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Advice About Reducing Total Cholesterol

Several effective ways exist to reduce your blood cholesterol levels. Often, one or more of these are required to bring cholesterol levels to safe levels. Which ones you use will depend on several things. The first is your current cholesterol levels. The other is how your body reacts to the different methods.

  1. Changes in Eating Habits

    • Lowering blood cholesterol isn't as much a matter of cutting foods from your diet as it is adding foods that reduce cholesterol. Adding foods like oatmeal, oat bran, walnuts and other nuts, fish and other sources of omega-3 fatty acids, and olive oil can do a lot to lower your levels of low-density lipoprotein (LDL), or bad, cholesterol. Some margarines, yogurt and orange juice are fortified with plant sterols or stanols, which are good for lowering cholesterol.

    Herbs and Natural Methods

    • Some foods and herbs have been shown to have a positive effect on lowering overall cholesterol levels and in helping to improve the balance between good blood cholesterol and bad blood cholesterol. Red rice yeast, available in many Chinese groceries and pharmacies, was the original source from which the first prescription statin drug was produced. Red rice yeast has a natural statin and is known to reduce cholesterol. Pu-erh tea is also a good natural cholesterol reducer. A number of other herbal formulas are designed to target high cholesterol levels. Because of their lack of side effects, these methods may be better for long-term health than prescription statins.

    Prescription Statin Drugs

    • A number of statin drugs have been developed since the extraction of the first statin from naturally occurring substances in Chinese red rice yeast. These drugs are not good for all cases, but in cases of extremely high cholesterol or high cholesterol that doesn't respond well to diet and gentler natural methods, statins can be a good way to reduce cholesterol. With the number of statin drugs available, it is important to discuss your needs with a physician to establish which regimen is right for you.

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