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.
How To Quickly Lower Your Triglycerides
You might be wondering what are triglycerides and how do I know if mine are too high?Triglycerides are a type of fat found in our blood that our bodies use for energy. Having a healthy number of triglycerides can be very beneficial in maintaining good health however, when your triglyceride levels get too high, your health may be at risk.
What kind of risk are we talking about?Your triglycerides are measured through simple blood testing. A count of 150 and lower has been commonly referred to as a normal level amount. If you fall in between 200 and 500, your levels are commonly referred to as high or very high. Its at this level that your body becomes more vulnerable to increased risk of metabolic syndrome and heart disease. Regularly consuming more calories than you burn, consuming a lot of alcohol, and poorly-managed diabetes are a few of the causes of high triglyceride levels.
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Tip #: Control Your Calorie Intake
One of the biggest contributors to high triglycerides is eating too many calories. Not sure if youre eating too many calories?
If you dont track your calorie intake on a food tracker app, you may not know if youre eating too many calories. But, there are a few ways to tell if youre eating too much:
- Unintentional weight gain
- History of being overweight or obese
- Your clothes have gotten tighter
Has any of the above happened to you? If yes, you may be eating too many calories. These excess calories could be causing high triglyceride readings in your blood.
So, should you eat less? Yes, but dont go too low.
Very low calorie diets can actually hinder weight loss! You shouldnt follow very low calorie diets, even if youre trying to lose weight. According to the Harvard School of Medicine :
- Women should eat no less than 1200 calories per day
- Men should eat no less than 1500 calories per day
To determine your proper calorie needs, visit a Registered Dietitian.
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Choosing The Right Track
When insulin is around, the lipid droplets, travel on kinesin-1, on the smooth endoplasmic reticulum line. This line drops them off at the edge of the cell, where it is easy to process them for export.
When insulin is NOT around, the lipid droplets, travel on the mitochondrial line. This line, ships the lipid droplets, to the cells power stations. At the power station, the fats can be burned directly, for energy, or, split up, into ketones.
The resulting ketones are then shipped out, to provide fuel for hungry body cells.
Tip #: Get To A Healthy Weight
Achieving a healthy weight is beneficial for overall health, weight management and lowering triglycerides.
Here are the basics to a healthy weight:
The best healthy weight differs from person to person. So, to talk to a Registered Dietitian to determine the best weight for you.
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Quick Answer: How To Reduce Triglycerides And Vldl Naturally
This article explores 13 ways to naturally reduce your blood triglycerides. Aim for a healthy-for-you weight. Limit your sugar intake. Follow a lower carb diet. Eat more fiber. Exercise regularly. Avoid trans fats. Eat fatty fish twice weekly. Increase your intake of unsaturated fats.
Increase Your Physical Activity
Exercise can have a significant impact on your overall health, including your triglycerides. By working out, youre burning those extra calories, which is crucial in reducing your triglyceride levels.
Additionally, exercise will help you shave off some pounds. Try to achieve a weight thats ideal for your height and age to reduce your triglyceride levels.
All you need is 150 minutes of physical activity per week. If youre new to exercise, you could divide it into 30 minutes per day, five days per week. You could start slowly and do a beginner workout plan.
You may also try to add more physical activity to your daily routine. For instance, you may climb the stairs instead of taking the elevator, or park farther away and walk a little bit longer.
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Why Are High Triglycerides Bad
Very high levels of triglycerides are associated with liver and pancreas problems.
But studies show conflicting results on the role of high triglycerides and the risk of heart disease. Not all experts agree that triglycerides play a significant role in heart problems.
High triglycerides tend to show up along with other problems, like high blood pressure, diabetes, obesity, high levels of “bad” LDL cholesterol, and low levels of “good” HDL cholesterol. So itâs hard to know for sure which problems are caused by high triglycerides alone.
For instance, some people have a genetic condition that seems to cause high triglyceride levels. But they donât have an increased risk of heart disease. Still, there is some evidence that high triglycerides, on their own, increase the risk of disease. Other studies show that high triglycerides may only play a minor role when other heart disease risks are taken into account.
With ongoing studies, scientists hope to find out whether drugs that lower triglycerides also reduce the risks of heart disease.
Overall, it’s important to remember that improving diet and lifestyle will lower triglycerides and lower the overall risk of heart and blood vessel problems.
Limit Your Added Sugar
You know that too much of the sweet stuff is bad news, and thats definitely the case here. When youre eating sugary foods, its easy to end up chowing down on more calories than your body needs.
The excess will be turned into triglycerides, which can lead to serious trouble:One 15-year study found that people who got 25 percent of their calories from sugar were twice as likely to die from heart disease as those who ate significantly less.
