Try Taking Coenzyme Q10
Coenzyme Q10 is a naturally occurring compound that helps lower LDL cholesterol in the body.
This is because they help reduce inflammation and blood pressure which can lower your risk for heart disease over time.
Studies show that taking Coenzyme Q-CoQ pills may lower LDL cholesterol levels by up to 15%. The best part about this supplement is it does not have any side effects unless you are allergic to seafood!
This is one of many supplements created from natural sources as well, so be sure to speak with a doctor before beginning any new medication or supplementation regimen.
What Foods Should I Eat What Foods Should I Avoid
Maintaining a healthy diet can help lower your cholesterol. Recommended foods include fruits and vegetables whole grain foods fat-free, 1%, or low-fat milk products poultry without skin and lean meats fatty fish such as salmon, trout, albacore tuna, and sardines and unsalted nuts, seeds, and legumes.
A diet high in cholesterol, saturated fats, and trans fats should be avoided. This includes high-sodium foods sweetened or sugary beverages red, fatty, or processed meats full-fat dairy products baked goods with saturated and trans fats solid fats or fried foods and hydrogenated and saturated oils.
Red Yeast Rice Supplements Lower Cholesterol
Red yeast rice is produced when a yeast, Monascus purpureus, ferments wet rice. The yeast turns the rice dark red on the outside and a bright red in the centre. The red yeast rice can be eaten as a delicacy, or dried and ground to a powder or paste to colour Asian dishes such as Peking duck.
Red yeast rice contains a substance, monacolin K, which is identical to one of the statin drugs, lovastatin. Red yeast monacolin K works on the liver in exactly the same way as statin drugs to inhibit the enzyme, HMG-CoA, and block cholesterol production.
The results of 21 clinical trials containing 4558 people, show that, not surprisingly, red yeast rice significantly lowers total cholesterol and LDL-cholesterol. There were no significant effects on blood pressure, triglycerides or HDL-cholesterol compared with placebo, however.
Ten trials, involving 905 people, which compared red yeast rice extracts against statins found no significant differences in any of the outcomes measured.
In the EU, there is an authorised health claim that red yeast rice, which supplies a daily intake of 10mg monacolin K contributes to the maintenance of normal blood cholesterol levels. However, some countries consider red yeast rice is a medicine at doses of at least 5mg per day , or more than 10mg per day . In the UK, whether or not a red yeast rice supplement is a medicine is considered on a case by case basis.
Don’t Miss: Do Cheerios Help Lower Cholesterol
What Is Red Yeast Rice
Red yeast rice is a commercially available food supplement extracted from red rice and fermented with a fungus, Monascus purpureus. Some Red Yeast Rice products contain substances called monacolins, or natural statins, which are produced by the yeast. This extract has been used as traditional Chinese medicine as far back as 800 AD. Cooper Clinic physician, Dr. Michael Chapman, explains that some of his patients have an increased interest in the role of nutraceuticals, such as red yeast rice, as a substitution for statins. For these patients as well as those that cant tolerate statin side effects, Dr. Chapman recommends consuming two grams Red Yeast Rice per day.
B Vitamins Boast Many Benefits
Vitamin B3, or niacin, has been shown to increase levels of high-density lipoprotein , or good, cholesterol, and decrease triglycerides. Niacin supplementation has been used since the 1950s as a treatment for high cholesterol. While B3 alone may not be adequate treatment for high cholesterol, in combination with other medications, a B-vitamin supplement may be beneficial.
You May Like: Does Drinking Beer Raise Cholesterol
What Is The Correlation Of High Cholesterol With Health Risks
Leading medical organizations such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and American Heart Association warn against uncontrolled high levels of Total and LDL Cholesterol. These are serious risk factors for stroke, coronary heart disease, diabetes and high blood pressure. Other metabolic syndromes include high blood pressure, weight management, increased blood sugar and changes in cholesterol or triglyceride levels.
