Oatmeal Water Vs Oats
According to the Mayo Clinic, the soluble fiber present in oatmeal does lower levels of LDL cholesterol. However, the same is not true for oatmeal water.It is possible for some vitamins, minerals and nutrients present in rolled oats to leach into the water while theyre cooking, but the resulting amounts are not likely to be large enough to provide any significant health benefits. However, eating watery oatmeal will help. According to an April 1992 study from the Chemical Center in Lund, Sweden, eating freeze-dried oatmeal soup lowered cholesterol more effectively in rats than a commercial product did.
- According to the Mayo Clinic, the soluble fiber present in oatmeal does lower levels of LDL cholesterol.
Effects Of Eating Within 12 Hours
For some cholesterol tests, such as those that measure HDL and LDL cholesterol, people are advised to abstain from all food and beverages, except for water, for nine to 12 hours. Eating during this period can lead to the test underestimating LDL and HDL levels. It can also cause elevated measurements of triglycerides, another lipid found in the blood. Water, however, can be consumed in the time before the test without affecting the tests accuracy.
When To See A Doctor
High cholesterol has no symptoms. Regular blood tests are the only way to detect if you may have elevated cholesterol levels. If you have additional risk factors, your doctor may want to run cholesterol tests more frequently.
If you begin consuming the above drinks as part of a lifestyle change and experience trouble breathing, rash, or nausea, stop using them immediately and seek medical attention. These could be signs of an allergic reaction.
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Ways To Help Lower Cholesterol
- Blog
- Ways to Help Lower Cholesterol
Exercise and cholesterol are words that are very common and dont have to be scary when we hear them. The bad cholesterol is called LDL and the good cholesterol is called HDL. When people have high cholesterol their LDL is high and their HDL is low. Eating healthy, regular exercise and drinking plenty of water will help to bring down cholesterol levels within 2-3 weeks. Here are some fun ideas to help lower the bad cholesterol and raise the good cholesterol.
Exercise
Exercise can be fun and is very beneficial to lowering cholesterol. It is recommended to moderately exercise 30 minutes a day 5 times a week or vigorously exercise 20 minutes a day 3 times a week. Walking is a very good exercise to help not only with lowering cholesterol but it also helps to lower blood pressure. Try taking walks around your neighborhood or find a walking path nearby, like the Be Well Path at Windom Area Health. I like to go for hikes around state parks because they have different sights to see and lots of wildlife to look for while walking.
Water
Drinking plenty of water will help decrease heart disease and make sure blood keeps moving to clean and eliminate buildup of cholesterol waste from the body.
Its hard to only drink water all the time but here are a few things you could try to help lower cholesterol:
*Drinking green tea either hot or cold *Cranberry juice
*Fruit smoothies made with almond milk and a handful of spinach *Lemon infused water
Veggies
How Can I Lower My Cholesterol
There are two main ways to lower your cholesterol:
- Heart-healthy lifestyle changes, which include:
- Heart-healthy eating. A heart-healthy eating plan limits the amount of saturated and trans fats that you eat. Examples include the Therapeutic Lifestyle Changes diet and the DASH Eating Plan.
- Weight Management. If you are overweight, losing weight can help lower your LDL cholesterol.
- Physical Activity. Everyone should get regular physical activity .
- Managing stress. Research has shown that chronic stress can sometimes raise your LDL cholesterol and lower your HDL cholesterol.
- Quitting smoking.Quitting smoking can raise your HDL cholesterol. Since HDL helps to remove LDL cholesterol from your arteries, having more HDL can help to lower your LDL cholesterol.
- Drug Treatment. If lifestyle changes alone do not lower your cholesterol enough, you may also need to take medicines. There are several types of cholesterol medicines available, including statins. The medicines work in different ways and can have different side effects. Talk to your health care provider about which one is right for you. While you are taking medicines to lower your cholesterol, you should continue with the lifestyle changes.
NIH: National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute
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B Low Cholesterol Levels
You might say that since Apple Cider Vinegar helps with weight loss, it automatically means lowering cholesterol. Various studies showed that ACV can in fact lower your general cholesterol level as well as triglycerides, and LDL cholesterol . An animal study done on rats showed similar results to the one done on humans and results occurred in just a few months.
Although ACV showed positive results in lowering cholesterol levels, more research should be done to prove that it works on a large number of people. However, you can use vinegar as a supplement to speed up the process. Doctors weights on the importance of diet and prescribed cholesterol statins to achieve the ultimate results. Always check with your doctor if consuming ACV in high amounts is good for you.
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How To Store Barley Water
Since this is a health drink it is best made and served on the same day. Sometimes barley water turns slimy if you leave the cooked barley in the water for longer. So consider straining the water after cooling down a bit, if you want to keep it longer at room temperature.
Once you have made barley water, you can keep it in your refrigerator for a day or 2. Great to make ahead, it is nice to have on hand so that you can enjoy it for a hydrating beverage any time of the day. But if you are trying to recover from illness, make and consume it fresh.
