Lowering High Cholesterol

Most of us are at some risk for heart disease. All of us are better off in lowering high cholesterol. Cholesterol is part and parcel of reducing our overall risk of both heart disease and stroke. We know this. We know that diet and exercise help. We know that medications are sometimes needed, and when they are that they're most effective when combined with a heart healthy diet.

The cholesterol that's actually being lowered when we speak of lowering high cholesterol is LDL, the cholesterol that outnumbers the other cholesterol (HDL) something to the order of 3 to 1. We're not lowering it simply because there's more of it, even though we are trying to raise HDL because there never seems to be quite enough of it. We're lowering LDL because of what it tends to do once it's done what we need it to do--help with digestion, protect the nervous system, build cell walls. What it does that we need to stop is accumulate in our arteries.

What Helps in Lowering High Cholesterol?

Medications, of course, can be taken for chemically lowering high cholesterol in the circulatory system, even inhibit their being produced in the liver. There are synthetic and natural medications, but discussing them is a separate subject. Dietary adjustments are also extremely effective in reducing the inflow both of those foods that are such building blocks of LDL in the liver, and that are directly absorbed into the bloodstream.

The problem foods for lowering high cholesterol include animal products high in saturated fats and processed foods and oils. Physical exercise is effective in large measure because it entails burning as energy molecules that otherwise accumulate in the body and bloodstream as fat, overloading the workload of the vital organs, the heart among them.