How Do I Lower My Cholesterol And Triglycerides

Substitute Healthy Oils In Place Of Butter And Margarine

Of course, its not always realistic to avoid fats when youre whipping up a tasty meal. When you do need to add fat for cooking, baking or pan frying, use healthy oils instead of solid fats, like butter, margarine, shortening and lard.

Solid fats are high in saturated fats, but oils are high in unsaturated fats, which remember are better for you. The American Heart Association recommends using oils that have less than 4 grams of saturated fat per tablespoon .

Many times, its easy to swap a solid fat to a healthier one. Try using olive oil, sunflower oil or grapeseed oil in place of a solid fat.

For example, if youd rather use olive oil than butter, substitute three quarters the amount of butter in a recipe with olive oil. You might also bring out some new, surprising, subtle flavors, too.

How Long Does It Take To Lower Triglycerides

Depending on whats causing your high triglyceride levels, you may be able to lower them in just a few days. A night out drinking or eating foods high in sugar can cause a spike in your triglyceride levels. Limiting alcohol and sugar intake can bring your levels back to normal within a few days.

If you have consistently high triglycerides, it may take a few months for them to return to a healthy range. How fast they lower depends on the lifestyle changes, diet, and medications youre taking.

Thoughtful Talks With My Health Care Professional: My Cholesterol Treatment Plan

Your health care professional can help you reach your health goals, including keeping your cholesterol at healthy levels.

Making decisions with your health care team is the best way to create a treatment plan youll be more likely to stick to. If you dont understand something, ask for further clarification.

Heres a helpful checklist that you and your health care professional can go through to determine your risk and the best treatment options for you.

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Control Your Serving Size

One of the easy ways to remember about the balanced diet is to know the rule of hand. Your palm is the amount of proteins that should be in a portion. Your fist tells about the volume of veggies to be included in the food, your cupped hand tells about the amount of carbs to add in the food, and your thumb tells about the amount of fats to add in food.

It is equally important to eat daily at a fixed time. Cut down on your portion size, and further learn to estimate the size of your portion. It is also a good idea to have big breakfast, but light dinner, as you have the whole day to burn your calories.

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Exercise On Most Days

Engaging in moderate exercise can help raise your HDL cholesterol while boosting your overall cardiovascular health. If youre fairly sedentary now, start with small amounts, working your way up to 30 minutes of exercise five times each week. If you prefer more vigorous aerobic exercise, 20 minutes three times a week will suffice.

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What Are The Risks Of Taking Fiber

• Side effects. Fiber does not have serious side effects. At high levels, it can cause bloating, cramping, gas, and perhaps worsening constipation. Drinking more water — 2 liters a day — may help.
• Interactions. If you take any regular medications, talk to a doctor before you start using a fiber supplement. It may block the absorption of some drugs.
• Risks. Rarely, fiber supplements have caused intestinal blockages. If you have any chronic disease, talk to a doctor before you start using a fiber supplement. The sugar and salt in some supplements, particularly powders, might be risky for people with diabetes or high blood pressure. People with diabetes may want to choose a sugar-free powder or another form of fiber. Blond psyllium is the most common type of fiber supplement on the market.

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Treatment For High Cholesterol

Making lifestyle changes, especially changing some of the foods you eat, and regular physical activity, are very important to help reduce high LDL cholesterol.

• Move more. Regular physical activity is one of the best things you can do for your heart health. Increasing your physical activity from as little as 10 minutes a day to the Australian governments recommended 30 to 45 minutes a day, five or more days of the week, can help manage your cholesterol levels and reduce your risk of heart disease.
• Quitting smoking reduces the risk of heart disease and can help reduce cholesterol levels. The most effective way to stop smoking is with a combination of stop-smoking medicines and support from a service like Quitline . Speaking to your GP is also a great first step.
• Drinking alcohol doesnt have any health benefits. Alcohol contributesunnecessary kilojoules and is of low nutritional value. Alcohol is not a necessary or recommended part of a heart-healthy eating pattern.If you do drink, to reduce your risk of alcohol-related harm, healthy women and men should drink no more than 10 standard drinks a week and no more than four standard drinks on any one day.
• You may also need to take cholesterol-lowering medicines to help manage your cholesterol and reduce your risk of having a heart attack or stroke. Talk to your doctor about finding the most appropriate treatment for you.

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Consider Plant Sterols And Stanols

Multiple types of supplements show promise for managing cholesterol.

Plant stanols and sterols are plant versions of cholesterol. Because they resemble cholesterol, they are absorbed from the diet like cholesterol.

However, because parts of their chemistry are different from human cholesterol, they do not contribute to clogged arteries.

Instead, they reduce cholesterol levels by competing with human cholesterol. When plant sterols are absorbed from the diet, this replaces the absorption of cholesterol.

Small amounts of plant stanols and sterols are naturally found in vegetable oils and are added to certain oils and butter substitutes.

A research review reported that clinical studies show that taking 1.53 grams of plant sterols/stanols daily can reduce LDL concentration by 7.512%. Researchers said taking it with a main meal twice per day allows for optimal cholesterol-lowering .

