Ways to help lower cholesterol

When it comes to health and wellness, Cholesterol is everyone’s fear and worry because it is usually linked to heart disease and stroke. However, it is not all bad because we do need a certain level of cholesterol to keep us alive. Also, it can be an indicator for us to make some lifestyle adjustments. For some genetic reasons, some people are prone to developing higher levels of cholesterol. Without the knowledge of how to make their lifestyle change, they have to seek medication to control their cholesterol level. But how many people spend time and effort to regularly check and learn how to improve their health? Please find below some ways to monitor and maintain lower cholesterol at a healthy level.

First of all, we need to understand more about what cholesterol is? To enable our body to remain healthy, we need a fatty substance in our blood system and it is called ‘Cholesterol’. It helps our body to produce hormones and vitamin D and it also supports our digestive system. When too much cholesterol builds up it can clog up our arteries, which will increase the risk of cardiovascular diseases like heart disease and stroke.

There are two sources of cholesterol in our body. Our liver produces cholesterol naturally and it is also found in food we consume, for example meat and dairy products. However, we must learn to understand more about the two main types of cholesterol:

High-Density Lipoprotein (HDL) – these are the good cholesterol, which is helping our body to get rid of excess cholesterol produced from our diet.
Low-Density Lipoprotein (LDL) – these are the bad cholesterol, which can build up in our arteries into a plaque called atherosclerosis, the source of heart attack or stroke.

However, one common type of fat found in our bodies call triglycerides, comes from the food we eat that is carried in the blood. Most of the fats we eat, including butter, margarines, and oils, are in triglyceride form. Excess calories, alcohol or sugar in the body turn into triglycerides and are stored in fat cells throughout the body. When a high level of triglyceride paired together with low levels of HDL and high levels of LDL can exacerbate the fat build up in the artery walls, which can result in increasing further risk of a heart attack or stroke.

How can we tell we have high cholesterol?

Unfortunately, there aren’t any warning signs or symptoms, which is why we need to have our cholesterol levels checked regularly to ensure that they are not too high. You will be at higher risk especially if you have a family history of high cholesterol. Remember, prevention is always better than cure!

When you reach a high level of cholesterol, it can lead to heart disease. The symptoms will include chest pain, shortness of breath, feeling faint and extreme fatigue. You must seek medical advice if you are experiencing any of these symptoms.

How often I should check my cholesterol level?

For all adults, you should have your cholesterol level checked at least every 5 years no matter your age or how healthy you may feel. Due to the fact that some people suffered with high levels of cholesterol and do not have any signs or symptoms.

Just a simple blood test to measure your total cholesterol levels for triglyceride, HDL and LDL. From the result, you can also request the full breakdown from these 3 different kinds of fat. While you’re doing your cholesterol test, you should also include a blood pressure test as well as your BMI test. The overall results will show if you need some lifestyle changes or indeed you need some medication treatment. You can find a lot of information on the NHS health check website including age and how often you need the check-up.

What is a healthy cholesterol level?

In the UK, they measure cholesterol levels in millimoles per litre (mmol/L). It can vary from person to person. Please find below a general guide to healthy cholesterol levels.

Total cholesterol level – 5 or below
HDL (good cholesterol level) – 1 or above
LDL (bad cholesterol level) – 3 or below
Triglycerides – 2.3 or below

What factors can affect cholesterol level?

Bad eating habits including high saturated fat, with bad lifestyle habits including lack of exercises, smoking, drinking, stress and gaining weight especially around your midsection can certainly affect your cholesterol levels. But you can control all these. However, high LDL cholesterol levels can sometimes be inherited through family genetics, which you can’t control. This condition is known as Familial Hypercholesterolemia (FH), which affects a person’s ability to get rid of LDL cholesterol.

Other factors that can affect your cholesterol level, they include getting older, your gender, your ethnicity and if you have kidney or liver disease or are suffering from an underactive thyroid gland issue.

There are many ways to help lower your cholesterol level:

Maintaining a healthy weight

When you’re overweight, it can contribute to high blood pressure and increase your blood glucose and insulin levels, which can lead to high cholesterol. This will increase the risk of your cardiovascular health. Just losing 10% of your body fat will help to lower your cholesterol, triglyceride and blood pressure levels. Reducing the risk of diabetes and other forms of cancer.

Weight loss will take time which involves balanced healthy eating, exercise and being active. Remember, just be kind and be patient with yourself. From time to time, we do fall off the wagon but as long as we can get back on it as soon as we can. Create a lifetime habit and don’t expect too much from yourself too quickly.

