Whether you're wondering how to naturally reduce cholesterol or just wish to keep your cholesterol levels to a healthy minimum there are certain key pieces of information that you should know.
Whilst you can certainly adopt some, or all of the following procedures to keep your levels down, you should know that what decides whether or not you need to take prescription medicine is not purely down to your levels of good and bad cholesterol in your blood.
Your overall susceptibility to cardiovascular disease must also be taken into account.
Unfortunately, some of us have a heightened probably of suffering from heart disease that is attributable to genetics, age, gender and many other reasons.
A visit to your doctor to get tested for these factors is a sound place to get tested for your risk.
Don't be dissuaded however, visiting a Doctor doesn't mean you'll be forced into taking medicine and I know that after reading the title to this article you will be a little perturbed if I started to talk about visiting Doctors.
To put your mind at ease, I am simply stating that it is a good idea to have a general health check to see what risk bracket for heart illness you fit into.
Fortunately, most of us face a moderate threat to cardiovascular illness so are able to look for natural ways to reduce cholesterol.
If you are not following the following tactics, you should look to adopt at least a few if not all of them.
Exercise.
Firstly, exercise is a must.
You shouldn't really need reminding of this but exercise will increase the production of good cholesterol, known as HDL in you body.
This type of cholesterol actively removes the bad type, LDL from lining your arterial walls and transports it back to the liver.
You can join a gym if money is of no concern to you, you can even hire a personal trainer.
Neither of those are compulsory, all you need to do is complete a minimum of four sessions lasting at least 40 minutes each per week.
As an added bonus, you will also feel and look better.
Eat more nuts.
Nuts contain vital healthy fats, vitamin E and fibre.
Nuts have been shown to reduce the risk of heart disease and favourably affect blood cholesterol levels.
A little word of caution however.
Plenty of drinking establishments have nuts on offer, these type tend to be extremely salted or roasted and are to be avoided.
Eat about 60 grams of nuts a day to reduce your cholesterol levels about 5-10%.
If you can eat nuts in place of fattier, more cholesterol ridden foods, all the better.
Eat Herbs, Spices and Plant Sterols.
Turmeric and certain herbs have been shown to reduce cholesterol as well.
Turmeric, found in most shops nowadays is a spice added to a lot of Indian food and contains ingredients that can reduce the amount of LDL cholesterol produced in your intestine.
Plant Sterols are found in a multitude of margarine spreads and can lower cholesterol levels when eaten regularly instead of butter.
Eat Less Saturated fat.
There is one final change you need to make in your life to naturally reduce cholesterol and it is not the easiest one to adopt.
Saturated fat consumption is extremely high in the world today due to fatty foods tasting so good and being so ubiquitous in society.
It is not the easiest thing to do but if you really want to know how to reduce cholesterol, cut fatty, high cholesterol foods out.
Donuts, cakes, butter, eggs, red and other fatty meat, they are all bad for you and unfortunately this list only scratches the surface.
Start by reducing them from your diet as ridding them all together might be a little difficult at first but you really must look at these products as your number one way to reduce cholesterol.
Whilst you can certainly adopt some, or all of the following procedures to keep your levels down, you should know that what decides whether or not you need to take prescription medicine is not purely down to your levels of good and bad cholesterol in your blood.
Your overall susceptibility to cardiovascular disease must also be taken into account.
Unfortunately, some of us have a heightened probably of suffering from heart disease that is attributable to genetics, age, gender and many other reasons.
A visit to your doctor to get tested for these factors is a sound place to get tested for your risk.
Don't be dissuaded however, visiting a Doctor doesn't mean you'll be forced into taking medicine and I know that after reading the title to this article you will be a little perturbed if I started to talk about visiting Doctors.
To put your mind at ease, I am simply stating that it is a good idea to have a general health check to see what risk bracket for heart illness you fit into.
Fortunately, most of us face a moderate threat to cardiovascular illness so are able to look for natural ways to reduce cholesterol.
If you are not following the following tactics, you should look to adopt at least a few if not all of them.
Exercise.
Firstly, exercise is a must.
You shouldn't really need reminding of this but exercise will increase the production of good cholesterol, known as HDL in you body.
This type of cholesterol actively removes the bad type, LDL from lining your arterial walls and transports it back to the liver.
You can join a gym if money is of no concern to you, you can even hire a personal trainer.
Neither of those are compulsory, all you need to do is complete a minimum of four sessions lasting at least 40 minutes each per week.
As an added bonus, you will also feel and look better.
Eat more nuts.
Nuts contain vital healthy fats, vitamin E and fibre.
Nuts have been shown to reduce the risk of heart disease and favourably affect blood cholesterol levels.
A little word of caution however.
Plenty of drinking establishments have nuts on offer, these type tend to be extremely salted or roasted and are to be avoided.
Eat about 60 grams of nuts a day to reduce your cholesterol levels about 5-10%.
If you can eat nuts in place of fattier, more cholesterol ridden foods, all the better.
Eat Herbs, Spices and Plant Sterols.
Turmeric and certain herbs have been shown to reduce cholesterol as well.
Turmeric, found in most shops nowadays is a spice added to a lot of Indian food and contains ingredients that can reduce the amount of LDL cholesterol produced in your intestine.
Plant Sterols are found in a multitude of margarine spreads and can lower cholesterol levels when eaten regularly instead of butter.
Eat Less Saturated fat.
There is one final change you need to make in your life to naturally reduce cholesterol and it is not the easiest one to adopt.
Saturated fat consumption is extremely high in the world today due to fatty foods tasting so good and being so ubiquitous in society.
It is not the easiest thing to do but if you really want to know how to reduce cholesterol, cut fatty, high cholesterol foods out.
Donuts, cakes, butter, eggs, red and other fatty meat, they are all bad for you and unfortunately this list only scratches the surface.
Start by reducing them from your diet as ridding them all together might be a little difficult at first but you really must look at these products as your number one way to reduce cholesterol.