Lower Your Cholesterol

Normal Cholesterol Levels Are Linked To a Healthy DietThere is a lot of information about cholesterol levels and the foods that increase it if eaten in unhealthy amounts. However, not all foods are guilty of this. Fresh fruits and vegetables, for example, don’t increase cholesterol. But did you know that there are a few foods that actually lower your cholesterol? If your cholesterol level is a bit high you can try and lower it by eating more of these foods.

Oatmeal

It is pretty common knowledge that oatmeal and oat bran can help to lower cholesterol. Bad cholesterol levels are lowered by soluble fiber. Experts think it’s because fiber can stop the absorption of cholesterol. A good amount of soluble fiber is five to ten grams a day. A cup and a half of oatmeal contains three grams.

Besides breakfast, oatmeal can be eaten at other meals by adding it to baked goods. Ireland offers many traditional recipes containing oatmeal for any time of the day. Other types of soluble fiber will also help maintain normal cholesterol when oatmeal becomes a bit boring.

Omega-3 fatty acids Found in Nuts and Fish

Omega-3 has been found to lower levels of triglycerides. Some nuts are rich in Omega-3 fatty acids and are tasty additions to a diet for maintaining normal cholesterol. Only about one to one and a half ounces a day is necessary. They are high in protein and fiber, making them filling. Walnuts and almonds are good for lowering cholesterol. The FDA also recommends peanuts, hazelnuts, pecans and pistachios.

Nuts with higher amounts of fat are not recommended for a normal cholesterol diet. They include Brazil nuts, macadamia nuts, cashews and some pine nuts. Of course, Omega-3 fatty acids are also found in fatty fish. They make a testy addition to the quest for normal cholesterol. Fatty fish include salmon, tuna, sardines, mackerel, herring and trout. Most fatty fish are cold-water fish.

Four ounces of salmon contains 83% of the daily requirement of omega-3. The same amount of halibut has 25% and cod has 15%. Two four ounce servings of fatty fish a week are enough to bring you close to normal cholesterol. Flaxseed, canola oil and omega-3 enriched eggs help too.

Plant sterols and stanols

Plant sterols and stanols can lower cholesterol, possibly because their similarity to cholesterol confuse the digestive tract and keep it from being absorbed. They are found in many vegetables, fruits, legumes, grains, nuts and seeds. They can also be found in some types of oil, salad dressing, milk, yogurt, juices and in additives to some foods like snack bars. Two grams of stanols or sterols daily can help make bring your cholesterol level back to normal.

Following a diet designed to reduce cholesterol or eating one rich in the above foods will help to achieve and maintain a normal cholesterol level for life.

How to Achieve and Maintain a Healthy Cholesterol Level

Cholesterol is something that most of us encounter and battle with at one point or the other in our lives. So, what is cholesterol and why do we look to increase one level and decrease the other. What role does it play in your body?

The answers to the above questions and more can be found in the following:

What is Cholesterol and What is a Healthy Cholesterol Level?

Cholesterol is an essential substance that exists in our cells and flows through our blood stream. It has a waxy texture and the good cholesterol or HDL helps build cell membranes as well as various hormones. Bad cholesterol or LDL in high levels will clog the arteries which can lead to heart attacks in due course.

A healthy cholesterol level is of a minimum of 40 mg/dL of HDL and a maximum of 200mg/dL of LDL. Any alteration from these numbers and we need to take immediate action in order to bring it back to a healthy cholesterol level.

How to Maintain a Healthy Cholesterol Level

The first step to take in order to maintain a healthy cholesterol level is to regularly check it. The best way to know to do this is through a blood test.

Watch your weight. While cholesterol is not measured by weight, obesity will often come with high levels of bad cholesterol but at the same time it does not mean that someone who is slim or even under weight has good levels of cholesterol.

Bad cholesterol is found in trans fat and saturated fats so read all food labels and ensure you don’t eat too much food which contains high levels of these. There are many other types of food, which contain cholesterol, and such as eggs, milk, butter and poultry. The fact is you cannot remove all the food that contains cholesterol from your diet but you can and should control the portions.

If you are not sure what to eat then consult your doctor or dietician in order to obtain a custom made diet plan for you containing the right amount of cholesterol.

Awareness and understanding of your body will always help to keep you out of trouble especially if it helps to diagnose a diseases in its early stages. So take action to ensure you maintain a healthy cholesterol level while. Don't leave it until its too late and you end up in an emergency or worse.

Bad and Good Cholesterol Are Poles Apart

Every day you hear about the dangers of high cholesterol, about ways to lower your cholesterol and ways to avoid cholesterol in your diet. This kind of bad news would lead you to believe that cholesterol is a bad thing. Why does your body keep this awful stuff around anyway? But there's bad and good cholesterol.

Well, your body needs cholesterol to build and maintain cell membranes. The membranes need it to produce hormones, vitamin D and bile acids. The bile acids actually help to digest fat. Most cholesterol is made by your body itself. There is, however, bad and good cholesterol. Your body only needs a little good cholesterol in order to be able to function well. When your cholesterol is high it means you have too much bad cholesterol.

High Density Lipoprotein

Cholesterol is manufactured in the liver. Foods from animals also contain cholesterol – probably because animals have livers too. Some vegetables can also contain cholesterol and saturated fat. Cholesterol is a fat-like substance that bonds to a protein before beginning its journey through the bloodstream. When cholesterol bonds to a protein the result is a lipoprotein.

