How to Lower Cholesterol
High cholesterol is one of the most common medical conditions among Americans. Cholesterol plays a major role in strokes, heart attacks, and many other serious medical conditions. Therefore, an important step in staying healthy is to keep a keen eye on your cholesterol levels as well as a similar group of chemicals known as triglycerides.
Most people do not know that their cholesterol is high until it is too late, or until a stroke or heart attack makes it obvious. Today, older people are well aware of the dangers of cholesterol, therefore, they get theirs checked regularly. However, people should really start watching their blood fats levels by the time they’re nineteen.
Cholesterol is a unique type of fat that is needed by every cell in the body to function properly. Our diet accounts for about twenty-five percent of our cholesterol supply, while the liver produces the other seventy-five percent.
Symptoms Of High Cholesterol
No symptoms – high cholesterol typically has no noticable symptoms. It is usually found by routine blood tests
Cholesterol has several vital functions:
- Formation and maintenance of cell membranes
- Formation of sex hormones
- Production of bile salts that help digest foods
- Production of Vitamin D
But too much of it can kill.
Reversing high cholesterol is simple, it’s a shame that a lot of doctors are not telling their patients how to reverse their high cholesterol instead of putting them on cholesterol lowering medication–which in the long run does more harm than good.
What kind of things raise the levels in our blood?
Certain things can raise the levels of cholesterol in our blood. Here are a few:
- A diet high in fats
- Lack of exercise
- Some medications, especially HIV medicines
- Genetic predisposition (family history)
So what can we do to make sure our cholesterol is controlled?
How To Lower Cholesterol
Cut out all animal fat in your diet. Also, you would want get rid of margarine, mayonnaise, fried foods and cooking oil. When we sit and eat a meal consisting of steak and eggs, our liver must manufacture enough cholesterol to help digest that high fat meal. It is also known that the liver will continue to manufacture cholesterol up to 14 days later. Imagine, steak and eggs for breakfast, then comes a burger and fries for lunch, then at dinner– fried chicken and baked potatoes covered with cheese, sour cream and bacon.
Now you can see why high cholesterol is such a big problem especially here in the United States. We eat high fat meals every day three or more times a day. As you can see in the example above, the liver did not get to finish manufacturing cholesterol for the first meal, then comes the second, and so on, and so on.
High cholesterol can be lowered 200 points within a month’s time by following a total vegetarian diet. Liver damaging cholesterol-lowering drugs cannot come close to these results. In fact, drug companies are happy with a 15 to 20 point drop in six months.
Natural Ways To Lower Cholesterol
Exercise is the key to reversing all lifestyle diseases. You should walk at least one hour every day.
Try your best to avoid stress at all times. Stress hormones use cholesterol as a part of their molecule, and those who are under much emotional tension will rind that this matter of itself can cause the blood cholesterol to go up.
Take some form of omega 3 oil. Flaxseed is the best source of omega 3 by far. No! It is not fish oil– besides, you want to stay away from anything that has to do with an animal.
Stop smoking!
Plenty of sunshine. When the sun’s rays hit your skin, it turns cholesterol into Vitamin D.
Herbs For High Cholesterol
Oats – Research have shown that oat bran reduces cholesterol in the blood. It only decreases the bad cholesterol and does not touch the good cholesterol.
Sunflower – The use of sunflower oil is recommended for arteriosclerosis, to decrease the level of cholesterol in the blood.
Sesame – Sesame helps to keep the blood free of fats, which includes cholesterol. It dissolves these fats, thus avoiding the formation of fat on the artery walls.
Olive Tree – Continuous use of olive oil can keep cholesterol low, and it also increases the good cholesterol.
Foods For High Cholesterol
- Fruits
- Whole Grains
- Legumes (Beans)
- Vegetables
- Nuts
- Fiber
- Garlic