Proven Ways To Lower Your Cholesterol
Tuesday, October 6th, 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.
Hypercholesterolemia (as high cholesterol is technically called) is a fairly common complaint in Western society but has in fact only come about relatively recently, due in large part to features of the typical modern lifestyle. For most people whose cholesterol levels are abnormally raised, quite modest changes to their diet and exercise patterns are all that is required to bring their levels back within acceptable limits.
Some individuals are either beyond what can be achieved with lifestyle changes or have an inherited genetic disorder (familial hypercholesterolemia) that limits the efficacy of diet and exercise; these people will normally be put on a lifetime programme of drugs (usually statins) whose potency can be altered to suit the individual.
Before we move on to examine these two strategies, it’s worth understanding that when health professionals talk about cholesterol as it affects people, they are generally concerned with two specific types (there are more, but this simplification is reasonably accurate). These are LDL which is often called “bad cholesterol” and HDL which has been labelled “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.
Where lifestyle changes to combat LDL cholesterol are concerned, these proceed from the observation that excess weight, certain types of food, smoking, drinking and too little exercise are strong contributory factors leading to high LDL cholesterol; therefore avoiding these things will cause the reverse and lower your cholesterol.
The types of food that you should aim to cut down on (or cut out even) are those that contain high levels of saturated fat. These are commonly represented by red meat, hard cheese, butter, and derivative foodstuffs such as cakes, pastry and biscuits. At the same time you should try to eat more vegetables, fruit, beans and oats; all these actually help to reduce cholesterol levels. Where possible try to substitute one for the other, so instead of using butter buy a cholesterol lowering spread that contains plant sterols (these are widely available in most supermarkets, often right next to the butter).
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).
In the vast majority of cases, people who are prescribed statins tolerate them with virtually no side-effects whatever, however it should be borne in mind that they do have the capability to harm muscle tissue and the liver, though this risk is usually minimal for people not on very high doses. For this reason though, if your doctor recommends that you take statins on an ongoing basis it is likely they will also ask for not infrequent blood tests, both to check cholesterol levels and also to spot early signs of any possible 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.
Possible Related Posts
Effective Ways To Lower Your Cholesterol LevelsWhy You Should Be Lowering Blood Cholesterol NaturallyMedicinal Mushroom Alcohol Extract vs. Hot Water Extract