What Are Normal Cholesterol Numbers
Everyone aged 20 years and older should have his or her cholesterol levels checked at least once every 5 years. The blood test should be taken after fasting for 9 to 12 hours.
You should aim for a total cholesterol level of < 200 mg/dL. Levels of 240 mg/dL or above are considered high. For LDL, lower levels are better, and the goal should be below 130 mg/dL, with < 100 mg/dL being optimal. For HDL, higher numbers are better. An HDL level < 40 mg/dL is a major risk factor for developing heart disease. You want to aim for levels of 60 mg/dL or better to help lower this risk.
Don’t Miss: Does Eating Shrimp Raise Cholesterol
Risks And Side Effects
While adding these foods to your diet can definitely help keep your cholesterol in check, its important to combine them with a balanced diet and healthy lifestyle to really optimize heart health. Even on the best cholesterol-lowering diet, adding a few superfoods here and there is unlikely to make much of a difference if youre not making changes in other parts of your daily regimen.
Minimizing stress levels, exercising regularly, increasing your intake of whole foods, cutting out heavily processed, high cholesterol foods and giving up unhealthy habits like smoking or drinking are just a few other natural ways to keep cholesterol levels under control and support better health.
Who Can Take Supplements
Researchers are still seeking to confirm the benefits of supplements in treating high cholesterol. For this reason, it remains unclear who can or cannot take them. In general, they are considered safer to use in younger people with no history of serious heart-related illness or risk.
However, all people should speak to a healthcare provider before taking supplements.
One reason for this is because your own medical history may include other health conditions that may be affected by taking an herb or nutritional supplement.
Another concern may be the potential for interaction with any drugs you already take.
You May Like: Tuna Steak Cholesterol
Lifestyle Ways To Naturally Boost Your Hdl Cholesterol
You can help increase HDL cholesterol by your lifestyle choices. For example, losing excess weight, exercising regularly, and quitting alcohol and smoking. Exercise and weight loss are key cholesterol game-changers. A Sports Medicine study showed that daily aerobic and resistance exercise that elevates the heart rate to 85% of its maximum can increase HDL cholesterol and decrease LDL cholesterol. A long term weight loss study in obese men showed positive weight loss effects such as reducing the creation of new cholesterol and increasing the absorption of cholesterol from the diet. This helped to successfully lower total cholesterol in the study participants.
Best Cholesterol Lowering Supplements
Several natural supplements can lower cholesterol levels and improve the balance between bad LDL-cholesterol and good HDL-cholesterol. The best cholesterol lowering supplements are plant sterols, beta-glucans, bergamot orange, garlic, lycopene, glucomannan, green tea polyphenols, olive leaf extracts and, in some countries, red yeast rice extracts. These supplements can usually be taken together with a statin, to boost its effects, but check with your doctor first before combining them with any prescribed medication.
Read Also: Does Shrimp Increase Cholesterol
What You Can Do: Eat More Omega
I advise my patients to eat real fish instead of taking a supplement, says Dr. Martin. The quality of OTC fish-oil supplements can vary, he says, and some may contain unwanted ingredients or contaminants. Meanwhile, fish is a good source of lean protein. Dr. Martins recommendation: Aim to eat about four ounces of oily fish such as tuna, salmon, or anchovies twice a week. Handy fact: A four-ounce fish filet will be around the size of your palm.
Total Cholesterol / Hdl
The ratio of your total cholesterol to your HDL- cholesterol is an important factor in assessing your risk of cardiovascular disease, as this takes your non-HDL cholesterol into account.
Your ratio of total cholesterol divided by HDL-cholesterol should ideally be less than 4.
For example, if your total cholesterol is 4.5 mmol/ and your HDL is 1.2 mmol/l, your ratio is 4.5/1.2 = 3.75.
A ratio above 4.0 is considered a risk factor for cardiovascular disease.
This total/HDL ratio is used to estimate your cardiovascular risk, along with other health and lifestyle risk factors to assess your qrisk2 score. Based on this calculation, your doctor may offer a statin drug if your risk of having a heart attack or stroke over the next 10-years is 10% or greater.