Although research has established the cholesterol-lowering benefit of plant stanols and sterols, it has not yet proved that they decrease the risk of heart disease. Numerous clinical trials have suggested that plant sterols supplements and enriched foods may lower heart disease risk, but hard data is still lacking .

summary

Plant stanols and sterols in vegetable oil or margarines compete with cholesterol absorption and reduce LDL by up to 20%. They are not proven to reduce heart disease.

What Is A Good Breakfast For High Triglycerides

For breakfast, have a bowl of steel-cut oats with berries instead of a bagel or sugary cereal. At lunch, try a salad with lots of vegetables and chickpeas. For dinner, try brown rice or quinoa instead of potatoes or pasta.

What should you eat if you have high cholesterol and diabetes?

Diet Menu for High Cholesterol and Diabetes Exactly what is recommended long term? A healthy balanced diet this involves eating regular meals, plenty of fruits and vegetables and consuming less hydrogenated fats, sugar and salt.

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Medications Can Lower Ldl And Triglycerides

To get cholesterol and triglycerides into the target zone, many people with diabetes need to add medications to their healthy eating and exercise plans. Reducing elevated LDL cholesterol is typically the top priority. To achieve the target goals, many people need to take a medication in the statin category.

The American Diabetes Association recommends that statin therapy be added for people who have:

• a lower risk of cardiovascular disease and whose LDL cholesterol doesn’t hit the target of 100 mg/dl or less with healthy lifestyle change.
• cardiovascular disease and who don’t reach the LDL cholesterol target of 70 mg/dl or less.

Statin medications are most effective at lowering LDL cholesterol. All medications should be prescribed and monitored by a health care provider.

Common statins include:

Other medications that lower both LDL cholesterol and triglycerides:

• Advicor
• Vytorin
• Prescription-strength niacin

Other medications prescribed to lower LDL cholesterol:

• Bile acid sequestrants, such as Questran or Colestid
• Welchol , a bile acid sequestrant that can also lower blood glucose
• Zetia

Other medications prescribed to lower triglycerides:

• Prescription-strength fish-oil pills

Other medications to lower cholesterol and blood pressure:

• Caduet

Medications that have been found to increase triglycerides:

• Birth-control pills
• Tamoxifen, a breast cancer drug

What Is C1: 0

Although we have been told that all saturated fats are bad for us, science now supports that that is not exactly the case.

Saturated fats can be even-chain or odd-chain. While even-chain saturated fats have been shown to be detrimental to your health, C15:0, an odd-chain saturated fatty acid has been associated with multiple health benefits including better heart health.* There are now calls to action to update current dietary guidelines to differentiate between good and bad saturated fats.

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Putting Together A Low Cholesterol Diet

When it comes to investing money, experts recommend creating a portfolio of diverse investments instead of putting all your eggs in one basket. The same holds true for eating your way to lower cholesterol. Adding several foods to lower cholesterol in different ways should work better than focusing on one or two.

A largely vegetarian “dietary portfolio of cholesterol-lowering foods” substantially lowers LDL, triglycerides, and blood pressure. The key dietary components are plenty of fruits and vegetables, whole grains instead of highly refined ones, and protein mostly from plants. Add margarine enriched with plant sterols oats, barley, psyllium, okra, and eggplant, all rich in soluble fiber soy protein and whole almonds.

Of course, shifting to a cholesterol-lowering diet takes more attention than popping a daily statin. It means expanding the variety of foods you usually put in your shopping cart and getting used to new textures and flavors. But it’s a “natural” way to lower cholesterol, and it avoids the risk of muscle problems and other side effects that plague some people who take statins.

Just as important, a diet that is heavy on fruits, vegetables, beans, and nuts is good for the body in ways beyond lowering cholesterol. It keeps blood pressure in check. It helps arteries stay flexible and responsive. It’s good for bones and digestive health, for vision and mental health.

Ways To Lower Your Cholesterol Without Medication

Cholesterol is a waxy substance in your blood and is also found in certain foods. Ideally, your total cholesterol levels will fall under 200 milligrams per deciliter . Your LDL, or bad cholesterol, levels should fall under 100 mg/dL. And your HDL, or good cholesterol, should stay at 40 mg/dL or higher. If you have high cholesterol levels, changing your lifestyle can go a long way.

Dr. Javier Sosa and our team at Woodlands Primary Healthcare provide blood tests to help identify cholesterol-related risk factors. We can also make lifestyle recommendations that suit your specific needs.

Here are nine ways you can lower your cholesterol levels without medication:

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What To Do If You Cant Lower Your Cholesterol The Natural Way

If youve spent about six months trying to adopt healthier lifestyle habits but still arent seeing a change in those cholesterol numbers, its time to talk to your doctor. They can provide specialized guidance specific to your health, and they may be able to prescribe you a medication to help, as well.

The great news is that heart disease is preventable and even if you cant do it with diet and exercise, there are some amazing medications out there, Dr. Cho says. Were so lucky to live in an era where we have something that can treat our diseases and help us live longer.

