Peter Clark asked:


One of the main factors which contributes to high cholesterol is a person’s diet. What most people do not realize is that this is also one of the easiest factors to change if you want to lower cholesterol.

Are you interested in diet for high cholesterol? Here is just a closer look at what can be done if you would like to lower your cholesterol by simply making healthier food choices, as well as what low cholesterol diet menus would include.

Before you begin coming up with a diet for high cholesterol, it is important to have a brief understand of the two types of cholesterol levels. LDL is known as bad cholesterol because it causes plaque, which leads to clogged arteries.

HDL is considered good cholesterol because it helps reduce plaque and, ultimately, reduces the risk of heart disease. When you choose to go on a diet for high cholesterol, you will be increasing your HDL cholesterol and decreasing your LDL cholesterol.

Unhealthy foods which consist of high levels of cholesterol, trans fat and saturated fat should be avoided if you want to lower cholesterol. Some of the items which would be found on low cholesterol diet menus include all types of fruits, vegetables and whole grains.

Some of the different food items that would not be found on low cholesterol diet menus include greasy foods, fast foods and a variety of different types of junk food, such as potato chips. It is also important to make sure that you try to avoid foods which are high in starch, such as white pastas, rice and potatoes.

Excessive amounts of red meat and poultry may also cause high cholesterol.

It is important to keep in mind that you will also want to incorporate an exercise regimen into your regular routine. Since exercise and diet tend to go hand in hand with one another, it is important to make sure that you try to stick to both if you would like to lower your cholesterol.

Going on a diet for high cholesterol and coming up with a regular exercise routine are the two easiest ways to keep this serious and common medical condition under control. 

Unfortunately this may not be a total solution. Dieting to lower cholesterol affects your cholesterol intake, but not the cholesterol produced by your own body. So you may need to undertake some other measures.

The use of statin drugs can itself pose some health risks. But there are some extremely effective natural cholesterol lowering products available now.

So combine a diet to lower cholesterol, exercise and a top shelf natural cholesterol lowering product and you’ve got a complete battle plan to manage your cholesterol levels.

Peter Clark asked:


There are massive numbers of people trying lowering cholesterol drugs. Lowering cholesterol levels is big business, and the drug companies are cashing in, bigtime, with drugs that promise to lower your cholesterol levels.

But if you’ve got high cholesterol, should you be taking drugs to lower your cholesterol, or are there other more natural routes that you can take?

Because cholesterol lowering drugs aren’t necessarily the perfect answer to high cholesterol levels. There are some problems with some of the drugs, and not everyone is convinced that taking drugs is the answer.

One of the most popular drugs is statins. There are some doubts about the safety of statin drugs, and some have been removed from the market following health concerns. However statins are extremely profitable drugs, as patients need to take them for the rest of their lives, and many are still available.

Reported concerns from the use of statin drugs include pain and muscle weakness, cognitive impairment and memory loss, impotence and birth defects and increased risk of heart failure. There’s more, but I’m sure you get the message.

And according to many reports they don’t help that much lowering cholesterol either. But they make lots of money for the drug companies.

So if you’ve got high cholesterol what options do you have for naturally lowering it?

Well of course there’s some well known routes that you can take, including changes to a lower cholesterol diet and healthier foods, and increasing your levels of exercise. That’s all been talked about before. And that’s not to say that changing your diet to lower cholesterol is a bad thing at all. Changing your diet and increasing exercise are all important steps in improving your heart health, and overall health. But sometimes, often in fact, it’s not enough.

So what other options do you have for naturally lowering cholesterol levels?

There are excellent products available to naturally lower cholesterol. They work in a number of ways. The best products seek to reduce the amount of cholesterol produced by your own body, because  much of your cholesterol is produced in your own body. They also seek to reduce the amount absorbed by the body from food in the gastrointestinal tract.

Further they work by breaking down the cholesterol in the bloodstream and increase the excretion of cholesterol carrying bile acid.

There are natural ingredients that will work to lower cholesterol, and the best natural products use a combination of them. For example there are ingredients extracted from the rind of lemons, oils from rice hulls, sterols derived from plant substances, lecethin which helps to dissolve cholesterol, and more.

But you won’t find any of these ingredients in statin drugs.

So if you’ve been told you need to lower your cholesterol, but are a little concerned about taking drugs, then you need to know that there are ways to lower it naturally. Combined with a good diet and exercise, which are important for everybody, they work extremely well.