How To Reduce Cholesterol In 3 Simple Steps

By Joe Dungait

If you're looking to reduce cholesterol levels and you go to discuss this with a physician, chances are that you will more than likely be put on medication such as statins. You need to be very wary before starting this medication because once you are on it, it is a lifetime prescription; and on top of that it does have some pretty nasty side effects too which include severe muscle pain and weakness, and let us not forget that your heart is a muscle as well. Fortunately there are natural ways to reduce cholesterol, so before getting started on medication you may want to give these three little steps to try first.

1.Exercise - Exercising does not mean torturing yourself in an aerobics class, or being stuck for hours on a treadmill machine. There is a direct link between exercise and it helping to reduce cholesterol levels, however it is not the intensity of exercise that is important but it is the duration. Therefore, if you do something as simple as briskly walking or swimming, for sake of argument, for 30 minutes a day everyday then you would be well on your way to reducing your cholesterol levels.

2.Diet - Quite often people think that the best way to reduce cholesterol is through the food that they eat. The truth of the matter is that although food can play a part it is only a small part as your cholesterol levels are really determined by the amount that you liver produces. However, even though the food is only a small part there are some foods that you want to avoid and some you want to include which will go some way to helping you balance your cholesterol. Foods you want to include are foods which contain omega3 such as nuts and oily fish as these are known to help reduce LDL and boost HDL. The other food to include is soluble fiber as this too is known to reduce LDL. Food you want to avoid is take away food and microwave meals because these often contain hydrogenated oils which raise LDL levels: you also want to cut back on the amount of foods that you eat that contain saturated fats such as meat and dairy.

3.Nutritional Supplements-- Something a lot of people are finding beneficial in helping them to reduce cholesterol is the use of nutritional supplements. There are lots of nutritional supplements available however if you want to use one, ideally what you are looking for it to do is to help your body create as much good cholesterol is possible, reduce the amount of bad cholesterol created and also at the same time any excess bad cholesterol that is not sent back to the liver to be reprocessed needs to be removed from the body by being turned into bile salts and excreted from the body. Your supplement should do all of this at the very minimum. When choosing a supplement you want to make sure that it has at least the following three ingredients policosanol, theaflavins and rice bran oil.

There are other things you can do as well these three steps, but ultimately this is a great place to start. And when you take into consideration that the alternative is a lifetime prescription of a medication that has some really nasty side effects including heart failure, then isn't it worth giving it a go anyway? - 30310

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