How to Lower Your Cholesterol Level Without Medications

As you put on a few years, you notice that you also start to put on a few pounds. You notice too that your blood pressure range also tends to rise, as so does your blood cholesterol level.  

Recent research however, has revealed that people are battling weight problems, high blood pressure and elevated blood cholesterol levels at earlier ages.

We all know that lowering cholesterol levels is good for heart heath, but few people truly understand how to do it without the help of cholesterol lowering medications.

As a first step, your doctor will recommend eating foods that are more low-cholesterol-friendly.

This means eating foods that are low in saturated fats and trans fats. Focus on foods like

• fish,
• fruits and vegetables,
• nuts (particularly walnuts and almonds), and
• grains, oatmeal and bran.

Also learn about foods with added stanols. Stanols are substances that occur naturally in small amounts in the plant world. You find them in many grains, vegetables, fruits, legumes, nuts, and seeds. Recently, many food manufacturers have started adding them to their products.

Why Exercise Helps Lower Cholesterol

Aerobic exercise, including just walking more throughout the day, can help lower your LDL (low density lipoproteins) too, and can also help you remove extra weight that may be contributing to your heart disease risk. Exercise helps pump more blood through your circulatory system, which "washes" out some of the LDL cholesterol that may be sticking to the walls of your blood vessels.

Weight loss is an important way to lower LDL (bad cholesterol) and and raise HDL (high density lipoproteins or "good" cholesterol).

A proper exercise routine can help with weight loss, and all of these activities combined can have a very significant effect in lowering your risk of heart disease and stroke.

If your lifestyle changes do not lower your cholesterol significantly, or you have other risk factors, your doctor may choose to prescribe cholesterol medications. The most prescribed medications, known as statins, block the effects of an enzyme that creates cholesterol. Other medications may be used, as well, depending on your particular situation.

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