How to reduce bad cholesterol

Facts About LDL: The Bad Kind of Cholesterol

LDL is considered the “bad” cholesterol. It carries cholesterol to your arteries, where it may collect in the vessel walls and contribute to plaque formation, known as atherosclerosis. This can lead to decreased blood flow to the heart muscle (coronary artery disease), leg muscles (peripheral artery disease), or abrupt closure of an artery in the heart or brain, leading to a heart attack or stroke….

Check out the following resources to help you with bad cholesterol:

Cholesterol Down: Ten Simple Steps to Lower Your Cholesterol in Four Weeks--Without Prescription Drugs: https://amzn.to/3aL2blB

Good Cholesterol, Bad Cholesterol: https://amzn.to/3jxf6LR

Cholesterol Lowering Plant Sterols Gummies: https://amzn.to/2Om4fJ9

What Causes High LDL Cholesterol?

• Being overweight

• Lack of exercise

• Diabetes

• Kidney disease

• Polycystic ovary syndrome

• Pregnancy and other conditions that increase levels of female hormones

• Underactive thyroid gland

Other factors :

• Family history

• Age

• Biological sex (whether you're male or female)

• Other medical conditions such as kidney or liver disease, or hypothyroidism.

What are the symptoms of high LDL cholesterol?

• angina, chest pain.

• nausea.

• extreme fatigue.

• shortness of breath.

• pain in the neck, jaw, upper abdomen, or back.

• numbness or coldness in your extremities.

How to lower LDL cholesterol?

Lowering your cholesterol is important; increased cholesterol levels lead to a higher risk of heart attacks and strokes. And by Adopting healthy habits, such as eating a healthy, balanced diet and keeping active, can also help prevent your cholesterol levels becoming high in the first place.

The best place to start is to eat a wide variety of plant foods. These include:

• vegetables

• fruit

• legumes

• whole grains

• nut

• seeds.

Eating plant foods will help you get a range of nutrients, heart-healthy fats and fibre. These all promote optimal heart health.

Foods to Avoid if You Have High Cholesterol ..

• Fast Foods,Liver,Fatty Meats,Canned Shrimp.

• Desserts,Eggs,Whipped Cream,Bacon ,Cheese & Butter.

• Animal fats, such as Butter, Ghee, Margarines and Spreads made from Animal Fats, Lard, Suet and Dripping.

• Prawns, Crab, Lobster, Squid, Octopus and Cuttlefish.

Drink alcohol only in moderation

Consuming alcohol can raise cholesterol levels because alcohol is processed through the same organ that is responsible for making cholesterol. For example, studies show that excessive drinking may increase LDL levels, which is the “bad” type of cholesterol. In addition, alcohol is known to raise triglyceride levels.

Quit smoking

Whether you're a longtime smoker or you just picked up the habit, do your heart a favor and say goodbye to tobacco. As far as your ticker's concerned, it's never too late to quit. Your body starts to heal as soon as you smoke your last cigarette.

There are many reasons your heart will thank you for not lighting up. Every time you inhale cigarette smoke, your heart rate and blood pressure go up temporarily. That puts extra stress on your ticker and forces it to work harder.

Over time, smoking damages you in other ways, too. It:

• Clogs your arteries

• Increases clotting

• Fills your lungs with tar

• Thickens your blood

• Weakens your bones

• Increases inflammation

• Weakens your immune system

Quit smoking now and you'll see fast results. Just 20 minutes after you stop, your blood pressure and heart rate go down. In 2 to 3 weeks, your blood flow starts to get better.

Exercise on most days of the week and increase your physical activity

If your cholesterol numbers aren’t where they ought to be, working out should be a key part of your get-healthy strategy.

The right kinds of workouts, done regularly, can raise heart-protecting HDL ("good") cholesterol levels and drop dangerous triglyceride levels, says Robert H. Eckel, MD, emeritus professor of medicine in the cardiology division at the University of Colorado School of Medicine in Aurora. “By losing fat and building muscle, your numbers can really improve.”

Which exercise is best to reduce cholesterol?

