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What Lowers Cholesterol Levels – Quickly Lower Cholesterol Levels
A few lifestyle changes can help to lower cholesterol levels naturally after the age of 50.
To lower your cholesterol, try some of these steps:
Eat a healthy diet by adding more plant foods to your diet. Eat at least five servings of fruit and vegetables daily. Choose low-fat dairy products and whole grains, such as brown rice, barley, and quinoa. Avoid trans fats. Consume less than 2 grams per day of saturated fat (such as coconut oil). Eliminate chips, French fries, or other fried foods from your diet. Limit your intake of red meat and fatty fish to once per week. Eat high-fiber foods like beans and whole grains.
Live a healthy lifestyle by exercising regularly (especially outside). Exercise at least 15 minutes three times per week. Do strength training with dumbbells, weight machines, or free weights (no aerobics). Pushups, situps, or chin-ups are good weight-training moves. Include other exercises like running, hiking, and swimming in your exercise routine.
What Lowers Cholesterol Levels – Foods That Help:
Understanding your cholesterol is very important because it affects the health of your heart and of the arteries that supply oxygen-rich blood to vital organs in your body like your brain and heart. You should know what your cholesterol level is and understand it.
If you have high cholesterol, choose a healthy lifestyle to help lower your levels. Exercise and eat a healthy diet. You can do more than just eat the right foods to lower your cholesterol. You can also use certain foods that either raise or lower your cholesterol levels.
You may have heard about some of these foods before, but you may not have known what they did to your body. To find out more about what these various foods do, read on for information about the different effects of food on blood cholesterol levels. Below is a list of the top 8:
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Almonds.
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Oats
- Barley and other whole grains.
- Beans.
- Eggplant and okra.
- Nuts
- Vegetable oils
- Apples, grapes, strawberries, citrus fruits.
What Lowers Cholesterol Levels – High Cholesterol Levels Sometimes Caused by Genetics
Genetics is the science that deals with heredity and how genes are passed from parents to children. When your cholesterol levels are high, it could be due to genetics. The reason why some people have high cholesterol levels is that they have a genetic defect that prevents them from lowering their levels.
As of yet, researchers do not know what the exact defect is, but many of the defects are in genes that make certain proteins in the body. These proteins control how cholesterol is made or carried around in the body, and they also tell cells to break down LDL (“bad”) cholesterol and HDL (“good”) cholesterol. This means that having a certain genetic defect can raise your LDL cholesterol level and lower your HDL cholesterol level.
Cholesterol that is not broken down in the liver is broken down by enzymes found in various cells throughout the body. Different cells have different types of enzymes, and some cells have more than one type of enzyme. The type of enzyme used in breaking down cholesterol depends upon how much cholesterol is needed by the cell at that time.
The liver makes reverse cholesterol transport proteins, which help remove excessive amounts of LDL from the body via the bile acids — substances vital to digestion. The liver also makes LDL receptors, proteins that bind with LDL and are then internalized by the liver. The liver makes VLDL receptors, which help remove excessive amounts of VLDL from the body.
Usually, the amount of LDL and VLDL in your blood is regulated by hormones in your body, but if there is a genetic defect that causes high levels of these two very different types of lipoproteins, you could have an overflow of one type and a shortage of another.
For example, you may have an excess of LDL cholesterol and a shortage of HDL cholesterol. If this happens, you will have high levels of LDL cholesterol (“bad” cholesterol) in your blood–but not so much that it is a real problem for you.
If your body cannot remove the excess cholesterol by taking it out by bile acids or lowering your LDL receptors, the excess amount overproduces in the liver and eventually leads to very high levels of bad (LDL) cholesterol in your blood.
Many people with such genetic defects still live healthy lives and do not have high cholesterol levels because their bodies are able to keep their LDL levels low. If you have a genetic defect that leads to high levels of LDL cholesterol, you can lower your cholesterol level if you choose a healthy lifestyle.
What Lowers Cholesterol Levels – High Cholesterol Levels Sometimes Caused by Medications
Certain medications called statins are very effective in lowering the level of bad (LDL) cholesterol in the blood, but they must be taken continuously in order to be effective. It is important to follow a healthy lifestyle even while taking these medications, however, because you need to continue exercising and eating a healthy diet.
You do not want to damage your liver or other organs by taking too many statin drugs because this can lead to liver damage and cancer.
Some statin medications that are commonly prescribed include:
Atorvastatin (Lipitor) — Prevents the liver from making cholesterol and helps the body break down bad cholesterol. It also lowers blood triglycerides and raises HDL cholesterol levels. It is best to start at a low dose of 10 milligrams a day for two days, then 20 milligrams a day for two days, and then 40 milligrams a day. The maximum recommended dose is 80 milligrams a day.
Fluvastatin (Lescol) — This drug reduces the production of cholesterol in the liver and also lowers triglyceride levels. It should not be taken if you have a liver problem. The maximum recommended dose of fluvastatin is 80 milligrams a day.
Simvastatin (Zocor) — Reduces the level of bad (LDL) cholesterol in your blood by up to 50 percent, which helps lower your chances of developing heart disease and stroke. It also helps improve arterial function and reduces the risk of a heart attack. The maximum recommended dose is 80 milligrams a day.
This is just a brief overview of the vast amount of information available on high cholesterol and what it has to do with your health. There are excellent books written about this subject as well as studies about the different types of cholesterol, medications used for treating high cholesterol, diet tips, and lifestyle changes that can help you lower your cholesterol level if you have it too high.
What Lowers Cholesterol Levels – Controlling Your Cholesterol Level
Although eating healthy food, exercising regularly, maintaining a healthy weight, quitting smoking, and avoiding dangerous drugs are all important steps that you should take in order to lower your cholesterol level naturally without using any medications or taking dietary supplements, there are some steps that you can take to control it more directly.
If you are diagnosed with high cholesterol, you should consult with your doctor and your doctor may recommend that you take a medication such as a statin. If your physician feels that other medications will not work for you, then he or she may recommend that you take dietary supplements or a natural supplement.
This is just one method for controlling cholesterol naturally, so be sure to consult with your doctor before taking any dietary supplement or natural supplement because they can interact with each other and also have more side effects than medications.
Disclaimer: The information in this article is intended for educational and entertainment purposes only and should not be used instead of or contrary to that of a medical professional. Before taking supplements, starting a new diet, or embarking on a new exercise regime please consult a medical or nutritional professional. The owners of “Getting Healthy After 50” are not medical professionals and are simply redistributing information that is freely available on the internet.
