Gloria Gangi asked:


It is known that medication and drugs can be harmful to our bodies so it is natural that people prefer to learn how to lower their cholesterol naturally. When using natural methods we are learning how to take control of the problem ourselves in a more efficient way. To lower your cholesterol naturally it is important and beneficial for your life and general health. It reduces heart disease and also any other diseases which may not be good for your body.

Lower Your Cholesterol Levels With A Change Of Diet

Getting rid of excessive body fat deposits in your body which can cause you harm is important. By going on a diet to lower cholesterol is one of the best ways you can lower cholesterol naturally.

You need to begin by looking at a diet that is low in saturated fats, sodium and some carbohydrates. By including these foods in your diet you will not only lower your cholesterol levels but be able to maintain your levels as well. Look at adding omega 3 into your diet as well as it helps to reduce cholesterol as well as control bad cholesterol.

So when looking at your choices in foods you will want to avoid the foods which contribute to cholesterol such as beef, high fat dairy foods and most oils. Also look at your alcohol intake as this will effect your levels as well.

Adding Exercise Into Your Life

A good diet is important in lowering your cholesterol levels but the inclusion of exercise is a must. By exercising you can effectively remove the fat that accumulates in the body. You can also increase your cardiac capacity of your heart which in turn helps with your blood circulation. An effective exercise plan need not mean you send countless hours working out at the gym. All you need to do is go for a 30 minute walk on a daily basis to help keep the fat levels down. Look at swimming and other exercises but remember to consult your doctor first to see which exercise is best suited to you and your condition

The two methods on how to lower cholesterol are best used when your cholesterol levels have not reached high levels. For people that have extremely high levels it is best first to consult your doctor. They will advise the correct course of action for you whether it be a change in diet, increase in exercise or the inclusion of medication or may be a combination of them all.

B.J. Gordey asked:


If you’re worried about lowering your cholesterol level you’re not alone. Changing your diet to lower cholesterol is usually the first step in cholesterol maintenance, before medicines are added. People who have high cholesterol may be able to lower their cholesterol levels with these simple lifestyle changes:

Step 5) The School of Medicine at Stanford University did a study consisting of 377 men and post-menopausal women, with high cholesterol. First they put them on a low-fat diet, and then had half of them to do aerobic exercise, and the other half did no form of exercise at all.

After one year, the exercising group had significantly reduced their cholesterol levels – while the sedentary group showed no such reduction in their cholesterol. So the 5th step is to add aerobic exercise to your lifestyle.

Step 4) Did you know that the average person makes about 75% of their blood cholesterol in their own liver, while only about 25% is absorbed from food. So you should be able to further reduce your cholesterol with dietary changes.

A low-fat diet with no trans-fats will lower your cholesterol anywhere from 8% to 20%. There are several very good low-fat diets – the Dash Diet, Mediterranean Diet, the South Beach Diet, Ultra metabolism Diet, and Weight Watchers Diet are all great diets to reduce your fat and trans-fat intake. All of these diets have either online programs or manuals and books to provide step-by-step instructions and menu plans. So your 4th step is to add a reduced fat diet.

Step 3) One of the reasons your body produces Cholesterol is a self preservation tactic. Your arteries develop cracks and stress fractures as a natural occurrence. Your body must patch these cracks and fractures or you will bleed to death.

The substance of choice for your body to use is Collagen. However, if the raw ingredients needed aren’t present in sufficient quantities to produce this miraculous elixir, cholesterol can also be used instead.

So to keep your collagen production at its peak, rather than giving your liver a reason to produce additional cholesterol, give your body plenty of vitamin C (ascorbic acid). Your 3rd step is to add vitamin C (ascorbic acid) to your diet.

Step 2) 60 recent heart bypass surgery patients were divided into groups. The first group had no dietary restrictions, while the second and third group had one white or one red grapefruit each day.

The second and third group had significantly lowered cholesterol levels while the no grapefruit group showed no reduction. But the red grapefruit group also had a reduction in their triglycerides. So step 2 is “Eat Red Grapefruit”, which will incidentally help with step 3 as well.

Step 1) A study of 14,600 men and women ages 45 to 75, recently showed the participants’ total cholesterol declined as their number of meals per day increased. Those who ate five or six times a day had the lowest total cholesterol, on average approximately 5% lower, while the highest measurements were found among those who ate only one or two meals a day. So your number 1 step, and incidentally the easiest, is to eat five or six small meals a day, rather than one or two large ones.

If you find a diet to lower cholesterol and follow these 5 steps, you should have your cholesterol to healthy levels as quickly as possible.

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.