High cholesterol levels are the leading cause of atherosclerosis, which is the leading cause of cardiovascular events such as heart attacks and strokes. Reducing cholesterol levels below 200 mg/dl will greatly decrease the likelihood of a cardiovascular event, but lowering total cholesterol below 150 mg/dl is necessary for a healthy heart. While lowering cholesterol intake, especially fat intake is important for your health. It is important to know that both fat and cholesterol contain good forms, which are beneficial to the body. In the case of cholesterol, LDL cholesterol is the bad cholesterol and HDL is the good cholesterol. When it comes to fats, saturated fats from meat and trans fats from partially hydrogentated oil are the bad fats, and Omega-3 and Omega-6fats are the good fats. In both cases, a diet high in the good cholesterol and good fats partially offset the damage done by the bad cholesterol and fats. There are many lifestyle and diet changesthat can be made to lower cholesterol, there are also many medications that can be taken including Lipitor that can lower cholesterol. In generally, it is better to make the lifestyle changes because they lack the side effects of medications and they also lead to overall health in other areas besides lowering cholesterol.
Both losing weightand exercising more will lower your cholesterol naturally. Exercising will directly lower cholesterol levels because as muscle is built, cholesterol, especially bad cholesterol, is removed from the bloodstream. Exercising will also lower your cholesterol by helping you lose weight. Obesity is highly associated with high cholesterol levels, and as the body loses weight, cholesterol levels drop naturally. Exercise also has a third benefit for lower high cholesterol levels. Exercise reduces stress, and studies have shown that cholesterol levels are closely associated with stress levels.
There are many nutritional changes that can be made to reduce high cholesterol levels. For the most part they involve substituting foods with bad fat and cholesterol with foods that contain good fat and cholesterol. For instance, reducing the intake of red meat with saturated fats, and instead adding fish with omega-3 fatty acid to your weekly shopping list will make a significant difference in cholesterol levels. Switching from using margarines made with partially hydrogenated oil to olive oil will reduce your trans fat consumption while increasing your omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acid intake.
Another important nutritional tip to lowering high cholesterol is increase your intake of soluble fiber. Soluble fiber is found in foods such as oatmeal, bananas, apples and beans. Soluble fiber is not digested from the body, but as it moves through the small intestines, it also lowers the amount of cholesterol that is absorbed by the body. This results in approximately 10% of cholesterol leaving the body undigested.
Products such as Lipitor have done a good job of lowering the incidents of cardiovascular events such as heart attack and stroke, but they come at a cost and should be mainly used by people with extremely high cholesterol levels and only with corresponding changes in diet and exercise.