How to Keep Your Cholesterol In Check

How to Keep Your Cholesterol In Check

Lower your bad LDL cholesterol and triglycerides, and raise your good HDL cholesterol to be healthy.

Your cholesterol is not just one number, it is a combination of three numbers. To keep your cholesterol numbers balanced you need to keep track of your good HDL cholesterol, bad LDL cholesterol and triglycerides.

CHECK YOUR CHOLESTEROL LEVELS - Have your doctor check your cholesterol levels at least once per year at your physical. It is important to have a starting point so that you can keep track of how your cholesterol levels have changed. You will also need to know which cholesterol level you need to work on. Many people have normal or low bad LDL cholesterol but their good HDL cholesterol is too low and needs to be raised to a more acceptable level. Some people have high bad LDL cholesterol and high triglycerides which means that they need to lower both.

CHANGE YOUR LIFESTYLE - Add exercise to your daily routine. Whether you need to low bad cholesterol and triglycerides or raise good cholesterol, exercising can help you do both. Exercise for at least one hour per day and spend a second hour doing some type of physical activity or sport. Walking is an excellent exercise that is very easy to do. You can start slowly and increase the amount of time that you walk each week. There are numerous physical activities that you can incorporate in your daily routine such as raking leaves, pulling weeds, mowing the lawn, jump roping with your kids, playing tag, and playing sports.

EAT CHOLESTEROL HEALTHY FOODS - Incorporate healthy foods into your diet. Foods such as avocado, salmon, mackerel, sardines, olive oil, garlic, and fruits and vegetables will help you to keep your cholesterol levels in check. Make sure that half of your plate is vegetables at every meal.

Eliminate foods high in saturated fats, containing high fructose corn syrup or partially hydrogenated oils or highly processed foods. With a little change in your lifestyle, you can keep your cholesterol levels balanced.

Lower Your High Cholesterol

Lower Your High Cholesterol

Keep all three of your cholesterol levels balanced.

Knowing how to lower your high cholesterol and keep you looking and feeling and being healthy. You bad LDL cholesterol is just one third of the trio of cholesterol levels that you must keep balanced. Your good HDL cholesterol level should be kept high and your bad LDL cholesterol and trigyceride levels should be kept low.

CHOLESTEROL DRUGS - Lower your high cholesterol with prescription drugs if you have to. If you have extremely high bad LDL cholesterol, your doctor will recommend it and you should do it. There are many excellent prescription drugs on the market today that work well to keep cholesterol levels low. There are two main issues with taking the drugs: 1. prescription statins lower good cholesterol also which is not good and 2. the doctors want you to take them for the rest of your life once you start taking them.
You absolutely should continue to take the drugs for as long as your doctor recommends, but do not treat it as a cure all and live an unhealthy life style. Take this opportunity to naturally raise your good HDL cholesterol and lower your bad LDL cholesterol and triglycerides.

ELIMINATE HIGH SATURATED FATS OUT OF YOUR DIET - Learn about proper nutrition and eliminate bad foods out of your diet including high saturated fat foods, high fructose corn syrup foods, trans fats, partially hydrogenated oils, fast food, white flour and white sugar foods.

FILL UP ON GOOD FOODS - Eat plenty of fruits, vegetables, whole grains and lean meats. If you keep yourself full of fruits and vegetables, you will be less likely to snack on foods that are bad for your health. Keep plenty of healthy foods on hand and easily accessible to set yourself up for success.

GOOD HDL CHOLESTEROL RAISING FOODS - Eat foods that will help you to raise your good HDL cholesterol such as garlic, olive oil, avocados, almonds and fish that are high in Omega 3's such as salmon, mackerel and sardines.

EXERCISE DAILY - Exercise or do physical activity that makes you sweat 6-7 days per week for at least one hour. If you are unable to do an hour at first, you can slowly build up to an hour. Walking is one of the best exercises that you can do and it is fairly easy to do. You can also do such things as running, biking, swimming, playing soccer, raking leaves, mow the lawn with a push mower, playing volleyball, snow skiing and water skiing. These are just some ideas to get you moving.

You can learn how to lower your cholesterol and do it in a reasonably small amount of time, just in time to save your life.