How To Lower Cholesterol And Triglycerides

• Frequently Asked Questions

Triglycerides are a type of lipid, or fat, your body produces to store extra calories and provide energy. Cholesterol is another lipid that circulates in your blood. Your body uses cholesterol to build cells and produce hormones.

Both triglycerides and cholesterol are essential for your health but having levels that are too high puts your health at risk. Living a healthy lifestyle helps to keep your cholesterol and triglyceride levels within a normal range.

This article covers how triglycerides and cholesterol affect your health and how you can lower them naturally.

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Why Are The Risks Of High Triglycerides

High triglycerides usually go hand in hand with other health issues that make up metabolic syndrome. Metabolic syndrome includes:

• Unhealthy cholesterol levels. Usually, higher levels of low-density lipoprotein and low levels of high-density lipoprotein .

• Obesity. People who have high triglycerides can suffer from obesity and excess belly fat.

• High blood sugar. When triglycerides are higher, blood glucose levels are usually higher, too.

• High blood pressure. High blood pressure increases your risk of heart disease and can coincide with a diagnosis of high triglyceride levels.

Metabolic syndrome places you at a higher risk of developing heart disease, which can lead to heart attacks and stroke. In addition, you’re more likely to develop type 2 diabetes when you have high triglycerides.

If you need to lower your triglyceride levels, there are ways you can do it by making simple but intentional lifestyle changes to support your health goals.

Be Mindful Of What You Put In Your Coffee

Though the research is mixed on whether coffee itself can raise your cholesterol levels, researchers do know that saturated fat increases your cholesterol levels. And saturated fat can be found in a lot of things we put in coffee. Here are a few to avoid or enjoy sparingly.

• Cream and half-n-half. The classic coffee lighteners made with whole-fat milk have high levels of saturated fat, which has been shown to increase levels of LDL cholesterol. More cholesterol-friendly choices include nonfat or low-fat options or plant-based milks with no saturated fat.
• Sweet coffee drinks. Those frothy, sugary coffee concoctions popping up at more and more coffee shops have more in common with a milkshake than a cup of coffee and, besides packing in a lot of sugar, may contain ingredients high in saturated fat. Ask about ingredients before you indulge.
• Bulletproof coffee. Popular with fans of the ketogenic diet, bulletproof coffee is a breakfast substitute that calls for adding butter and coconut oil into your daily cup of joe. Both have high levels of saturated fat and there have been several case reports of people who regularly drink bulletproof coffee having sharp rises in their LDL cholesterol.

The bottom line for coffee and cholesterol is the same as many foods and beverages: Enjoy it in moderation, be mindful of how it is made, and know what ingredients are going into it.

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Cleveland Clinic: âWhat You Should Know About Cholesterol and Coffee.â

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How Can I Lower My Cholesterol With Medicines

As well as making lifestyle changes, some people will need to take cholesterol-lowering medicines to reduce their risk of heart and blood vessel disease, known as cardiovascular disease. The medicines most commonly used are called statins.

Your doctor will consider all your risk factors for cardiovascular disease before suggesting medication not just your cholesterol and lipid results. If youve already had a heart attack or stroke, taking statins can substantially lower your risk of having another one.

Statins work by slowing the amount of cholesterol made in your liver. In response, your liver uses the cholesterol already in your blood to make up for the deficit. This lowers the level of LDL cholesterol in your blood.

If statins alone do not lower your cholesterol enough, you may need additional medicines.

Contact your doctor if your medicines are causing any side effects.

Follow A Lower Carb Diet

Much like added sugar, extra calories from carbs in your diet are converted into triglycerides and stored in fat cells.

Not surprisingly, low carb diets have been linked to lower blood triglyceride levels .

A review of 12 randomized controlled trials found that people following reduced carb diets typically saw a reduction in triglyceride levels at 6, 12, and 24 months. Across these studies, triglyceride levels decreased the most 6 months after starting a reduced calorie diet .

A 2020 review compared low fat and low carb diets. Researchers found that 612 months after starting their relative diets, those on the low carb diet had greater decreases in triglyceride levels than those on a low fat diet .

Summary

Following a low carb diet can lead to a significant reduction in blood triglyceride levels, at least in the short term, when compared with a low fat diet.

Also Check: What Should Ldl Cholesterol Level Be

Preparation Methods Matter So Cook With Olive Oil Or Avocado Oil

Instead of cooking with those generic vegetable oils , switch to using olive oil, sunflower oil, and avocado oil, which contain heart-healthy monounsaturated fats. When choosing added facts in your cooking, the goal is to avoid butter, which is high in saturated fat, and to avoid products made with trans fats or partially hydronated fatty acids.

The way you prepare foods matters a lot. For example, fried foods have been linked to both high cholesterol and cancer, so while French fries are hard to pass up. You can make quite acceptable baked fries, or you can treat yourself to an air fryer, which will give you the satisfying crunch of fried foods without the negative health effects.

Baking, stir-frying , roasting, and steaming are all great ways to prepare your vegetables, tofu, and meats.