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Apple Cider Vinegar For Diabetes And Weight Loss
Can taking ACV really lead to weight loss? It depends. Obviously, its a very low-calorie condiment, so from that perspective, it can certainly be part of a weight-loss plan. But on its own, is ACV some magical substance that can peel away the pounds?
Of course, there just happens to be an apple cider vinegar diet that has made the rounds on social media. The basis for this diet stems from small studies, including one from 2009 in which 175 who drank a beverage containing 0, 1 or 2 tablespoons of vinegar daily. After three months, the people who drank the vinegar had lost two to four pounds. The, a 2018 study divided 39 people into two groups. One group was given a lower calorie diet with ACV and the other a lower-calorie diet without ACV for 12 weeks. Both groups lost weight, but the ACV group lost more . They also improved their cholesterol and triglyceride levels. However, keep in mind that this was a very short-term study, the subjects were following a reduced-calorie diet, and they also exercised.
As with any fad diet, if it sounds too good to be true, it likely is. Swallowing one to two teaspoons of vinegar as suggested by the apple cider vinegar diet proponents is unlikely to do much in the way of weight loss unless youre also altering your eating and exercise habits at the same time. Also, avoid going the route of an apple cider vinegar detox, which is a cleansing diet that has no scientific evidence to support its safety or effectiveness.
Cholesterol Level For Children
For children, the total cholesterol level should be under 170 mg/dL. A value between 170 to 199 mg/dL is considered to be borderline high, whereas anything over 200 mg/dL is too high.
The LDL levels should be strictly kept under 110 mg/dL. Any value over 130 mg/dL should be considered to be too high, while a value between 110 to 129 mg/dL should be considered borderline high.
Source:
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Look Out For Undesirable Ingredients
As always, when it comes to finding the best drink to lower your cholesterol, youll want to read labels carefully. Both added and total sugars in beverages need to be looked at when evaluating the benefit of a beverage for optimizing cholesterol levels, Heimowitz says. Increased consumption of sugary drinks has been associated with undesirable changes to blood cholesterol levels.
You may have concerns over dairy beverages, but it turns out that the fact that they contain some cholesterol isnt terribly important. Drinks made with milk or other animal products may contain some cholesterol, Clinthorne says. However, in the majority of the population, dietary cholesterol does not have a dramatic impact on blood cholesterol levels. He notes that there is an exception to this fact, however: If you are a part of the population with what is known as familial hypercholesterolemia , you may want to avoid drinks that contain high amounts of cholesterol.
Common Fasting Blood Tests
Examples of blood tests that may require you to fast include:
- a fasting blood glucose test you may be asked to fast for 8 to 10 hours before the test
- an iron blood test you may be asked to fast for 12 hours before the test
For more information about a wider range of blood tests, go to Lab Tests Online.
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Data Extraction And Risk Of Bias Assessment
The main information from eligible studies were extracted by two researchers independently and the following data were abstracted: first authors last name, years of publication, study location, sample size, participants health condition, mean age of subjects, design and duration of intervention, comparison groups, type of intervention, and main outcome. Any disagreement was settled by face-to-face discussion. Furthermore, in instances of unclear information in included studies, clarification was soughtby emailing the relevant studies corresponding authors.
The Cochrane Risk of Bias Tool was applied to assess potential risks of bias in included RCTs . This scale is based on several items to assess the adequacy of random sequence generation, allocation concealment, blinding as well as detection of incomplete outcome data, selective outcome reporting, and other potential sources of bias. Based on recommendations of the Cochrane Handbook, judgment of each item appears by Low, High, and Unclear risk of bias.
Different Types Of Barley
Barley is a very nutritious grain, delivering fiber and a number of nutrients that benefit the body when it is in its most natural form, with the bran intact. Through processing, the value of these nutrients can be diminished making it lower in vitamins and minerals.
For that reason, it is important to choose the best barley for making barley water so you are sure to derive the greatest benefit that will make your efforts worthwhile.
The following are a number of barley types, beginning with the least processed variety and moving towards those varieties that are processed and more finely milled:
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Apple Cider Vinegar Uses
One of the most common and classic uses of ACV is in food preparation. As the U.S. Department of Agricultureâs MyPlate guidelines point out, distilled ACV is a natural fit for salads and marinades, as well as canning and pickling . Unfiltered ACV can be used in cooking, salads, and marinades, and a teaspoon can be mixed into drinks to give sips some kick. Bragg, another popular vinegar brand, suggests sprinkling ACV over popcorn. As for cooking, the pleasing tang of ACV can have a starring role in coleslaw, barbecued beef, kale chips, and even fruit syrups for mixed drinks.
ACV is also used in many beauty and cleaning products, like shampoo. Overwhelmingly, its a safe ingredient. The Environmental Working Group rates ACV as a low overall hazard when in beauty products and an A as a cleaning ingredient.
When it comes to cleaning, youre probably already familiar with how white vinegar can be used in cleaning sprays for countertops and windows or as a refresher when added to laundry. However, there are some clever ways to incorporate it into your cleanup routine. ACV can be used to clean sticky scissors, remove sticker residue from surfaces, deodorize a coffee pot, and spray on fabrics to give them a fruity smell.
