Natural Remedies for High Cholesterol

No medications can do a better job than treating your high cholesterol naturally. And, if you are one of those lucky people who do not have cholesterol concerns, you may want to take steps to keep it that way!

Reduce fat in your diet
One of the best plans is covered previously in our chart on saturated fat. But there is more you can do. Buy the leanest cuts of meat you can find. Regularly substitute poultry (without the skin) and fish for red meat. Both are lower in saturated fat. Switch to low fat cottage cheese and yogurt, reduced fat hard cheeses and skim or 1 percent milk.

Eat no more than four egg yolks a week
An average egg yolk contains 213 milligrams of cholesterol!

Eliminate fried foods
Remove fatty skin from chicken and turkey.
Don’t fry foods. Roast, bake, broil, grill or poach them instead.
Use fat free marinades or basting with liquids like wine, tomato or lemon juice.
Use olive or canola oils for sautéing or baking. Both are very low in saturated fat.
Use diet, tub or squeeze margarines instead of regular. Watch for the term “hydrogenated,” which means some of the fat is saturated.

Eat vegetables and complex carbohydrates
Lowest fat foods of all are vegetables, fruits, grains (rice, barley and pasta), beans and legumes. Try substituting some of these for meat and high fat dairy products.
Don’t douse your pasta with butter or your potato with sour cream.
Use tomato base sauces instead of cream base.
Use lemon juice, low sodium soy sauce or herbs to season vegetables.
Make chili with extra beans and seasonings while leaving out the meat.

Lose weight
If you are overweight, the chances are almost 100% that you have a problem with high cholesterol.You can lower your LDL and elevate your HDL just by dropping some pounds. Eat fewer fatty foods and more fruits, vegetables, grains and beans and it’s a pretty good bet that you will slowly but surely lose weight.

Include your family
Eating habits carry through to adulthood. Get your children on a healthy eating pattern early. Don’t begin until they are at least 2 years of age, however. Babies need extra fat calories to develop properly.

Snack all you want
Snack several times a day on low fat foods. Yogurt, fruit, vegetables, bagels and whole grain breads and cereals are excellent for snacking. Eating often can keep hormones like insulin from rising and signaling your body to make more cholesterol. Make certain that your total intake of calories doesn’t go up when you eat more often.

Nuts to you!
Do you like nuts? If you do, sprinkle a few on your cereal, bake them into muffins or pancakes or add them to casseroles or stir-fries. Walnuts and almonds are especially good. Eating about three ounces of walnuts a day is shown to decrease blood cholesterol levels by 10% more than an already low fat, low cholesterol diet. Walnuts are high in fat, but it is mostly polyunsaturated fat, which is the kind that lowers cholesterol. Another study shows that about three ounces of almonds which are rich in monounsaturated fat, lowers LDL by 9%!

Eat chocolate
Studies indicate that the fat in chocolate is stearic acid and has no effect on cholesterol levels. The chocolate does not increase LDL and could raise HDL a wee bit. But chocolate is still high in fat and calories so don’t go overboard.

Drink fruit juices
You may have read about the low rate of heart disease in France. It led researchers to believe that the French habit of drinking red wine with meals contributes to this. Apparently some of the non-alcoholic ingredients in red wine raises HDL and suppresses the body from producing LDL.Purple grape juice works the same way. It will work like red wine to lower the fat level in your blood. The LDL lowering effect of red wine and grape juice comes from a ompound that grapes produce normally to resist mold. The darker the grape juice, the better.Grapefruit juice does the same thing and it may also help your body get rid of that nasty plaque that we discussed earlier.

Natural Remedies for High Cholesterol

Eat garlic
Cholesterol lowering effects of garlic have been demonstrated repeatedly in people with normal and high cholesterol. Eat all the garlic you can. If you are worried about the odor, take the tablets instead.

Take niacin – carefully
Niancin is proven effective for lowering LDL and raising HDL. It is also one of the cheapest drugs available for lowering cholesterol. But, without medical supervision it may not be totally safe. A dose high enough to lower cholesterol can cause extremely high blood sugar or liver damage.

Take vitamin E
Studies indicate that vitamin E may have a positive impact on lowering cholesterol when taken in fairly large quantities – up to 800 IU per day. This is more than you can get from your diet alone. Larger amounts do not seem to cause any harm.

Take Calcium
One study indicates that when 56 people took a calcium carbonate supplement, their total cholesterol went down 4 percent and their HDL increased 4 percent. That was taking a dosage of 400 milligrams of calcium three times a day with no harmful effects reported. That does refer to calcium carbonate.

Take a multivitamin – it can’t hurt

While you are building your calcium and vitamin E intake, remember the old standby, vitamin C. It is the number one immune system booster and also drives up HDL. A study of people who took more than 60 milligrams of vitamin C per day (60 milligrams is the RDA) had highest LDL levels.