Don’t Miss: How Much Cholesterol In Skinless Chicken Breast
Fish Oil Supplements With Omega
Omega-3 fatty acids are also found in fish and fish oils. Salmon, tuna, lake trout, herring, sardines, and other fatty fish are especially rich sources.
Experts have long believed that omega-3 fatty acids in fish help reduce the risk of getting heart disease. Other nutrients in fish, or a combination of those nutrients and omega-3 fatty acids, may help protect your heart. Eating one or two servings of fatty fish a week may lower your chances of having a heart attack.
If you have heart disease, you may also benefit from taking omega-3 fatty acid supplements or eating other foods rich in omega-3 fatty acids. For example, walnuts, canola oil, and soybeans are good sources. Evidence is stronger for the benefits of eating fish with omega-3 fatty acids than taking supplements or eating other foods.
And What About Eggs And High Cholesterol
Back in 1995 the American Heart Association performed a study on cholesterol and eggs and the results changed conventional thinking about one of natures little masterpieces forever…
They took 141 healthy people with a cholesterol level of 227 . For 6 months these people had to eat 2 eggs for breakfast every morning and after the 6 month period was up their cholesterol levels were re-tested. What they found was their cholesterol levels did go up. But they only went up by a miniscule amount, so heres what the American Heart Association came out and said at their annual meeting on November 15th, 1995
We always assumed that eggs were bad for you because they contain cholesterol, but it now appears after this simple study that 2 eggs a day wont hurt. 2
And in the New England Journal of Medicine there was an article titled Normal Cholesterol in 88 Year Old Man Eating 25 Eggs a Day. This old fella had been eating 25 eggs everyday for over 20 years and yet his cholesterol levels were perfectly normal!
The realtruth on this one folks is eggs actually lower cholesterol in the blood without any sideeffects. In fact, the more eggs you eat the healthier your cholesterol levelswill be .
So contrary to popular belief, eggs are actually terrific cholesterol reduces!
Recommended Reading: Are Mussels High In Cholesterol
What Is Hdl Cholesterol Versus Ldl Cholesterol
Cholesterol is important for the body because it helps make the hormones and other substances that help regulate important body functions. HDL cholesterol is good for your heart because it helps lower bad LDL cholesterol in the blood.
HDL removes excess amounts of LDL from cells while also reducing inflammation in the arteries, which may cause atherosclerosis or hardening of artery walls.
On the other hand, LDL Cholesterol clogs up arteries over time by increasing plaque formation with its deposits this leads to high-risk factors such as increased chances of stroke, heart attack, angina, and vascular dementia, among others.
The level of cholesterol in your bloodstream is called blood lipid levels. High levels can lead to coronary disease and strokes if not managed well.
Since HDL has a positive effect on lowering LDL levels, if we have more of this good kind , thats better for us!
Myth #: High Cholesterol Is A Hereditary Disease:
This one is an absolute load of rubbish. No substantiated amount of proof has ever been presented on a link between high cholesterol and family history. Its purely a theory but doctors now believe it to be true and will try and tell you so.
Do not fall for it!
Havent you noticed that virtually every disease in the world is now being blamed on genetics? The problem with this is you can always find someone in your family who has what you have if you look hard enough or go back far enough. Parents, uncles, aunties, cousins, brothers, sisters, grandmothers, grandfathers, great uncles, great aunties the list goes on.
It proves absolutely nothing!
And when the medical profession cant find anyone in your family with the same disease as you they have no option but to label you a special case.
Its totally ridiculous.
High cholesterol is purely a diet and lifestyle disease, caused by one or a combination of eating the wrong foods, smoking, drinking too much alcohol, lack of exercise, and most importantly, not getting enough of the essential nutrients! 1
Also Check: Cherries And Cholesterol
What To Do Instead: Talk To Your Doctor About A Prescription Statin
Though taking a natural remedy may sound appealing, the better bet is to try an FDA-approved version of, essentially, the same thing. Why? Too much monacolin K can lead to muscle and organ damage, while too little will not help lower your cholesterol. Though a 25% to 30% reduction in cholesterol is possible with high amounts of red yeast rice extract, a prescribed statin is much more effective with a 50% reduction. More importantly, says Dr. Eckel: Statins are safer and more predictable.
