13 Natural Remedies That Lower Your Cholesterol

13 Natural Remedies That Lower Your Cholesterol

Cholesterol is not all bad. Your body naturally produces it, and it plays some pretty important roles. It helps build new cells, produce hormones and insulates the nerves. But, when you have too much, it becomes a health problem.

When cholesterol levels are high, it means you have too much yellow, mushy fat substance circulating in your blood stream, which can clog your arteries and restrict blood flow leading to heart attack, stroke or angina pain.

Another problem with cholesterol, is all the terms that come with it; such as, dietary cholesterol, serum cholesterol, HDL cholesterol and LDL cholesterol. Here is how to keep them all straight.

Dietary cholesterol is what is contained in food (mostly of animal origin). The American Heart Association recommends limiting your daily intake to 300 milligrams.

Serum cholesterol is what is in your bloodstream and what the doctor measures with a cholesterol test. (A reading less than 200 is desirable, a reading between 200 - 240 is borderline high risk, and a reading greater than 240 is high risk.)

HDL cholesterol (“High” Density Lipoprotein) is a distinct part of serum cholesterol that is considered “good” because of its artery cleansing ability. The “higher” the HDL level, the better.

LDL cholesterol (“Low” Density Lipoprotein) is considered to be HDL’s evil twin because of its artery clogging ability. The “lower” the LDL level, the better.

Here are 13 natural remedies that lower your cholesterol.

1. Watch your weight. Studies have shown that the more overweight you are, the more cholesterol your body produces. Every 2.2 pound rise in body weight elevates your cholesterol 2 points. Aim for a diet composed of two-thirds fruit, vegetables, cereals and whole grains. Only one-third of your calories should come from meat and dairy products. (Which are often high in fat and calories.)

2. Watch your fats. Saturated fat elevates blood cholesterol. Polyunsaturated fat lowers blood cholesterol. So, it would be wise to cut back on such sources of saturated fat as meat, butter, cheese and hydrogenated oil. Replace these sources with fish, poultry, low-fat dairy products and polyunsaturated oils like corn, safflower and soybean.

3. Eat less eggs. You don’t have to cut them out completely. Just limit yourself to three whole eggs per week. Since only the yolk contains cholesterol, use the egg whites freely. You can substitute two egg whites for every whole egg. Even when baking. You can make scrambled eggs or an omelet using one whole egg with two to four egg whites.

4. Eat more beans. Beans, and other legumes contain pectin, which surrounds cholesterol and escorts it right out of the body. One cup of beans; navy beans, pinto beans, kidney beans, lima beans, soybeans, black-eyed peas and lentils, will all perform this cholesterol lowering activity.

5. Eat more fruit. Fruit also contains pectin. Try to eat a variety of fruit. For instance, a half a grapefruit at breakfast, an apple at lunch and some orange sections at dinner, could probably lower your cholesterol quite nicely.

6. Eat your oats, brans and barley. Oat bran, corn bran and barley appears to lower serum cholesterol in the same fashion as pectin rich fruits and does as good a job as beans. Oatmeal can also reduce cholesterol.

7. Eat carrots. Carrots also have pectin content. Studies have shown that eating just 2 carrots a day can lower high cholesterol 10 to 20%. That could be enough to bring levels into a safe range.

8. Drink skim milk. A compound in the nonfat portion of skim milk inhibits cholesterol production in the liver.

9. Take garlic. Large quantities of raw garlic can reduce harmful blood fats. Unfortunately, it can also reduce your number of friends. One gram daily of liquid garlic extract, however, can reduce your cholesterol level an average of 44 points in six months.

10. Fiber rich psyllium seeds. Psyllium seeds are the main ingredient of the bowel regulator Metamucil. Metamucil and other psyllium seed products may be a good alternative treatment when diet alone does not bring blood cholesterol levels down.

11. Exercise. One of the best ways to lower your levels of LDL cholesterol is through vigorous exercise. It also increases the body’s ability to clear fat from the blood after meals.

12. Do not smoke. A Swedish study showed that smokers tend to suffer from low levels of HDL cholesterol. But when a group of habitual smokers kicked the habit, they all experienced rapid and noticeable increases in HDL concentrations.

13. Drink Tea. The tannins found in tea may also help lower cholesterol. A study found that people on a high cholesterol diet that habitually drank tea had blood cholesterol levels within a normal range.