Fill up on fiber
Soluble fiber, the kind found in oat bran, does help lower LDL and raise HDL. As little as three grams per day of fiber from oat bran or oatmeal can be effective. There are 7.2 grams of soluble fiber per 100 grams of dry oat bran and five grams of soluble fiber per 100 grams of dry oatmeal. There are other sources of fiber as well such as barley, beans, peas and many other vegetables. Corn fiber is also good for reducing LDL, lowering it by as much as 5 percent in a recent study. Pectin, which is found in fruits like apples and prunes, reduces cholesterol even better than oat bran, as does psyllium which is the fiber you find in many breakfast cereals and bulk laxatives.

Quit smoking
Smoking promotes the development of atherosclerosis. Tobacco smoke is actually more damaging to the heart than the lungs. Smokers have a higher chance of having a heart attack (three times greater than nonsmokers) and a greater risk of dying of the attack (twenty one times greater than nonsmokers.) Tobacco smoke contains carbon monoxide, which is uniquely damaging to the heart. Not only does it reduce the amount of oxygen the heart receives, it also actually damages the cells of the heart, rendering them less able to produce energy and thereby weakening the heart. In addition to the dangers of carbon monoxide, there’s the danger of the nicotine. Nicotine interferes with the electrical impulses that cause the heart to beat. When the blood flow is compromised, the heart can beat in a fast, uncontrolled, irregular beats that actually cause a heart attack. If you smoke, reducing the risks of atherosclerosis is yet another reason to stop. Even if you have smoked for years, stopping now can still immediately help combat the development of atherosclerosis.

Reduce sugar intake
Many people don’t realize that sugar affects cholesterol and definitely affects triglycerides. Sugar stimulates insulin production, which in turn increases triglycerides. Men in particular, seem to be sensitive to this effect from sugar. The mineral chromium which helps to stabilize blood sugar, can also raise the level of HDL. 100 mcg of chromium three times daily can help to improve your cholesterol levels.

Eliminate alcohol
Alcohol elevates serum cholesterol triglycerides and your uric acid levels as well as potentially increasing blood pressure all of which promote heart disease. So, the best bet would be to eliminate it totally.

Exercise regularly
Exercise can lower LDL cholesterol and boost HDL cholesterol. Both aerobic exercise such as walking, jogging, swimming, bicycling and cross country skiing and strength training like lifting weights or using weight machines all promote the improvement of cholesterol levels.

Eliminate caffeine
People who drink large amounts of caffeine (more than 6 cups a day) are far more prone to elevated cholesterol. That connection does not hold for tea drinkers. Limit your coffee intake to no more than one cup a day and eliminate caffeinated sodas entirely.

My Cholesterol Level Is Too High -What Can I Do?

One way to heal many health problems is with a detoxification diet that cleanses the body and re-establishes the nutritional balance needed for optimum health.It is not nutritionally balanced enough for longer periods.Do not practice the diet for more than three weeks and do not undergo it if you are pregnant or suffer from deficiency problems marked by fatigue, coldness or heart weakness. Here is the detox diet.

Breakfast
Immediately upon arising, drink two glasses of water, one of them containing the juice of half of a lemon. Also have one to two servings of fresh fruit – apples, pears, bananas, grapes or citrus fruits such as oranges or grapefruit.About 15 to 30 minutes later, have one to two cups of cooked oatmeal, brown rice millet, amaranth or untoasted buckwheat. For flavoring, you can add two tablespoons of fruit juice or use the Better Butter described below.

Better Butter Recipe
Stir ½ cup of canola oil (look for one labeled “cold-pressed”) into a dish with ½ pound of butter, melted or at least softened, and refrigerate. Use about one teaspoon per meal for flavoring and don’t exceed three teaspoons per day.

Lunch
Have a big bowl (up to four cups) of steamed vegetables – potatoes, yams, green beans, broccoli, kale, cauliflower, carrots, beets, asparagus, cabbage or others. Use a variety, including stems, roots and greens. Better Butter can also be used. Then refrigerate the water from the vegetables for later use.Within two hours, slowly drink one to two cups of the water from the steamed vegetables, mixing each mouthful with saliva. You can add a little sea salt or kelp for flavoring.

Dinner
Same as lunch, with a variety of vegetables.Evening (After Dinner) No food at all, but you can have non-caffeinated herbal teas such as peppermint, chamomile or blends. No caffeinated beverages.

Throughout the day, feeling's of hunger should be satisfied by drinking plenty of water and eating pieces of carrot or celery. If you are feeling very fatigued or if hunger persists, then you may add up to four ounces of protein, such as fish, organic chicken, lentils or garbanzo, mung or black beans. Optimally this should be eaten mid-afternoon, around 3:00 or 4:00.

In a restaurant, opt for steamed, grilled or broiled dishes instead of those that are friend or sautéed.Vary your veggies. Eat more dark green veggies, such as broccoli, kale, and other dark leafy greens; orange veggies, such as carrots, sweet potatoes, pumpkin, and winter squash; and beans and peas, such as pinto beans, kidney beans, black beans, garbanzo beans, split peas, and lentils.

Know the facts about what you are purchasing to eat.Read the Nutrition Facts label on foods carefully. Look for foods low in saturated fats and trans fats. Choose and prepare foods and beverages with little salt (sodium) and/or added sugars (caloric sweeteners).

Remember there is no substitute for your physician. Make certain that you clear any new treatments with him before embarking on any radical health changes you are anticipating.