Which Apple Cider Vinegar Is Best
There are a number of different types of ACV.
Hereâs a break down of the types, I always advocate buying a brand with the âmotherâ included, this indicates it is a live product that is full if beneficial bacteria.
Iâve created a post on what I consider to be the best apple cider vinegar products on the market, ones that I have tried and liked, and that get great feedback from customers.
Raw Apple Cider Vinegar
If you make one decision when buying apple cider vinegar, itâs âgo for rawâ. Raw apple cider vinegar is often slightly cloudy, with bits in it. This is the âmotherâ which are basically clusters of beneficial bacteria, enzymes and proteins which are excellent for your health.
In fact, modern processing and the obsession with heat treating almost everything, itâs hard to find naturally fermented products with the good stuff still intact.
Processing and heating removes the âmotherâ from ACV, perhaps giving it a clearer, more sterile look for some would be buyers, but the benefits of raw cider vinegar far outweigh a little cloudiness and a few stringy bits. Cherish those!!
Organic Apple Cider Vinegar
Buying ACV that has an organic label is always a good call, it means that it is free of synthetic additives, or genetic modification, and the apples have been grown free of harmful pesticides and herbicides. The residues of these can be damaging to your health and should be avoided.
Unfiltered Apple Cider Vinegar
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What Types Of Hot Drinks
There are so many different herbal teas that can be of assistance in lowering cholesterol. There are also fresh juices that can be heated up as a way of flushing the body. However, the magic juice, the secret sauce, the golden wine that has always and will forever fuel the body still remains WATER!
Hot water
A cup of hot water every morning is a great way to jumpstart your day with a cleansing substance. However, you dont have to drink it plain to get the maximum effect. There are natural items that contribute to cholesterol levels and can easily be added to the water that you drink, so you might as well load that cup full of them!
Ginger
Ginger is a natural combatant of high cholesterol and can be added to warm water in the mornings. You may have heard about good cholesterol and bad cholesterol but may not know exactly what that means. HDL is the healthy cholesterol that you want to build those healthy cells and LDL is that bad cholesterol that causes heart disease and other major problems. Ginger has been known to improve the levels of HDL in the body while simultaneously lowering LDL, so it is the perfect companion to a cup of hot water in the morning.
The same diet and exercise issues that cause high cholesterol can cause diabetes and obesity, so we suggest making the most out of that daily cup of hot water by adding a couple of extra items.
Lemon juice
Peppermint leaves
Green tea
Best Eating Habits For Men Over 50
Men’s health undergoes plenty of changes when they turn 50 their risk of issues such as type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, colon cancer, and prostate cancer increase significantly. Because of this, it’s important to make dietary changes that can protect and support your health.
Gastro MD, a clinical gastroenterology practice, recently released a report naming 5 of the best eating habits that can help improve men’s health as they age. Continue reading to learn about their expert suggestions, and for more healthy aging tips check out The Worst Cheeses for Your Cholesterol.
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How Is It Used
The test for total cholesterol is used alone or as part of a lipid profile to help predict an individuals risk of developing heart disease and to help make decisions about what treatment may be needed if there is borderline or high risk. As part of a lipid profile , low-density lipoprotein cholesterol , and triglycerides), it may also be used to monitor the effectiveness of treatment once it is initiated.
Because high blood cholesterol has been associated with hardening of the arteries , heart disease, and a raised risk of death from heart attacks, cholesterol testing is considered a routine part of preventive healthcare.
Results of the cholesterol test and other components of the lipid profile are used along with other known risk factors of heart disease to develop a plan of treatment and follow-up. Treatment options may include lifestyle changes such as diet or exercise programs or lipid-lowering drugs such as statins.
How To Maintain A Healthy Diet During The Holidays
This blog was written in conjunction with Gerry Samantha Eichelberger and Jordan Carbono, Florida State University College of Medicine students.
Tis the season for singing, laughter, get-togethers and, of course, food galore. With the holiday season here and pumpkin pie tempting you at every turn, it can be challenging to stick to your meal plan and maintain a healthy diet.
Here are some simple strategies to help you enjoy the festivities with family and friends while remaining on track and even eating your cake, too!
Make smart recipe modifications: Create your favorite holiday recipes with healthier substitutions. Instead of using butter when baking, try unsweetened applesauce and canola oil. Replace sour cream with Greek yogurt. Reduce the amount of heavy cream or whole milk and use skim milk. Simple swaps like these can lower fat and caloric intake while still producing a delicious dish.
Portion control: If youre someone who enjoys the regular, authentic ingredients, limit how much you eat.
Hydrate: Studies show drinking more water is linked to eating fewer calories and less sugar, salt and cholesterol. Drinking more water and less sugary, high-calorie beverages is an easy way to facilitate diet management. A 2015 study published by The Obesity Society concluded that just two glasses of water before a meal can aid in curbing your appetite.
Make a Plan
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