The test you take to measure bad and good cholesterol actually measures lipoproteins. These lipoproteins are sorted by their density which is the measure of fat versus protein in the combination. High density means that there is more protein compared to fat. High density lipoproteins (HDL) are your good cholesterol. They do the necessary work assigned to cholesterol, don’t clog up your arteries and help flush excess fat from your body.

Low density lipoproteins (LDL), very low density lipoproteins (VLDL) and triglycerides (a type of fat carried by LDL and VLDL) make up the bad cholesterol that cause plaque buildup on artery walls and predict heart disease.

Why do levels of bad and good cholesterol vary from person to person?

Factors that affect cholesterol levels include being overweight, a diet with too much saturated fat and cholesterol, not enough exercise, heredity and certain medical conditions or medicines. Cholesterol tends to increase with age too.

If your cholesterol is too high your doctor will help you find out the likely causes. In general, you can always increase good cholesterol and decrease bad cholesterol by watching your diet, exercising regularly and losing weight. In other words you need to follow a healthy lifestyle. You’ll need your doctor’s help with the other factors. Don’t worry about having too little cholesterol. That’s not likely to happen. Concentrate on having enough good cholesterol, less bad cholesterol and the rest will take care of itself.

What is a Good Cholesterol Level?

There are a number of reasons why it is important to understand what is considered to be a cholesterol level. One of the primary reasons is because having a high cholesterol level can make you more prone to dangers such as heart attacks and strokes. Although obesity is one of the most obvious symptoms or reasons for high cholesterol, just because you are not overweight does not mean that your cholesterol level is good.

Good Cholesterol Level Numbers

There are many things you need to take into consideration when you are trying to learn about and understand your cholesterol level. For example, did you know that there are both good and bad types of cholesterol? There is HDL cholesterol which is considered as being the good type of cholesterol and then there is LDL cholesterol which is considered as being the bad form of cholesterol.

Basically your cholesterol level will put into one of three categories, desirable, borderline risk or high risk. If your total cholesterol is less than 200mg/dL you are considered as being in the desirable category and your risk of heart attack is relatively low assuming all other risk factors are low.

If your cholesterol is in between 200 and 239mg/dL you are considered to be in the borderline risk category and about a third of all people end up in this category. If that applies to you you should have your cholesterol checked at least once a year especially if your HDL is less than 40mg/dL and/or you don’t have other risk factors for heart disease.

Finally, if your cholesterol level is 240mg/dL or more you are considered as being in the high risk category and your risk of heart attack and stroke is incredibly heightened. Also, you will have twice the risk of other coronary problems and so you must take action to return your body to a good cholesterol level immediately.

Basically the key point to remember is that the lower your LDL cholesterol, the lower your total cholesterol level will be. And since LDL is good cholesterol you should take all the measures you can in order to keep it as low as you can. If you find that you are not able to lower your cholesterol with self help measures, medications may be prescribed in order to return you to a good cholesterol level.

How to Maintain a Normal Cholesterol Level

You have considerably more chance of living a long and healthy life if you can maintain a normal cholesterol level in your body. But what is cholesterol and is it always bad? Actually no, not all cholesterol is bad for you. There is good health-friendly cholesterol too. It is called HDL or High-density Lipoprotein. HDL moves cholesterol to the liver and away from the arteries. Once in the liver it is broken down into harmless components. Research studies conducted into the different types of cholesterol suggest that with every unit decrease in bad cholesterol, the risk of heart disease is also reduced by twice the percentage.

Control Your Diet to Maintain a Normal Cholesterol Level

Remember the old saying, “Take an apple a day to keep the doctor away”. The fact is, there is enough provided by nature to keep us healthy and if a person takes care, then a doctor will be hardly needed. If our diets were balanced as they were meant to be, there would be far fewer health issues. However, our diets often include high levels of meat and saturated fats that contain high levels of the bad cholesterol. Some examples of these types of food are, shell-fish, eggs (emphasis on the yolk), beef steak and so on.

So, first ensure that you have a normal cholesterol level and if you can achieve this you can go ahead and enjoy eating such food from time to time. You should never overdo it. A normal cholesterol level will get imbalanced when high fat foods become the rule instead of the exception.

There is no need to turn into a veggie but eating too much greasy non-veg food daily for a long time will surely affect the health. And when such a person falls sick, they tend to stay sick for longer. This is why one should always endeavor to maintain a proper diet as a matter of habit which, in turn, will help maintain a normal cholesterol level in the body.

Eat a lot of foods rich in anti-oxidants and vitamins and you should be on your way to sound health. You will be able to maintain a normal cholesterol level with the help of food which contains niacin (reputed to increase HDL or the good cholesterol). Taken with moderate exercise it can be highly beneficial.

But everyone doesn't want to follow a strict regimen and or exercise. They can turn to some useful drugs like statins that stop the human body from producing cholesterol. This way the drugs help to stop the occurrence of heart conditions. However, statins are liable to cause serious damage to the liver in certain cases and therefore, should only be administered only under the guidance of a physician. So better to achieve a normal cholesterol level by eating a diet rich in vitamins, minerals and leafy green vegetables and making the effort to do regular and light physical exercise.