What Can You Do To Lower Your Cholesterol?

Most people are in some way at risk for heart disease and everyone can benefit from lowering their high cholesterol. By lowering your cholesterol you are reducing your chances of heart disease and stroke. Everyone should know by now that you can lower your chances of high cholesterol therefore reducing your risk of heart disease by improving your diet and exercise habits. Sometimes medication is needed as well accompanied by a healthy diet.

When referring to lowering cholesterol we are referring to LDL which is found in much higher numbers then the other cholesterol, HDL. The objective is to lower levels of LDL which can be done with proper diet and exercise. Certain amounts of LDL are needed in the body to aid in digestion and to protect the nervous system. What we are trying to do is to keep that LDL from building up in our arteries.

What can you do to lower your cholesterol?

You can take medications that can help or even inhibit the production of LDL in your liver, but we will keep that subject for another time. Changing your dietary habits is a very effective means of which foods are stored in the liver and those that are absorbed into the bloodstream.

Obvious foods to avoid would be those that are high in saturated fat and oils, such as animal products or processed food. Eliminating or drastically reducing saturated fats will get you on the road to lower cholesterol. Exercise is also very important because you are burning up the energy that would otherwise be stored in your body as fat. This increases the workload of your body, in particular the most important organ your heart. That is why a blend of a healthy diet and physical exercise are crucial in your mission to lower cholesterol.

So the facts are that a heart healthy, balanced diet and an increase of physical activity are key elements to reducing your risk for heart disease and stroke by reducing your cholesterol. If you need to please refer to my food pyramid charts to make sure that you are getting that balanced diet. Whole foods, not vitamins or dietary supplements are what you need in order for your goals of lowering your cholesterol to be effective.

Rachel Gillespe is a staff writer at Women's Digest and is an occasional contributor to several other websites, including Diet Gazette.

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