The American Heart Association recommends that women consume no more than 6 teaspoons and men consume no more than 9 teaspoons of added sugar per day.
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Eat More Protein & Unsaturated Fats
Compared to a diet high in carbs, diets rich in protein and unsaturated fat reduced triglycerides by about 10 mg/dL in a study of 164 people with high blood pressure .
Diets high in monounsaturated fats, found in olive oil and avocados, decreased triglyceride levels better than a high-carb diet over 7-weeks in 85 people with an increased risk of heart disease. An olive-oil-rich diet also decreased the buildup of triglycerides in the liver .
A diet high in monounsaturated fats and omega-3s decreased triglyceride levels in 17 men with moderately increased triglycerides .
Cut Back On Sugar And Refined Carbs
Different carbohydrate-loaded foods also contain very different nutritional levels.
Dr. Nissen recommends scaling back or eliminating:
Dr. Nissen advises that increasing your fiber intake may lower triglyceride levels. If you have high triglyceride levels, theres a good chance you dont ingest close to the recommended 25 to 30 grams of fiber a day, he says.
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Address Underlying Health Issues
Remember, although triglycerides can be high due to bad lifestyle and dietary choices, they can also be high due to an underlying health condition. The most important thing is to work with your doctor to find out whats causing your high triglyceride levels and to treat any underlying conditions!
For example, triglycerides can be high due to liver disease, infections, underactive thyroid , autoimmune disease, or some genetic disorders just to name a few .
In these cases, simply changing your diet or lifestyle wont help address the underlying issue and may actually be harmful!
In addition, high triglyceride levels can be dangerous for your body. If necessary, your doctor will prescribe triglyceride-lowering medication.
Thats why, if your triglycerides are elevated, you should discuss the lifestyle and dietary changes listed below with your doctor. None of these strategies should ever be done in place of what your doctor recommends or prescribes!
Causes Of High Triglycerides
High triglycerides may be caused by the following conditions:
- medication side effects
Research published in the Canadian Journal of Cardiology reviewed data on the associations of triglyceride, HDL and LDL cholesterol with coronary artery disease risk factors. Researchers found that among men or women with low HDL cholesterol and high triglyceride levels, smoking, diabetes, sedentariness, hypertension and obesity were much more prevalent than among those at low risk with high HDL cholesterol and low triglyceride levels.
Hypertriglyceridemia is often observed in patients withtype 2 diabetesbecause insulin plays an important role in the regulation of lipid homeostasis. When the body is resistant to insulin, the organs that are sensitive to insulin regulation like the adipose tissue, liver and skeletal muscle are unable to function properly.
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The Fats Are Packed Badly
An additional problem, of the non stop, VLDL production, is that the VLDL particles that are produced, are smaller / less mature, because, its hard to make them big and fluffy, chock full of triglycerides, if production happens 24/7.
Small dense VLDL particles, morph into small dense LDL particles
How The Ketogenic Diet Lowers Triglycerides
When carbohydrates are restricted, insulin levels drop, which increases the activity of lipases like triacylglycerol lipase and hormone sensitive lipase . These lipases help break down triglycerides for energy usage.
After the lipases do their job, the components of the triglycerides move out of the cells in different directions. Glycerol, the backbone of triglycerides, is taken to the liver for further breakdown or glucose synthesis . Free fatty acids, the other components of triglycerides, are carried in the blood to cells that further break them down for energy by a process called beta-oxidation. In the liver, the free fatty acids are converted into ketones, an organic compound that the brain and muscle can use as an alternative fuel source.
Without a lot of carbohydrates in the diet, the cells will start burning more fat and ketones for fuel, and the liver will be focused on forming sugar and ketones for energy rather than triglycerides for storage. As a result, triglyceride levels drop and blood sugar levels to normalize.
This process is the main reason why many meta analyses found that a decrease in carbohydrates leads to a decrease in triglycerides, and no other diet elicits these processes better than the ketogenic diet. However, there is another important mechanism that reduces triglycerides, which the Mediterranean diet takes advantage of the most.
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What Can You Do At Home To Treat High Triglycerides
The main way to deal with high triglycerides is to eat better and get more exercise. Here are some guidelines to help you manage your level:
Moderate exercise: Try to exercise 5 or more days each week. Lack of movement makes it hard for your body to process blood sugar and triglycerides as it normally does. So itâs important for you to get up and get moving more each day. Skip the escalator or elevator and climb stairs. Get off the bus or subway one stop early and walk. Find activities you enjoy: Walk, swim, or ride a bike. Join a gym. Talk to your doctor before you begin any exercise plan.
