Eat Fewer Added Sugars
Its not just saturated and trans fats that can raise cholesterol levels. Eating too many added sugars can do the same thing .
One study found that adults who consumed 25% of their calories from drinks made with high-fructose corn syrup experienced a 17% increase in LDL cholesterol in just two weeks .
Even more troubling, fructose increases the number of small, dense oxidized LDL cholesterol particles which contribute to heart disease .
Between 2005 and 2010, an estimated 10% of Americans consumed over 25% of their daily calories from added sugars .
According to a 14-year study, these people were almost three times more likely to die from heart disease than those getting less than 10% of their calories from added sugars .
The American Heart Association recommends eating no more than 100 calories of added sugar per day for women and children, and no more than 150 calories per day for men .
You can meet these goals by reading labels carefully and choosing products without added sugars whenever possible.
Summary Getting more than 25% of your daily calories from added sugars can raise cholesterol levels and more than double your risk of dying from heart disease. Cut back by choosing foods without added sugars as much as possible.
Red Grapefruit: As Much As A 20 Percent Difference
Eating just one red grapefruit daily for a month can help to lower LDL cholesterol by as much as 20 percent, one study in the Journal of Agricultural Food Chemistry in March 2006 showed. This cardioprotective effect is most likely due to compounds called liminoids and lycopene found in the pulp. Grapefruit also contains the soluble fiber pectin, which contributes to LDL lowering.
But be aware that grapefruit can enhance the effect of certain heart medications, such as statins and calcium channel blockers. If you’re on one of these drugs, check with your doctor before eating grapefruit or drinking the juice.
Other Foods That Help Control Cholesterol Include:
- Cold-water fish
- Soy
- Psyllium
Smokers need to quit immediately after finding out they have a lipid disorder. Losing weight can also decrease LDL levels. Increased physical activity is another component of lifestyle changes, but because each persons health condition and tolerance for exercise is different, no set amount of exercise is certain to affect cholesterol levels.
If lipid levels do not improve after 3 months of lifestyle changes, or if a person has CHD or blood lipid levels that are thought to be genetically determined, physicians may consider adding medical therapy to lifestyle changes.
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Cleansing The Blood Of ‘bad’ Cholesterol
- Date:
- University Of Michigan Health System
- Summary:
- Traditional medications were not enough to lower Renee Reinkes sky-high cholesterol level. But preventive cardiologists at the University of Michigan Health System were able to offer the 52-year-old an alternative.
Traditional medications were not enough to lower Renee Reinkes sky-high cholesterol level. But preventive cardiologists at the University of Michigan Health System were able to offer the 52-year-old an alternative.
Cholesterol apheresis is a blood-filtering technique similar to kidney dialysis that strips the blood of LDL cholesterol to help lower the levels of this artery-clogging substance. UMHS is one of a handful of centers across the country, and the only one in Michigan, to offer this technique.
The cholesterol-lowering medications were not bringing me down to a safe level, Reinke says. The cardiologists hope this will prevent more blockages and possibly help the blockages I have already. So it was the only thing left.
The technique is not a first-line treatment for people with high cholesterol. Initially, patients are encouraged to lose weight, follow a healthy diet, exercise more or take any of several lipid-lowering medications. For approximately one in 300,000 people, these methods arent enough to achieve the goal.
For Renee Reinke, who has had bypass surgery and has a strong family history of heart disease, cholesterol apheresis has given her hope of avoiding further heart problems.
Ask About Cholesterol Medication
Cholesterol medications such as statins may be the fastest way to lower cholesterol for some people usually within 6 to 8 weeks. This allows a person to quickly reduce their heart disease risk while cultivating a healthy lifestyle. During this period, a person can focus on lowering cholesterol over time with lifestyle and dietary changes.
Because high cholesterol is a risk factor for serious heart health issues, the American Heart Association and American College of Cardiology recommend statins for many groups of people with high LDL cholesterol.
If LDL cholesterol does not drop enough with diet and lifestyle changes and statins, a person might need additional medications.
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Quick Overview Of The Oxidized Cholesterol Strategy Program
To help you determine whether this is the right program for you, Ive decided to give you a sneak peek at the long list of topics covered in each part of the Oxidized Cholesterol Strategy.
Part One: The Features and Dangers of Oxidized Cholesterol. Introduction to the Cholesterol Debate Part Two highlights, Dietary and Lifestyle Habits that Promote and Inhibit Fat Oxidation and Part Three highlights, The Four-Week Plan to Reduce Cholesterol and Prevent Coronary Artery Disease.
