NATURAL TREATMENTS

The best way to treat your high cholesterol is with natural remedies. If you are fortunate enough to not have any one of those cholesterol concerns, you may want to take steps to keep it that way! Recent studies have shown that for every 1 % decrease in cholesterol levels, there is a 2 % decrease in the risk of a heart attack.
What can you do to improve your cholesterol levels?  Several steps you may take to can help improve your cholesterol levels.

Reduce fat in your diet

Buy the leanest cuts of meat you can find.  Substitute poultry (without the skin) and fish for red meat.  Both are lower in saturated fat.  Use low fat cottage cheese or yogurt and reduced fat hard cheeses. Change to and skim or 1 percent milk.

Eat no more than four egg yolks a week

Normal healthy bodies adjust to increased cholesterol intake by cutting back production in your liver. So if you eat foods with less cholesterol your body naturally responds in a favorable manner. For one third of Americans their blood cholesterol does go up when they eat cholesterol.  If you are not sure whether you are in this category, play it safe. Eat less than four egg yolks a week.  Each egg yolk may contain 213 milligrams of cholesterol!

Eliminate fried foods

In addition to selecting low fat foods, you will need to adjust your cooking methods to reduce the cholesterol you consume.
Some low fat cooking strategies include:

Eat vegetables and complex carbohydrates

Vegetables, fruits, grains (rice, barley and pasta), beans and legumes are all low fat foods. Use more of these and less meat and high fat dairy products.

Lose weight

Overweight or obese people almost all have high cholesterol problems.  You can lower your LDL and increase your HDL by shedding some of that weight. The simplest approach to a slow and steady weight loss is to eat fewer fatty foods and more fruits, vegetables, grains and beans.

Include your family

Eating habits are often learned in childhood.  Get your children started with healthy eating patterns.  Keep in mind that babies do need extra fat calories for proper physical development so do not make major dietary changes for them until they are at least 2 years of age. Your pediatrician can provide guidance here.

Snack all you want

That is right! Snacks are okay! Snack several times a day on low fat foods.  Yogurt, fruit, vegetables, bagels and whole grain breads and cereals are excellent for snacking.  Some evidence shows that people who eat several small meals a day often have lower cholesterol levels. By eating often you can keep hormones like insulin from rising. This helps because when they rise your body makes more cholesterol.  Be careful not to let your total intake of calories increase when you start to eat more often.

Nuts to you!

If you like nuts sprinkle a few on your cereal, bake them into muffins or pancakes or add them to casseroles or stir-fries.  Walnuts and almonds are particularly good. Eating three ounces of walnuts each day decreased blood cholesterol levels by 10% more than a low fat, low cholesterol diet.  Walnuts are high in polyunsaturated fat which is the kind that lowers cholesterol.  Almonds are rich in monounsaturated fat and can lower LDL by 9% when you eat about three ounces each day.

Eat chocolate

Cheers!  All chocoholics rejoice!  The fat in chocolate is stearic acid. Studies show stearic acid has no effect on cholesterol levels.  Chocolate does not increase LDL and might raise HDL a little. However, chocolate is high in fat and calories so maintain a moderate intake.

Drink fruit juices

Perhaps you read about the low rate of heart disease in France.  Researchers believed that the French habit of drinking red wine with meals contributes to this fact.  Some of the non-alcoholic ingredients in red wine have the effect of raising HDL and suppressing the production of LDL.
Purple grape juice works the same way.  It functions like red wine and can lower the fat level in your blood.  Red wine and grape juice both have a compound that is produced by grapes to resist mold. It is this compound that has the LDL lowering effect.  Darker grape juice is even better.
Grapefruit juice works the same way.  It may also help cleanse your body of plaque where LDL clusters on the arterial walls. 

Eat garlic

Garlic has positive effects of lowering bad cholesterol (LDL) whether it is normal or high. Eat more garlic. It can raise HDL levels also.  Take it in tablet form if you are concerned about odor or taste. Garlic tablets are nearly as effective as cooked or raw cloves.

Take niacin – carefully

Niacin is one of the B vitamins and it has been shown to effectively improve cholesterol health. It lowers LDL and raises HDL.  It is one of the least expensive medicines that lower cholesterol.   Be aware that it is not entirely safe without medical supervision. A dosage that is high enough to lower cholesterol can cause liver damage or very high blood sugar.

