Lower your Cholesterol for Life

So you've just been told the news – your cholesterol is high!   Since high cholesterol has no physical symptoms like headache or dizzyness, this may have hit you out of the blue.  There are plenty of medications available to treat high cholesterol, but it is best if you can lower it through healthy changes in your lifestyle. 

Know your numbers. 

This isn't secret information for your doctor's eyes only.  Ask your doctor to give you a copy of your blood work, and take it home with you.  There are a bunch of numbers used to measure cholesterol.   Measurements in parentheses are for Canadians, Europeans and other metric types.

• LDL stands for Low Density Lipoproteins.  These should be below 100 mg/dL.  (2.6 mmol/L)
• HDL stands for High Density Lipoproteins.  These are the "good" cholesterol and should be above 60 mg/dL.   (1.5 mmol/L)
• Total cholesterol should be below 200 mg/dL.  (5.2 mmol/L)
• Triglycerides should be below 150 mg/dL.  (1.7 mmol/L)

If you smoke, stop smoking.

Smoking damages the walls of your blood vessels, making it easier for plaque to accumulate.  It can also lower your HDL levels, and these are the ones you want to increase.  Although it may be a difficult change, it will have immediate benefits.  Within 24 hours of quitting your risk of a heart attack decreases.  Within one year, your risk of heart attack is half that of a smoker.  You will find that you have easier breathing, greater endurance, and look and feel better.  Think of the money you will save.  For help with quitting see smokefree.gov.

Eat less trans fatty acids.

Trans fatty acids are made through a process that takes unsaturated fats and saturates them with hydrogen atoms.  This makes the fat blend more easily with foods, and gives it a longer shelf life.  Many fats such as shortening and margarines that are solid at room temperature contain trans fats.  Natural fats like butter do not have trans fats. 

Trans fats give your cholesterol levels a double whammy, by increasing your bad cholesterol and lowering your good cholesterol.  They are widely used in fried and processed foods, especially baked goods.  Now labels are required to show trans fats,  at least in the United States, so look for brands that contain 0 grams of trans fats. 

Eat less saturated fats and fried foods.

Eating a lot of saturated fats raises your level of triglycerides.  Saturated fats are found in meats, milk fat and butter.  Lower the total fat in your diet by staying away from fried foods such as french fries, anything cooked in oil, and extra cream or butter.  Avoid fatty meats like bacon, sausage, ribs and steaks.  Good low-fat choices are chicken, turkey, fish, ground beef with less than 10% fat,  or lean cuts of beef or pork.  Try to eat meatless meals at least two or three times a week.  Eat less processed foods, and more foods made from scratch so that you can control the ingredients.

Eat more soluble fiber.

Soluble fiber binds with fatty acids, and can lower your total cholesterol levels.  Good sources include oat bran, nuts, barley, flax seeds, pysllium husks, dried beans and peas.

Eat more omega-3 fatty acids.

These are essential fatty acids, meaning your body does not make them and you need to get them in your diet.  They can lower triglyceride levels, and are even available in a high dosage prescription form.  Foods high in omega-3 include flax seeds, walnuts, pumpkin seeds, salmon, tuna, halibut and other fatty fish.  Many people take an over the counter supplement of omega-3, which may be called EPA / DHA, or fish oil.  If you aren't eating a really good source regularly,  consider taking a supplement every day.  The prescription strength dosage is about 900 mg, while OTC dosage is about 300 mg.  Do not dose yourself at prescription levels without checking with your doctor, as this strength has a whole list of side effects and interactions with other drugs.

Eat more sterols and stanols.

These compounds called phytosterols are found in plant and animal cell membranes.  They are similar to cholesterol, but don't act in the same way.  In fact they compete with cholesterol for absorption into the body, so they can lower cholesterol levels.  Some foods high in sterols and stanols are sesame seeds, olive oil and peanuts.  Some commercial products are fortified with sterols or stanols, including certain brands of margarine spreads, orange juice, cottage cheese, yogurt and granola bars.  These tend to be expensive, and some are high calorie products, so you would need to incorporate them into your diet in small amounts over a long period of time for them to be effective.