- Introduction to the Cholesterol Debate
- The Revisionist View of Cholesterol
- The Adverse Health Effects of Oxidized Cholesterol
Part Two: Dietary and Lifestyle Habits that Promote and Inhibit Fat Oxidation. This part focuses on Dietary and Lifestyle Habits that Promote and Inhibit Fat Oxidation. This will be an incredibly eye-opening chapter for you, helping you better understand the importance of a balanced lifestyle. Covering everything from the essential nutrients your body needs to the role of dietary fats, this is the type of content that can change your life.
- Statins
- Dietary Carbohydrates
- Exercise, Smoking, and Sleep
Part Three: The Four-Week Plan to Reduce Cholesterol and Prevent Coronary Artery Disease. The Four-Week Plan to Reduce Cholesterol and Prevent Coronary Artery Disease. This four-week strategy will walk you through step-by-step so that you can effectively reduce the amount of plaque in your arteries. In turn, this will prevent your risk of a heart attack or stroke.
What Causes Plaque In Arteries
Plaque forms when cholesterol lodges in the wall of the artery. To fight back, the body sends white blood cells to trap the cholesterol, which then turn into foamy cells that ooze more fat and cause more . That triggers muscle cells in the artery wall to multiply and form a cap over the area. But the soft plaque beneath the cap is dangerous. For example, if your blood pressure spikes, it puts pressure on the thin wall of the plaque, which can break open, form a clot, and cause a heart attack, says Dr. Cannon. About three of every four heart attacks occur when plaques rupture.
Larger plaques can block blood flow. But they are typically covered by thick, fibrous caps that can resist breaking apart. These are often treated by inserting a wire mesh tube near the blockage to widen the artery.
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How Long Does It Take To Reduce Cholesterol
Cholesterol drops over time, not suddenly, after a few days of healthier living. There is no set period in which cholesterol is guaranteed to drop.
Cholesterol-lowering drugs usually produce a change in LDL within 6 to 8 weeks. It is possible for lifestyle changes to change cholesterol levels within weeks. However, it may take longer,
- Total cholesterol: less than 200 milligrams per deciliter
- LDL bad cholesterol: less than 100 mg/dL
- HDL good cholesterol: higher than 60 mg/dL
- Triglycerides: less than 150 mg/dL
According to an article in the journal , the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association recommend using statins to lower cholesterol in people with cholesterol higher outside of these levels.
However, they also recommend doctors consider a persons cholesterol levels and overall risk of cardiovascular disease before prescribing a cholesterol-lowering medication.
The AHA recommends that people with atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease get high-intensity statin therapy maximally tolerated statin therapy to lower LDL by at least 50%.
The AHA also recommends high-intensity statin therapy for individuals with severe primary hypercholesterolemia .
There are a number of habit changes a person can incorporate into their daily routines in order to gradually and consistently lower their LDL levels over time. Including:
What Causes High Cholesterol
Different things that can cause high cholesterol. Some of these causes you can change and some of them you cant.
Risk factors you can change:
- Too much food high in saturated fats, like red meat, butter, cream, and other dairy products
- Too many foods with refined sugars, such as sweets, baked goods, white bread and fizzy drinks
- Too much alcohol
- Not being active enough each day
- Smoking
- Having too much body fat, especially around the middle
The good news is theres lots of ways to manage these risks. Read about lowering your cholesterol.
Risk factors you cant change:
- Family history
- Other medical conditions such as kidney or liver disease, or hypothyroidism.
Some high cholesterol conditions that are passed down through families, including:
- familial hyperlipidaemia
- familial hypercholesterolaemia
- familial hypertriglyceridaemia .
If you have one of these conditions, you may not be able to reduce your levels using lifestyle changes alone. You may need to go on medication as well.
If you have a parent or sibling with one of these conditions, talk to your doctor about getting your cholesterol checked. These conditions usually start at a younger age and can affect people in their teens or twenties.
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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
Low Cholesterol Diet Plan For Beginners
Learn how to lower your high cholesterol and improve your heart health by following this simple 7-day low cholesterol meal plan for beginners.
In this 7-day plan for beginners, we map out a week of healthy meals and snacks that will help lower your cholesterol. To keep it simple, we meal-prep breakfast and lunch so you can grab-and-go plus we focus on simple recipes without lengthy ingredient lists. Bonusyou’ll see several one-pot and sheet-pan dinners which means less time spent on cleanup. To help lower cholesterol, we include plenty of fiberan important nutrient for both gut and heart healthby focusing on fruits and vegetables, whole grains and legumes while limiting cholesterol-raising saturated fat and simple carbohydrates.