1. Go for a nice run or jog. ...

2. Take a brisk walk. ...

3. Bike to work or just for fun. ...

4. Take a few laps at the pool. ...

5. Lift a few weights. ...

6. Strike a few yoga poses.

Lose weight

When we lose weight, our fat stores shrink. The fat and cholesterol normally stored in fatty tissue have nowhere to go but the bloodstream, causing a rise in cholesterol. This effect is not permanent and cholesterol levels will drop as your weight stabilises.

cholesterol medications for lowering high cholesterol

Sometimes healthy lifestyle changes aren't enough to lower cholesterol levels. If your doctor recommends medication to help lower your cholesterol, take it as prescribed while continuing your lifestyle changes. Lifestyle changes can help you keep your medication dose low.

What Happens to Your Cholesterol When You Go on a Keto Diet?

People who follow the ketogenic, or keto, diet eat high amounts of fat, moderate amounts of protein, and minimal amounts of carbohydrates. Some evidence suggests that following this diet can affect cholesterol levels.

Some studies suggest that the keto diet can lower levels of high density lipoprotein (HDL), or “good,” cholesterol but raise levels of low density lipoprotein (LDL), or “bad,” cholesterol. For this reason, the keto diet may not be appropriate for everyone.

The Vegan Diet

In 2017, researchers reviewed 49 studies that compared plant-based diets with omnivorous diets to test their effects on cholesterol. Plant-based diets lowered total cholesterol, LDL, and HDL levels when compared to omnivorous diets. Low-fat, plant-based regimens typically reduce LDL levels by about 15 to 30 percent.

Cholesterol levels for adults

Total cholesterol levels less than 200 milligrams per deciliter (mg/dL) are considered desirable for adults. A reading between 200 and 239 mg/dL is considered borderline high and a reading of 240 mg/dL and above is considered high.

Cholesterol levels for children

Total Cholesterol Less than 170mg/dL

LDL Less than 100mg/dL

Does chocolate cause high cholesterol?

“Your hand and your mouth agreed many years ago that, as far as chocolate is concerned, there is no need to involve your brain.”

The type of chocolate you consume matters when it comes to eating chocolate for good health because it's the properties of the cocoa that offer the health benefits.

Cocoa powder and dark chocolate may favorably affect cardiovascular disease risk status by modestly reducing LDL oxidation susceptibility, increasing serum total antioxidant capacity and HDL-cholesterol concentrations, and not adversely affecting prostaglandins.

Dark chocolate, because it contains more cocoa than other palatable chocolate products, has higher amounts of flavonoids and thus is more likely to exert a protective effect against heart disease.

To make the most of adding chocolate to your diet to lower your cholesterol, choose products with a high cocoa content that have the least amount of processing, which lowers the flavonoid content.

-Cheese-

“If antiquity be the only test of nobility, then cheese is a very noble thing ... The lineage of cheese is demonstrably beyond all record.”

Cheese is a great source of protein and calcium but is often high in saturated fat and salt. This means eating too much could lead to high cholesterol and high blood pressure, increasing your risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD).

What cheese is lower in cholesterol ?

The cheeses with the lowest amounts of cholesterol are made with low-fat or fat-free milk.

Low-cholesterol cheeses include:

• Part-skim mozzarella cheese (18 mg cholesterol per ounce)Low-fat (1 percent) cottage cheese (1 mg cholesterol per ounce or 8 mg per cup)

• Low-fat cheddar or Colby cheese (6 mg cholesterol per ounce)

• Fat-free cream cheese (1 mg cholesterol per tablespoon)

What Cheese Is higher in Cholesterol?

Type of cheese

Total grams of fat per 100g

Saturated fat grams per 100g

High fat (total fat more than 17.5g per 100g)

Mascarpone

44

29

Stilton

35

23

Cheddar, Red Leicester

35

22

Parmesan

30

19

Brie

29

18

What does cholesterol do for the skin?

If you see yellowish-orange growths on your skin, you may have deposits of cholesterol under your skin. These painless deposits can appear in many areas, including the corners of your eyes, lines on your palms, or the backs of your lower legs. If you notice these growths on any area of your skin, see your doctor.