Watch your weight: If youâre carrying extra pounds, losing 5% to 10% of your weight can lower triglycerides. People with a healthy weight are more likely to have normal levels. Belly fat is associated with higher numbers.
Eat less bad fat and carbs: Try to lower the saturated fat, trans fat, and cholesterol in your diet. Cutting back on carbohydrates will help, too. Foods high in saturated fat, such as red meat, boost levels. Butter and cheese contain these same triglyceride-boosting fats. Choose lean meats or protein alternatives, such as chicken and unprocessed turkey, that are lower in saturated fat.
Another healthy option: Make meatless meals. Vegetarian pastas, chilis, and stir-fries are a delicious alternative to meat dishes. Avoid dishes loaded with cream or cheese in favor of recipes that use vegetable or olive oil and feature plenty of vegetables.
Does Lemon Water Lower Triglycerides
Multiple useful cardiovascular effects have been discovered including enhancement of fibrinolytic activity, lowering of blood pressure, reduction in cholesterol, and triglyceride. The results showed that combination of garlic and lemon juice significantly reduced serum TC, LDL-C, and blood pressure.
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High Triglycerides Common In United States: Cdc
3 Min Read
CHICAGO – One in five Americans has high levels of blood fats called triglycerides that raise the risk of heart attacks, yet few people take drugs or other steps to control them, U.S. researchers said on Monday.
They also found one-third of Americans have borderline high triglyceride levels.
A study earlier this year found the percentage of U.S. adults with high triglycerides had doubled over the past three decades, likely driven by climbing obesity rates.
Researchers at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention looked to see how widespread the problem is and how doctors are addressing it.
Like low-density lipoprotein or LDL, known as the bad cholesterol, triglycerides can raise the risk of heart attacks. Cholesterol-lowering drugs known as statins help lower LDL, but they often do not treat high triglycerides, a blood fat derived from the fats people eat and fats in the body.
Increasing evidence supports triglyceride concentration as a risk factor for cardiovascular disease, Dr. Earl Ford of the CDC and colleagues wrote in the Archives of Internal Medicine.
They studied data and blood samples for 5,610 people 20 or older who participated in a national health and nutrition survey between 1999 and 2004. They found that 33.1 percent had triglyceride concentrations between 150 and 199 milligrams per deciliter, a reading in the borderline high category.
Reporting by Julie Steenhuysen editing by Maggie Fox and Mohammad Zargham
Path To Improved Health
There are 2 main types of cholesterol:
- Low-density lipoprotein . This delivers cholesterol to the body. This is called bad cholesterol. You want a low level of this type.
- High-density lipoprotein . This removes cholesterol from the bloodstream. This is called good cholesterol. You want a high level of this type.
If your doctor says you need to improve your cholesterol, youll need to lower your LDL and increase your HDL. Medicines can help with this. But the simplest way to improve your cholesterol is through lifestyle changes.
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You Should Know These Things Before Buying Naturally Lower Cholesterol And Triglycerides
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It will be easier for you to choose naturally lower cholesterol and triglycerides after reading this post. In order to help you choose the right product, we have taken into account the needs and desires of each customer category. Buying isnt a problem!
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Fats And Water Dont Mix
So the fats NEED to be processed.
The intestine, takes the lead on this packaging the fats, into specialized structures, called chylomicrons, which are dropped into the lymphatic system, from here, they are distributed, round the body.
The process takes hours so while glucose levels peak, within an hour or so, of a meal, the fats are reaching their peak, around 5 hours after the meal.
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A Promising New Treatment For High Triglycerides
- By Gregory Curfman, MD, Assistant Professor of Medicine, Former Editor-in-Chief, Harvard Health Publishing
When you think about fat circulating in the bloodstream, you might immediately think of cholesterol. But theres another type of fat you shouldnt ignore: triglycerides. As with cholesterol, high triglycerides can also increase the risk of having a heart attack. Existing drugs for lowering triglycerides arent that good at reducing heart attack risk. Thats why a report on a new way to lower triglycerides, New England Journal of Medicine, is generating some excitement among cardiologists.
Which Medicines Can Lower Triglycerides
For some people, good habits may not be enough. Medication might be needed. The decision for you and your doctor can be complicated because other health conditions are usually involved. Several types of medicine can improve levels. They include:
- High doses of omega-3s are needed to lower triglycerides and should be taken only under a doctor’s care. Epanova, Lovaza, and Vascepa are prescription forms of omega-3s.
Your doctor may also prescribe a class of drugs called âstatinsâ that lower cholesterol. Examples include: atorvastatin , rosuvastatin , and simvastatin .
You may feel side effects from these drugs. Be sure to talk it over with your doctor or pharmacist.
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