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7 Effective Ways to Lower Cholesterol

High cholesterol makes you extremely vulnerable to a lot of health complications including stroke, heart attack, and other types of heart diseases. How to lower cholesterol? The cholesterol available in your body can be controlled with the help of medications; however, the most preferred method would be to bring the right lifestyle changes. Even if you are using medications, changes in your lifestyle can speed up the cholesterol-lowering effect.

Consume healthy fats
Following unhealthy eating habits has become common practice nowadays. People are after junk foods and over a period of time, they develop unhealthy eating habits. If you’re wondering how to cholesterol, you must introduce some changes in your diet to lower your cholesterol and lower your heart. Excess consumption of saturated fats is not a good option. These types of fats can be found in dairy and red meat products and they increase your total cholesterol and bad cholesterol called LDL. Doctors advise people to keep the daily calories from saturated fat to below 7 percent. The healthier options of fat are monounsaturated fats and these types of fats can be found in canola oils and olive oil. You can eat low-fat dairy products and leaner cuts of meat to have healthy fats.

Remove foods that contain trans fats from your diet
Trans fats raise your bad cholesterol (LDL) and they also reduce the quantity of HDL or good cholesterol. When you keep on consuming trans fats, you are increasing the chances of getting affected with heart attacks. Fried foods are the main source of trans fats and several commercial products available in the market also contain these types of fats. If you consume products like snack cakes, crackers, and cookies; you are absorbing these unwanted fats. Small quantities of trans fat add up when you keep on consuming processed foods, and you should avoid food items that contain partially hydrogenated oils.

Omega-3 fatty acids are a good option
You need to consume a lot of omega-3 fatty acids because they do increase your LDL cholesterol. Furthermore, they raise the amount of HDL (high-density lipoprotein) cholesterol in your body. Omega-3 fatty acids also lower the dangerous triglycerides and with regular intake of these fatty acids, blood pressure can be reduced. The most prominent sources of omega-3 fatty acids are fish like herring, mackerel, and salmon, and you can also consume ground flaxseeds, almonds, and walnuts to increase the intake of these fatty acids. You can use these options if you are wondering about how to lower cholesterol.

Consume the right amount of soluble fiber
There are 2 types of fiber: soluble fiber and insoluble fiber. Both these categories offer good benefits to the heart. However, soluble fiber is the best option, and it reduces the LDL cholesterol levels. Food sources that are rich in soluble fiber are vegetables, lentils, beans, fruits, and oat bran. Consuming the right amount can help to lower cholesterol.

Promote the intake of whey protein
Dairy products contain two types of proteins, and they include whey protein and casein. Whey protein offers excellent health benefits and health experts always recommend the increased amount of this protein to lower LDL cholesterol. It can be taken in supplement form to balance your cholesterol levels. Most food stores and grocery shops sell protein powders.

Increase your physical activity or perform exercises regularly
If you follow a physically inactive lifestyle for an extended period of time, your cholesterol levels increase considerably. Performing exercise for 30 minutes in a daily manner is the best option available, and this approach helps you increase HDL cholesterol levels. If you do not get time at a stretch, you can do some physical activity several times a day in small batches; this is one effective way to lower cholesterol. It helps you balance your weight in healthy limits. You can take a brisk walk, swim, or play a sport that you like. To keep your motivation high, it is good to visit a health club or you can have an exercise buddy.

Get rid of the habit of smoking
Smoking has always been a dangerous habit. If you are a habitual smoker, you must stop this habit immediately to strengthen your heart health. When you quit smoking, your HDL cholesterol levels improve significantly. Various studies have shown that after 20 minutes of quitting smoking, your heart rate and blood pressure come down considerably. After one year, your vulnerability to heart disease reduces to 50% and after 15 years, the risk of heart disease becomes pretty similar to that of a person who has never smoked in life.

For some people, lifestyle changes alone are not adequate enough to reduce the dangerous cholesterol levels. That is when the doctor recommends medications, and you have to take these medications exactly according to the instructions. How to lower cholesterol effectively? When you introduce healthy lifestyle changes while taking medications, you can control the cholesterol more effectively and the dose of medication can be reduced to minimal levels.

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