Some nutritional supplements that may help to counter cholesterol are Vitamin C, E and calcium. Studies have shown that when Vitamin C is added to a pectin rich diet, cholesterol drops even lower than with pectin alone. Another study showed that Vitamin E can significantly increase HDL levels. And yet another study showed that 2 grams of calcium carbonate taken daily, reduced cholesterol by 25% in 12 months.

Herbal supplements that are beneficial in lowering LDL levels include alfalfa, black cohosh, cayenne and ginseng. Skullcap may be beneficial for increasing HDL levels.

By: Edith Lingenfelter

Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com

How To Lower Your Cholesterol Levels

How To Lower Your Cholesterol Levels

Getting Down high cholesterol points will lengthen your life-time and amend the quality of life because it diminishes the chance of coronary and stroke. Whenever potential it is safest to hold cholesterol grades without medication, first. Perpetually consult with your particular care physician around this. Even if you find yourself requiring medication to get down cholesterol, you may ask less if you can decrease the grades some without medication. The methods to decrease cholesterol without medication:

1. Diet
2. Exercise

DIET

Diet exchanges can be complicated and challenging, but once you acquire recent consuming usage and start finding healthier, it will need fewer effort. The methods to alter your diet to aid in reducing cholesterol grades :

Remove and cut foods that are high in cholesterol - some propose that cholesterol that follows from food should be fewer than 300 mg per twenty-four hours. For those with high cholesterol who wish to reduce their cholesterol may wish to keep down the quantity to 200 mg. Foods which have high cholesterol grades:

1. Eggs (primarily the yolk)
2. Chicken
3. Liver
4. Beef
5. Hotdogs
6. Butter
7. Sponge cake
8. Ice cream
9. Processed and deep fried foods

Limit foods that take trans fat or saturated fats- your body will produce cholesterol from both trans and saturated fats. The government has intervened and applied ordinances regarding trans fat. Most fast food restaurants adopted voluntarily with the recent instruction while others were forced to. Some took a quiet longer due to the desire to take substitutions only did not desire to change the taste of their products. The brain requires some fats for suit function, so be convinced you don’t wipe out all fat from your diet.

Increase soluble fiber- it binds with fatty acids and gets the stomach to empty more slowly so that the grade of sugar free and absorption is prolonged. Soluble fiber shrinks the cholesterol that is absorbed in the intestines. Sources of soluble fiber:

1. Oats/bran
2. Nuts
3. Barley
4. Fruits
5. Vegetables
6. Flaxseed

Increase healthy foods to take down your fish, cholesterol-fruits, whole grains, vegetables, and lean meats will aid reduce cholesterol.

Converting the style you eat may give the positive side impact of weight loss. This is good because sometimes even a 5-10 lb weight loss can take down cholesterol grades. Cutting cholesterol too drastically will stimulate the body to produce its own cholesterol and that is harder to hold and often will take medication.

Cholesterol is required for the following :

1. Restore cell and broken tissue
2. Antioxidant attributes
3. Part of every cell
4. Required for proper brain use and memory
5. Gall (aids in digestions) part
6. Shaping of hormones
7. Holds infection
8. Part of vitamin production

Use a high protein immunoglobulin supplement – a report published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (2005 81 (4) p 792) found that women and men who took reasonably high cholesterol, between 210 and 270 whole count, had a 6% drop in total cholesterol after just three weeks of consuming an immunoglobulin supplement.

Of importance to note, the LDL cholesterol degree dropped 7% while the HDL cholesterol grade continued constant.

EXERCISE
HDL (good cholesterol) growths with exercise and will contribute to lowering high cholesterol grades.
Exercising at least 4 days out of the week- when the workout is mild activities ; it is best to strain to do it every twenty-four hours. Traditional workouts, running and weight lifting aren’t the only exercises you can do to aid decrease cholesterol; the following activities can be part of cholesterol getting down workout acts:

1. Walking
2. Yard work
3. Housework
4. Dancing

Workout at least 30 minutes per twenty-four hours- the minutes can be separated into smaller workout sessions as long it totals 30 minutes by the end of the day.

Life-style exchanges like consuming proper and workout need time to become portion of a daily habit. Stay with it and the benefits will be valuable. When efforts to reduce your cholesterol have not been successful, your doctor may decide to place you on medication to reduce your cholesterol grades.

By: ghostevyta

Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com