Beware Of One Whose Ingredient Varies Wildly
LDL cholesterol is known as the bad cholesterol because having high levels can lead to plaque buildup in your arteries and result in heart disease and stroke, two leading causes of death in the United States. It makes up the majority of the bodys cholesterol.
There are no signs or symptoms of high LDL cholesterol, so its important to get your cholesterol checked. If your LDL is high, your doctor may recommend changes in diet and activity habits to control it.
Your doctor may also prescribe medication, such as a statin. Stains slow down the livers production of cholesterol and increase the livers ability to remove LDL cholesterol that is already in the blood.
Several supplements can also help, though theyre not as effective as prescription drugs and shouldnt be substituted for the drugs without consulting your physician.
Don’t Miss: Are Mussels High In Cholesterol
What Are The Best Supplements For Healthy Cholesterol
Any supplements rich alpha linoleic acid or ALA can help you maintain healthy cholesterol levels. You will need to ingest 2g of ALA per day to achieve this beneficial effect.
Other supplements thought to help you maintain healthy cholesterol levels include garlic, available in an odourless tablet, and conjugated linoleic acid, or CLA.
Cholesterol Lowering Supplements #: A Natural Remedy For High Cholesterol Exercise
Before we get into the things you can eat to help you lower your cholesterol, we have to talk about another excellent natural remedy for high cholesterol: exercise.
Most of the people that have high cholesterol are people who have not been faithful with their exercise, as a sedentary lifestyle and extra weight often contribute to high cholesterol. After all, if you dont do exercise, your body cant burn all the fat that is circulating around your bloodstream, and thus you end up with the cholesterol attaching itself to the walls of your arteries.
Those that live a mildly active lifestyle are usually the ones that are the healthiest, as their active lifestyle keeps their metabolism running well and burning fat effectively.
Even if they dont get out and do an exercise program, their constantly being in motion helps their bodies to burn all the junk that could cause clogged arteries and health problems. Just by being more active, you increase your chances of having a healthy, cholesterol free life.
However, if you have high cholesterol, getting more active isnt going to be enough. If your cholesterol numbers are moderately high, doing just 30 minutes of exercise per day will be sufficient to help you lose weight, get in shape, and lower your numbers. If your numbers are very high, you may need to take more serious steps like getting medication and doing more exercise every day.
You May Like: Is Oysters High In Cholesterol
Cholesterol Lowering Supplements #: Garlic To Lower Cholesterol
Another of the excellent cholesterol lowering supplements that you can take is garlic, either in clove form, extract form, or pill form.
In fact, most doctors not only recommend garlic to lower cholesterol, but also to help improve overall heart health. As far as healthy supplements or foods go, garlic is near the top of the list.
What makes garlic so special?
One of the best things about garlic is that it helps to thin out the blood. This comes in very handy when you have high blood pressure, as the thinning of your blood helps to reduce your hypertension.
However, thinning out your blood also helps to reduce your cholesterol, thanks to the allicin in the garlic. You can prevent clots from forming thanks to the fact that your blood is thinner, and thus you run a much lower risk of serious cholesterol-related problems developing.
You can seriously reduce your LDL cholesterol levels thanks to the garlic, and you can also cause your HDL cholesterol levels to be increased.
Garlic packs a powerful punch against cholesterol, vampires, and enemies, and adding a bit of fresh garlic or garlic extract to your diet will help you to fight your cholesterol.
Another minor benefit of garlic is that it helps to round out the flavors in your food, and everyone knows that a rich, tasty meal will fill you up much faster than a bland one.
Thanks to the garlic in your food, you can feel less hungry, and thus you will be able to stop yourself from eating or drinking things that you shouldnt .