Top 5 Tactics to Reduce Your Cholesterol Level
You can significantly lower your cholesterol by making simple lifestyle changes.
This not only helps you in your overall health, but also keeps you away from toxic medications that leaves you in a worse shape. As always, prevention is better than cure.
And what kind of lifestyle changes are we looking at closely? Here are 5 Top
Tactics to get you started right away:
1. Make Better Food Choices
The reason you’re in your current health state is not a coincidence, but what you put into your system in a continuous basis. If you’re physically unfit, it’s obvious that you have poor food choices and have been practicing bad eating habits for years!
Thankfully, you have the power to change! Here are some quick tips to radically plummet your cholesterol level and improve your cardiovascular health.
Healthy Fats vs Bad Fats
Not all fats are bad! So, don’t fall into the false truth that all fats are evil. In fact, your body needs fat to carry out all bodily functions especially your hormonal system.
Worrying about getting fat? Truth is, you can consume healthy fats to burn fats! So, what are unhealthy fats?
Unhealthy fats are also known as saturated fats. It’s the kind of fats that spikes up your total cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein (LDL) to unhealthy level.
Examples of saturated fats are cheese, pizza, dairy desserts, sausage, bacon, burgers, reduced fat milk, pasta, butter, fried white potatoes and the list goes on.
Are you surprised that more than half of the listed foods your favorite? You’re not alone.
A staple American diet today consists of 60% saturated fats! No wonder obesity is rising at an alarming rate.
We’ve covered the unhealthy fats, so let’s learn more about the healthy fats - The good fats, also known as unsaturated fats. These fats are heart-healthy and help improve cholesterol levels.
To eat healthily, it is important to replace some food that are high in saturated fat with food rich in unsaturated fats.
Some of the examples are all kinds of nuts, avocado, vegetable, seeds and nut oil such as rapeseed, olive, sunflower, corn oil and oily fish such as salmon, pilchards, mackerel and trout.
2. Exercise More
Many want to avoid this topic as much as they possibly can. But the truth remains the same; you have to exercise to maintain your overall health, especially when it comes to normalizing your cholesterol level.
Studies show that those who exercise more often actually have higher HDL cholesterol compared to those who didn’t, and have better overall health condition.
So, what kind of exercise works? The best plan for reducing your risk of cardiovascular disease is a combination of aerobic (aka cardio) and resistance training.
Expert recommends to spend at least 40 minutes of moderate to high intensity aerobic exercises 3 to 4 times a week to improve cholesterol levels as well as lowers your blood pressure and risk for stroke and heart attack.
And how do you make sure you commit to your exercise regimen? The best way to stay on a program till the end is to stay accountable to someone.
Still got stucked? A typical example of exercises is listed here to help you out.
Moderate-intensity Activities
- include ballroom dancing,
playing tennis,
general gardening,
icycling and a lot more. High-intensity Activities
- comprise of hiking uphill or with a heavy backpack,
swimming laps,
jogging, and race walking. Others are running,
dancing, cycling,
hiking uphill.
3. Lose Weight
If you have already implemented the first two strategies (right diet and exercise), numbers on the scale may already be dropping.
Did you know that you could actually lower your cholesterol levels by simply losing weight? It’s proven to be true. Losing 10% of your body weight can radically normalize your cholesterol level.
4. Avoid Alcohol (Most of the Time)
Here’s a well-kept secret among the doctors: Alcohol actually promotes better cholesterol level and heart health. Plus, research shows that alcohol also lowers inflammation and increases one’s lifespan.
But this secret is kept for a good reason: MAJORITY of the people will take this truth for granted and drink towers of alcohol!
5. Quit Smoking
The most well-documented impact that smoking has on cholesterol is how it lowers levels of high-density lipoprotein (HDL).
Smoking kills! A healthy person can actually succumb to numerous diseases from this habit. Besides damaging your respiratory system, smoking is known to clog your circulatory, causing inflammation and cause heart attack!
Quitting might improve your HDL cholesterol level. Studies have shown that HDL levels often go up soon after a person quits smoking.
Never give up! Stay consistent to your habit and new lifestyle changes and soon you will reap the benefits.
0 Comments