- Have it checked. High cholesterol alone shows no
symptoms. Your health practitioner can perform a laboratory test to measure your levels.
Thoroughly share your own medical history and as much as you know about your family
members: heredity and related illnesses definitely are important influences. People with
diabetes, for example, can have high levels of triglycerides, which also may lead to
pancreatitis (painful inflammation of the pancreas) at extremely high levels. According to
the National Cholesterol Education Program, a reading of under 200 mg/dL is desirable; 200
to 239 is borderline high; 240 and above is high. Your LDL level should be 130 or under;
HDL should not be lower than 35. A triglyceride level below 200 is considered desirable;
readings above 400 are high. Adjust your diet. Cholesterol levels are readily
controllable, primarily through changes in your diet. Leslie C. Norins, MD, PhD, suggests
all-out war in his Doctor's 30-Day Cholesterol Blitz (Advanced Health Institute) with
saturated fats, which raise cholesterol more than any other component in your diet, as
your number-one target. Out with saturated fats like butter, cheese, whole milk, ice
cream, red meat and some vegetable fats found in tropical oils like coconut and palm; in
with fruits, vegetables, brown rice, barley (a good source of soluble fiber, the kind that
soaks up fats and cholesterol and escorts them out of the body), beans, potatoes and
pasta, prepared or dressed with monounsaturated fats in olive and canola oils (the
so-called Mediterranean diet concept). Feast on cold-water fish (mackerel, salmon,
sardines and herring) rich in omega-3 fatty acids that
help reduce serum lipids, among many other healthful advantages.
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- Exercise
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- Move it and lose it are the words to live by when it
comes to cholesterol. Researchers from the Stanford Center for Research in Disease
Prevention reported in the July 2, 1998 New England Journal of Medicine (vol. 339, pages
12-20) that a weight-loss diet like that of the National Cholesterol Education Program
plus exercise significantly lowered LDL (bad) cholesterol levels for men and
postmenopausal women. The diet alone failed to lower LDL in these folks with high-risk
lipoprotein.
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- Educate yourself. In addition to your health
practitioner, books and magazines can guide you in cholesterol management. A trove of
information is the National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP), launched in 1985 by the
National Institute of Health. Their address is: National Cholesterol Education Program,
Information Center, P.O. Box 30105, Bethesda, MD 20824-0105; telephone (301) 251-1222;
they're on the web at http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/nhlbi/.
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Product Recommendations |
 |
Tocotrienol Rx-Cholesterol support healthy cholesterol levels. Tocotrienol
is custom crafted with the active ingredient tocotrienol to target support of vascular
efficiency. Tocotrienols are highly active, fruit-based relatives of tocopherols.  |
|
- The greatest
effect resulted from garlic products with standardized amounts of allicin release in doses
of 5,000 mcg per day.
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- Solaray's
winning combination Red Yeast Rice Plus CoQ-10 with flush-free
Niacin is intended to provide nutritional support and helps
maintain normal, healthy CoQ-10 levels in the body.
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Selective supplementation,
working in tandem with proper diet and exercise, can bring down cholesterol levels,
eventually removing high cholesterol and high homocysteine levels as heart disease risks.
Consider Leslie C. Norins, M.D., Ph.D., author of The Doctor’s 30-Day Cholesterol
Blitz, who reduced his blood cholesterol level from 357-155 mg/dL in just 30 days. In
addition to making the appropriate diet and exercise changes, he used a twice-daily
supplement routine. (A modification of this which includes homocysteine-lowering nutrients
appears here.)
Taking a closer look at this regimen, there is growing evidence that
antioxidants may help to prevent heart disease. |
| Beta
carotene, plus vitamins E and C are the best known, among the
most effective, and probably the least expensive of the antioxidants. (In addition,
vitamins E and C are essential to health for reasons other than their antioxidant
properties. The situation is similar with beta-carotene which becomes vitamin A in the
body. However, only when the body’s needs are met for the vitamin properties of these
substances are they available for use as antioxidants.) These particular antioxidants keep
LDL from turning rancid (oxidizing) in the body. Oxidized LDL becomes plaque in the
arteries. Among the many studies with comparable results, researchers from Harvard have
reported that women taking large amounts of beta carotene and vitamin E experienced fewer
heart attacks and strokes than those who didn’t. Sadly, studies show 70% of
Americans don’t get the recommended amount of vitamin E, a paltry 30 IU per day. If
you eat your veggies, you may not need a broad spectrum carotene supplement. Lots is found
in yellow, red, and green fruits and vegetables. However, although vitamin E is found in
grains and green vegetables, only a supplement can give you enough protection. |
Vitamin C may be the most important antioxidant nutrient of
them all. |
| There are few mammals, other than humans, that do not make their own vitamin C. Andrew Weil, MD, in his best-selling 8 Weeks to Optimum
Health, adds that only pigs and humans have heart attacks. He explains that plaque is put
down in the arteries in an effort to protect them from lesions that wouldn’t be there
at all if we had enough vitamin C. |
Adequate amounts of potassium, calcium, and magnesium are
known to normalize blood pressure. |
| These minerals are also associated with heart
health and are part of a group of minerals called electrolytes. Electrolytes support nerve transmission, needed
to move all our muscles, including keeping the heart beating. Besides high blood pressure,
a deficiency of electrolytes, particularly magnesium, can contribute to irregular heart
beat, congestive heart failure, and other heart problems, including sudden cardiac
death |
About 90% of Americans are deficient in chromium. |
Over the last 30 years, a great deal of research has shown that inadequate
levels of chromium may be a primary risk factor for heart disease. Chromium
helps prevent plaque buildup by decreasing harmful LDL and increasing HDL. Further, new
research suggests that chromium adds to niacin’s effectiveness in lowering
cholesterol levels. It is very difficult to get enough chromium from food sources. One
type of chromium supplement is formulated with niacin in a form called Chromium polynicotinate. |
Garlic has often been recommended in place of aspirin for
heart health |
Because garlic inhibits the tendency of blood to
clot, and it doesn’t have any side effects. (Aspirin can cause stomach irritation.)
In addition, garlic makes two other important
contributions: 1) it helps normalize high blood pressure, and 2) it lowers cholesterol and
triglyceride levels |
| |
| Red yeast rice
may more effectively reduce moderately elevated cholesterol levels (200-240 mg/dl) than
cholesterol-reducing diets. Its cholesterol reducing actions are thought to be due to
mevinolin, a chemical identical to lovastatin. Lovastatin and other statins are chemicals
used in conventional medicine to reduce cholesterol. In 1999, lovastatin was also shown to
reduce death rates from cardiovascular disease. |
| Dietary
fiber |
| Fibers is the part of
plant foods that we can’t digest. There are two basic types of fiber: insoluble and
soluble. Apple skins and wheat bran are insoluble fiber. The kind we are interested in
here is soluble. Soluble fiber helps to lower cholesterol. Psyllium, Chitosan
and Oat Bran are effective cholesterol-lowering agents. In conclusion, the best way to
lower cholesterol is to eat lots of vegetables, fruits, whole grains, and beans; cut down
on fat, take the recommended supplements, and exercise regularly. If you smoke, stop!
These are steps that not only protect against heart disease but can help to prevent
cancer, diabetes, and obesity as well. |
