective Ways To Lower Your Cholesterol
Wednesday, October 7th, 2009 Subscribe To Our Feed
Having raised levels of blood cholesterol is known to be a major risk factor in developing heart disease and suffering premature death. Accordingly, the smart thing to do is to lower your cholesterol to safe levels and there are two methods that will reliably achieve this. These are 1) making a number of lifestyle changes and 2) using cholesterol lowering medication.
The high rates of high cholesterol (or hypercholesterolemia to use the medical term) that are found in Western societies especially are a fairly recent phenomenon and for the most part caused by modern lifestyles. In most cases though, high cholesterol is easily brought under control with quite simple modifications to diet and exercise habits.
Some people’s cholesterol levels are either the result of an inherited genetic condition called familial hypercholesterolemia or have already reached a point where modifications to their lifestyle would yield only limited results. They will usually be prescribed one of a class of cholesterol lowering drugs called statins according to severity and are likely to take these for the rest of their lives.
Before we examine in greater detail these two strategies for lowering cholesterol, it is important to understand that when people (in the medical profession especially) discuss “cholesterol” they are using it as a blanket term. For the purpose of evaluating human health, there are 2 main types of cholesterol called LDL (characterized as “bad” cholesterol) and HDL (which is conversely “good” cholesterol).
LDL cholesterol is a type of fat (a lipid) that is produced as a consequence of your liver processing what you eat; it gets distributed via the bloodstream to supply energy to just about every cell in the body and is therefore absolutely vital. However, if too much is produced it tends to get deposited in arteries and veins and eventually clogs the system up with predictable consequences.
HDL (High Density Lipoprotein) has a higher density of protein than lipids (fats) and can thus absorb excess LDL which it returns to the liver to be either reused or discarded. But your body has considerably more LDL than HDL so HDL can never handle very high levels of LDL cholesterol. Nevertheless, research has shown that increasing the amount of exercise taken results in an increase in the amount of HDL present in the bloodstream.
The lifestyle modifications that are recommended to lower cholesterol derive from accumulated medical evidence that being overweight, drinking too much, smoking, eating specific types of food and not taking enough exercise all contribute to high levels of LDL cholesterol and that conversely, not indulging in these practices will have the opposite effect and decrease cholesterol levels.
So which kinds of foodstuffs should you aim to reduce or eliminate from your diet? In short, those containing saturated fats, so for example butter, cheese and red meat as well as biscuits, cakes and pastries. In addition to cutting these out you should also introduce in their place more fruit, vegetables, beans and oats, all of which actively assist with naturally lowering LDL cholesterol. Sometimes it’s even possible to do a straight swap, for example using plant sterol based spreads that lower cholesterol instead of butter (which raises it).
Some people however find that modifying their lifestyle is not sufficient by itself to bring their cholesterol levels within acceptable limits and they should consult a doctor, who in most cases will prescribe medication from a class of drugs known as statins. It is worth noting though that these pills are absolutely not a means of avoiding lifestyle changes; they are an additional aid on top of that.
The most commonly prescribed statins are (in ascending order of strength and using both clinical and brand names):
pravastatin (Lipostat); simvastatin (Zocor); atorvastatin (Lipitor); rosuvastatin (Crestor).
The vast majority of people tolerate statins easily and suffer no side-effects at all, but it should be noted that they can damage both muscles and the liver, especially when taken in high doses and for this reason you may find that reasonably regular blood tests become a feature of your life due to the need to both monitor the effect of statins on your cholesterol levels and to watch for symptoms of internal damage.
So there you have it. Two effective and medically proven ways to lower cholesterol. The difference between the two is simply a matter of degree – taking prescribed drugs is an additional measure on top of addressing your lifestyle, which in most cases lies at the root of the problem.
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