Create a balanced healthy eating habit

Watch what you eat and avoid the saturated and trans-fat from your diet as much as possible. They are solid at room temperature and prone to blocking up arteries. Saturated fat food comes from animal fats like butter, fatty meat, full fat dairy products like cream and cheese. Trans-fats can also be found in animal products, but artificial trans fats mainly come from processed foods like crisps, crackers, cookies, cakes and fried foods.

Replace them with much healthier unsaturated fats instead. This will reduce the amount of LDL in the bloodstream. Unsaturated fats are found mainly in foods like vegetable oils, fish, avocados, nuts and seeds. Fatty fish like salmon and mackerel, nuts including walnuts, flaxseeds and canola oil provides Omega-3 which also contains unsaturated fats with many health benefits and can help to prevent and treat heart disease and stroke. However, you don’t have to cut out all the meat entirely. You can choose leaner meat alternatives like skinless chicken or turkey breast. You can also replace animal protein to plant-based protein which can be beneficial to your health too.

Eat plenty of food with healthy fibre

Consume 30 gm of healthy fibre in your daily diet, this can have a good impact on your cholesterol level and reduce the risk of atherosclerosis and cardiovascular disease. Food high in fibre includes wholemeal bread and wholegrain cereals, nuts and seeds, plenty of fruit and vegetables, oats and barley, and pulses such as beans, peas and lentils.

Create your daily eating habit of half a plateful of vegetable and the other half is equal portions of protein and fibre.

Home cooking and cook healthy

Most grilling, steaming, boiling or poaching food is much healthier than fried food whether you cook at home or are eating out. At all costs, reduce the amount of unhealthy fat in your diet. Can you still eat fried foods? Of course, you can without quitting your favourite foods, as long as you are eating in moderation ensuring that you are looking after your cholesterol level from your home cooking or eating out. There are plenty of inspirational cooking recipes out there, do your own research, find your ideal dishes that are going to keep you on the healthy side.

Set a daily routine for your exercise

Regular exercise plays a large part of our weight loss and health. To enable us to maintain a healthy weight, increasing your muscle mass can reduce the risk of developing various medical conditions. Apart from benefiting our cholesterol levels, it also helps to promote a healthy heart too. Daily exercise including aerobic exercise can help weight loss and our health maintenance, it also has a very positive effect on LDL cholesterol levels.

Many people rely on medication to treat high cholesterol, which in result will bring a long list of possible side effects. There are different forms of exercise including cycling, walking, dancing, Pilates and Tai Chi. The bottom line is just be active and get out there more often and get some fresh air.

Avoid or reduce smoking

Smoking reduces HDL levels and increases the risk of having a heart attack or stroke, drains your energy, you can develop breathing and circulation difficulties, making walking much harder, most importantly increasing the risk of lung cancer.

If you are long term smoker and need help to quit, I highly recommend you seek professional help. Seek various methods to help you to kick the habit and learn how to prevent relapse.

Reduce your stress level if not daily, more often

Most problems include headaches, heartburn, insomnia, depression, and high blood pressure, all caused by stress. It also impacts our cardiovascular health and increased levels of cholesterol too. When we are stressed, the triglycerides levels increase as well as LDL and decreases the level of HDL. Most people in high-stressed jobs usually have unhealthy cholesterol levels.

Can we avoid stress completely? Of course we can’t but there are ways that you can manage your stress levels. Different things work for different people. You can do your own research to find ways and techniques to help you manage your stress under the circumstances you are in.

Can medication help to lower cholesterol levels?

If you continue to have a high cholesterol level even though you have healthy lifestyle, healthy diet and doing your regular exercise. You might need to seek advice from your doctor. Some medication like Statins is the common medication for high cholesterol. But you might be aware that long term use will cause side effects, so, it is completely your choice whether you should take any medication.

In most cases, people that suffer high cholesterol levels use medication to supress the condition and make lifestyle changes to lower their cholesterol levels. When it happens, they slowly come off medication and maintain their healthy lifestyle and healthy eating habits.

Summary

We should take cholesterol seriously and monitor our levels on a regular basis. Healthy lifestyle, balanced healthy eating habits and regular exercise can help weight loss and maintenance. Learn how to control your stress levels which also includes smoking and drinking alcohol, these are all factors that can have a huge impact on our cholesterol levels. If you are worried about your cholesterol, seek professional help without further delay.

Have you taken steps to lower your cholesterol recently? What has made the biggest difference for you? I would love to hear from you or leave a comment below.