 Take vitamin E

Vitamin E may lower cholesterol, according to some studies, when taken in large quantities. Up to 800 IU each day is more than you can obtain just from your diet.  These larger amounts may not cause any harm.  Other studies indicated that amounts of only 25 IU each day prevents LDL from attaching to blood vessel walls.  That is only slightly higher than the recommended daily amount (RDA) of 12 to 15 IU.  Even a small amount seems to have the effect of protecting the arteries.

Take Calcium

Another study shows that when 56 people took a calcium carbonate supplement, their total cholesterol decreased by 4 percent and their HDL increased by 4 percent.  No harmful effects were reported with taking 400 milligrams of calcium carbonate three times a day.

Take a multivitamin

Remember vitamin C while you are increasing your calcium and vitamin E intake. Vitamin C is the number one immune system booster and it raises HDL. One study showed that people who took more than 60 milligrams of vitamin C per day had the highest LDL levels. The RDA for vitamin C is 60 milligrams.

Fill up on fiber

Several years ago oat bran was the latest craze for lowering cholesterol. Later studies showed inconsistent results. Nonetheless, medical professionals agree that soluble fiber (the kind found in oat bran) helps lower LDL and raise HDL.  An effective dose may be as small as three grams of fiber from oat bran or oatmeal each day.  Oatmeal contains about 7.2 grams of soluble fiber per 100 grams of dry oat bran and five grams of soluble fiber per 100 grams of dry oatmeal.  Other grains and vegetables are also sources of fiber, including beans, barley and peas.

Corn fiber can also reduce LDL by as much as 5 percent, according to a recent study. Researchers used 20 grams of corn fiber each day.  Since the average serving of corn has about 3 grams of corn fiber, that amount would be difficult to reach simply through diet. Yet, every little bit does make a difference.
 Pectin, found in fruits like apples and prunes, is even more effective at reducing cholesterol than oat bran. Psyllium, the fiber in many cereals and bulk laxatives, is also effective at lowering cholesterol. 

Quit smoking

Smoking contributes to atherosclerosis.  Tobacco smoke is more damaging to the heart than the lungs.  Smokers are three times more likely to have a heart attack than nonsmokers.  Smokers are twenty-one times more likely to die from heart attacks than nonsmokers.  The carbon monoxide in tobacco smoke damages the heart.  It reduces the amount of oxygen the heart receives. It also damages the cells of the heart and rendering them less able to produce energy. That weakens the heart.

Not only is carbon monoxide dangerous for heart health, nicotine interferes with the electrical impulses that cause the heart to beat.  When blood flow is compromised, the heart can beat with fast, uncontrolled, irregular beats that can cause a heart attack.  Reducing the risks of atherosclerosis is one more reason to stop smoking.  Even if you have smoked for years, stopping now still helps resist the development of atherosclerosis.

Reduce sugar intake

Most people do not connect sugar with cholesterol concerns. It definitely affects triglycerides.  Sugar stimulates the production of insulin production which then increases triglycerides.  Men seem to be particularly sensitive to this sugar effect.  Chromium is a mineral that helps stabilize blood sugar and it can also increase LDL levels.  Taking 100 mcg of chromium three times each day can improve your cholesterol levels.

Eliminate alcohol

Alcohol remains controversial. Discussions continue about the benefit or lack of benefit with consuming alcohol.  This is not related to earlier discussions about red wine.  A moderate amount of alcohol may be helpful.   Dissent arises because a moderate amount for one person may be a glass of wine with their meal, while to another it might be a half bottle of Scotch!  Drinking more than a “moderate” amount elevates serum cholesterol triglycerides. It also raises uric acid levels and has the potential to increase blood pressure. Since all of these responses contribute to heart disease the most prudent course of action may be to eliminate it entirely.

Exercise regularly

Evidence shows clearly that exercise can lower LDL cholesterol and boost HDL cholesterol.  This includes aerobic exercise such as walking, jogging, swimming, bicycling and cross country skiing and strength training like lifting weights or using weight machines. All of these types of exercise work to improve cholesterol levels.  A review of 11 studies on weight training showed that this exercise decreased LDL by 13 percent and raised HDL by 5 percent.  Weight lifters are advised to use light to moderate weights and do many repetitions.

Eliminate caffeine

Americans love coffee!  People who drink more than six cups each day are likely to have elevated cholesterol.  That is not true for tea drinkers.  Reduce your coffee consumption to one cup a day and skip the caffeinated sodas entirely.

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