How to Lower Cholesterol: MedlinePlus

How to Lower Cholesterol: MedlinePlus

How to Lower Cholesterol

01/16/2018 03:07 PM EST

Source: National Library of Medicine

What is cholesterol?

Your body needs some cholesterol to work properly. But if you have too much in your blood, it can stick to the walls of your arteries and narrow or even block them. This puts you at risk for coronary artery disease and other heart diseases.

There are two main types of cholesterol. LDL is the "bad" cholesterol. A high LDL level leads to a buildup of cholesterol in your arteries. HDL is the "good" cholesterol. It carries cholesterol from other parts of your body back to your liver. Then your liver removes the cholesterol from your body.

There are steps that you can take to lower your LDL (bad) cholesterol and raise your HDL (good) cholesterol. By keeping your cholesterol levels in range, you can lower your risk of heart diseases.

What are the treatments for high cholesterol?

The main treatments for high cholesterol are therapeutic lifestyle changes (TLC) and medicines.

Lifestyle changes to lower cholesterol

Therapeutic lifestyle changes (TLC) helps to lower cholesterol through

• The TLC Diet. This diet is a low-saturated-fat, low-cholesterol eating plan. It recommends that you eat and drink only enough calories to stay at a healthy weight and avoid weight gain. It encourages you to choose a variety of nutritious foods, including fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and lean meats. Other types of diets, such as the DASH diet to lower high blood pressure, might also lower your cholesterol.
• Weight Management. If you are overweight, losing weight can help lower your LDL (bad) cholesterol. This is especially important for people with metabolic syndrome. Metabolic syndrome is a group of risk factors that includes high triglyceride levels, low HDL (good) cholesterol levels, and being overweight with a large waist measurement (more than 40 inches for men and more than 35 inches for women).
• Physical Activity. Everyone should get regular physical activity (30 minutes on most, if not all, days).

Also, if you are a smoker, you should quit. Quitting smoking can raise your HDL (good) cholesterol. Since HDL helps to remove LDL (bad) cholesterol from your arteries, having more HDL can help to lower your LDL cholesterol.

Medicines to lower cholesterol

For some people, therapeutic lifestyle changes (TLC) alone does not their lower cholesterol enough. They may also need to take medicines. There are several types of cholesterol-lowering drugs available. They work in different ways and can have different side effects. Talk to your health care provider about which medicine is right for you.

Even if you take medicines to lower your cholesterol, you still need to continue with TLC. This will keep the dose of medicine as low as possible, and lower your risk of heart diseases in other ways as well.

Supplements to lower cholesterol

Some companies sell supplements that they say can lower cholesterol. Researchers have studied many of these supplements, including red yeast rice, flaxseed, and garlic. At this time, there isn't conclusive evidence that any of them are effective in lowering cholesterol levels. Also, supplements may cause side effects and interactions with medicines. Always check with your health care provider before you take any supplements.