Read more about sterols and stanols from the International Food Information Council.  Find a list of fortified foods at Cleveland Clinic.

Break a sweat.  Exercise vigorously every day.

Exercise can lower cholesterol by helping you lose weight, or stay at your ideal weight.   Exercise stimulates enzymes that help move LDL from the blood to the liver.  There it is converted into bile and excreted.  Exercise increases the size of the protein particles that carry cholesterol through the blood.  This makes it harder for these molecules to squeeze into small places in the heart and blood vessels and create blockages.

How much exercise do you need?  Moderate exercise will lower your cholesterol only a moderate amount.  If you really want to get the benefits of exercise you need more vigorous exercise.   Vigorous exercise raises your heart rate for a prolonged time period.  If you aren't breaking a sweat, it isn't vigorous exercise.

Exercise vigorously if you are in good enough health to do so.  Check with your doctor.  You may need to work up to this level, but the American Heart Association recommends at least 30 minutes per day.  This can be fast walking, jogging, swimming, bicycling – anything that raises your heart rate and maintains it for at least 30 minutes.

Lose weight if you are overweight. 

Take a look at your diet.  Are you snacking in between meals, or at night?  Are you eating large portions of food that  leave you stuffed?  Do you eat out several times a week?  Restaurant meals are notoriously high in calories.  Are you choosing high calorie foods?  Make some changes in your eating habits, combine with exercise, and you should be able to lose weight.

Alternative remedies for high cholesterol

Some of these folk remedies have been used as medicines for hundreds of years.  Be sure to do your research on side effects and safe amounts.  They are not meant to be a substitute for proper medical care.

• Red Yeast Rice is a yeast product grown on rice, and a common food staple in Asia. It contains substances called monacolins, which can inhibit cholesterol synthesis. One active ingredient is lovastatin, which is used in prescription drugs`in the US for high cholesterol.   Lovastatin is regulated by the FDA and companies cannot market preparations with more than a trace of this drug, because of potential serious side effects.
    
• artichoke extract
    
• barley extract
    
• garlic extract
    
• Guggulipid is the gum resin of the mukul myrrh tree.  It has been traditionally used in Ayurvedic medicine to treat obesity, arteriosclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, among other disorders.
   
•  Policosanol is produced from sugar cane, and lately from beeswax.  The OTC supplement for lowering cholesterol, Cholestin, used to contain red yeast rice, until it was pulled by the FDA.  Now it contains policosanol.
    
• Herbs and spices such as yarrow, holy basil, ginger, fenugreek, turmeric and rosemary are being studied for phytonutrients that may lower cholesterol.

Prescription drugs for high cholesterol

 If your cholesterol is very high, you are at a high risk for heart disease, or the changes in your lifestyle aren't lowering your cholesterol enough, your doctor may put you on medication.  There are many different types available now incuding:

• statins, which block an enzyme that produces cholesterol.
• ezetimibe, which decreases how much cholesterol the body can absorb.
• nicotinic acid, a form of a B vitamin which affects the production of fatty acids in the liver.
• resins, which bind with bile, causing your body to make more bile.  Your body uses cholesterol to make bile, thus lowering cholesterol levels.
• fibrates, which can lower triglycerides and increase HDL.

Even if you are put on a medication, that's not an excuse to keep unhealthy habits.  Consider these lifestyle changes to lower your cholesterol naturally, and make you look and feel better than ever.

 The information on this page is not meant to be used in treatment of medical conditions. Please seek the advice of a physician about any medical condition or symptom. Those with medical conditions should consult a medical professional about the appropriateness of taking dietary supplements, diet therapy, or exercise and how these methods will interact with their medications.