See More:High Cholesterol Diet Guidelines
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What Is A Healthy Blood Cholesterol Level
For people who have plaque in their arteries or who have other factors that put them at risk for cardiovascular disease, doctors recommend an ideal LDL level well below 70 mg/dl. For those without risk factors who have an LDL level at or above 190 mg/dl, the recommendation is to get this level down to below 100 mg/dl. People age 40 to 75 who are living with diabetes and whose LDL is at 70 or above may need medication.
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Whole Grains For Diabetes
Whole grains are also beneficial to the health of the vessels. The fiber in whole grains has a positive effect on blood lipid levels and reduces the risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus. Fiber improves insulin action and helps prevent blood sugar spikes.
As a guideline for the daily intake of fiber, the DGE calls for adults at least 30 grams. This amount can be achieved, for example, with three slices of wholewheat bread or three potatoes. Legumes are also good sources of fiber.
Oat bran and pectins from the apple are well studied. Both fibers bind the breakdown products of cholesterol in the intestine and thus ensure a moderate reduction in cholesterol levels, says Neumann.
The positive effect can be taken advantage of for breakfast: A breakfast with oatmeal and apples has a lowering effect on the cholesterol level and helps in a natural way against clogged arteries, so the tip of the nutritionist.
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Who Is Most At Risk For Fh
Familial hypercholesterolemia can affect anyone whose family carries the genetic mutation. However, its found more frequently in those who are of French Canadian, Ashkenazi Jewish, Lebanese or Afrikaner descent. The biggest problem with FH is that more than 90% of people who have it havent been diagnosed, which means you should pay careful attention to your family history,
Seth Martin, M.D., M.H.S., associate professor of medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and director of the Advanced Lipid Disorders Center.
If people in your family have had heart attacks, needed stents or had bypass surgery earlier in life before age 55 in men and before 65 in women those are signals that theres something causing your family to be at higher risk for heart disease, he explains. It could be familial hypercholesterolemia.
Eat Fewer Refined Grains Such As White Flour
Were a nation of white food eaters white bread, white rice, white pasta, and white-flour foods like muffins, croissants, bagels, crackers, dried cereals, tortillas, pretzels, and chips. Yes, more than half of many Americans typical diets are made up of hyperprocessed refined white flour, often injected with sugar, salt, and/or fat.
Thats a real problem in part because the more white, or refined, grains we eat, the fewer whole grains we tend to take in. Research has found that eating whole grains can help lower both total and LDL cholesterol, and improve heart health.
In Harvard Universitys Nurses Health Study, for example, women who ate two to three servings of whole-grain products each day were 30% less likely to have a heart attack or die from heart disease over a 10-year period than women who ate less than one serving of whole grains per week.2
When first starting to make the switch from refined to whole grains, many people often feel a bit confused. Where to begin? Whats whole? What isnt?
The registered dietitians at the Pritikin Longevity Center start with one very simple rule. When looking at products like breads and cereals, they recommend turning the package around and making sure the first word in the Ingredient List is whole. If you see the word whole at the top of the list, its a good bet that what youre buying is in fact 100% whole grain, or close to it.
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Does Lipitor Unclog Arteries
A: Yes. There have been several clinical studies many of them done here at Cleveland Clinic that show statins can reverse plaque buildup. Two statins in particular, atorvastatin, which is sold under the brand name Lipitor, and rosuvastatin, which is sold under the brand name Crestor, are the strongest statins.
Spinach For Bad Cholesterol
Spinach also reduces the risk of heart stroke. It contains vitamin E. Spinach is loaded with lutein, preventing the cholesterol from getting attached to the arterial walls.
You can eat spinach raw. Put the spinach leaves in the microwave and eat it with white bread. This is an easy and effective remedy to treat bad cholesterol
So there are the best home remedies for high cholesterol levels. Now lets head to some important things to add to your routine to lower down the cholesterol level easily.
- Divide your meals into smaller meals and eat small meals in a day.
- Avoid smoking as much as possible.
- Start working out to maintain a healthy weight.
- If alcohol works, add a glass of wine after your dinner.
- Avoid eating food with higher fat.
- Ignore butter and dairy foods.
- Start eating healthy fruits as much as possible and opt for vegetables.
Also Read: How to Prevent Heart Disease and Stroke
With age, we start to face many health issues as this body is not immortal is gets older by time, and it takes proper care to maintain the health of this gods gift.
Age cannot be controlled, but we can live a healthy life at any age with just simply taking some precautions and bringing these home remedies into your routine.
These remedies are safe to fix bad cholesterol, and 100% natural to use. There are no side effects, and they dont cost you as much as the medicines do.
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