Can having high cholesterol levels have an effect on your eye and vision health?

Cholesterol can deposit around the eyes to form fatty, yellowish lumps. Though they are usually harmless, these deposits sometimes signal a serious underlying condition. Natural fats, including cholesterol, can form growths around the eyelids. One of these growths is called a xanthelasma (zan-the-laz-mah).

Lowering your cholesterol may improve your sex life..

In men, high cholesterol can damage sexual performance and decreases libido. High cholesterol and erectile dysfunction are two linked health conditions. Erectile dysfunction is the earliest symptom of high cholesterol in men.

In women, the fatty deposits from high cholesterol may impact lubrication, causing painful intercourse and a lowered libido, said Krychman, who also is director of sexual medicine at Hoag Memorial Hospital.

Men and women who believe high cholesterol may be affecting their sex lives should consult a physician to rule out other causes, Krychman said.

Once cholesterol is determined to be the problem, doctors usually advise patients to seek dietary and lifestyle changes, such as eliminating saturated fat (found in fatty meat and eggs) from the diet, quitting smoking and increasing exercise.

Can high cholesterol cause death?

From 1951 to 1955 serum cholesterol levels were measured in 1959 men and 2415 women aged between 31 and 65 years who were free of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and cancer. Under age 50 years, cholesterol levels are directly related with 30-year overall and CVD mortality; overall death increases 5% and CVD death 9% for each 10 mg/dL. After age 50 years there is no increased overall mortality with either high or low serum cholesterol levels. There is a direct association between falling cholesterol levels over the first 14 years and mortality over the following 18 years (11% overall and 14% CVD death rate increase per 1 mg/dL per year drop in cholesterol levels). Under age 50 years these data suggest that having a very low cholesterol level improves longevity. After age 50 years the association of mortality with cholesterol values is confounded by people whose cholesterol levels are falling—perhaps due to diseases predisposing to death.

How can I check my cholesterol at home?

The standard cholesterol home test kit contains a lancet for drawing blood and test strips. To use a cholesterol home test kit, you first prick your finger with the lancet. Next, you place the blood droplet on the test strip. The cholesterol home test strip has special chemicals that change colors after a few minutes.

What does cholesterol do to learning memory?

Studies Find Low HDL or High LDL Raises Memory Loss Risk

The study, published in July 2008 in Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology: Journal of the American Heart Association, found that, by the age of 60, men and women with low levels of HDL were 53% more likely to have memory loss than those with higher levels.

The use of statin drugs to raise HDL levels or to lower levels of LDL, the "bad cholesterol," was not found to have any association with memory loss in the study.

And this isn't the first time researchers have found a link between cholesterol and memory problems. A study in 2002, published in the Archives of Neurology, found that women with high levels of LDL had increased degrees of cognitive impairment, including memory loss. Four years later, study subjects who lowered their LDL levels also lowered their chances of suffering from cognitive impairment.

In 2004, a study from the Netherlands found that a diet high in cholesterol and saturated fat was linked to an increased risk of cognitive decline among middle-aged study subjects. That study, published in the journal Neurology, also concluded that consumption of fish and fish oil was associated with a lower risk of cognitive decline; the reputation of fish as "brain food" appears to be intact.

Last but not least , “Doctor Knows Best”

Your best treatment option for high cholesterol depends on many factors. Before your doctor recommends a prescription medication, they will look at several things, including your family medical history, your risk for heart disease, and your lifestyle.

Many doctors prefer to start with changes to diet and exercise. If those changes don’t have enough effect, you might start taking medication to help the process along.

Statins are one commonly prescribed medication for controlling cholesterol, but these drugs might not be right for everyone. There are several treatment options for high cholesterol, including other medications and lifestyle changes.

Check out the following resources to help you with bad cholesterol:

Cholesterol Down: Ten Simple Steps to Lower Your Cholesterol in Four Weeks--Without Prescription Drugs: https://amzn.to/3aL2blB

Good Cholesterol, Bad Cholesterol: https://amzn.to/3jxf6LR

Cholesterol Lowering Plant Sterols Gummies: https://amzn.to/2Om4fJ9