Lowering Cholesterol Naturally

Posts Tagged ‘how to lower triglycerides’

What exactly are triglycerides and cholesterol?  After all, they have been in the news for the last few years.  You know you should have a high “good” cholesterol, low “bad” cholesterol and a reasonable triglycerides reading.

But do you?  Have you had your levels taken recently?  Do you even know what triglycerides and cholesterol really are? 

Don’t feel bad if you aren’t sure; there’s a lot of conflicting information out there.

What Are Triglycerides?

When you eat, food that’s not immediately used for production of energy in the body, plus the excess fat in foods, is stored as the chemical triglyceride.  Thus the other terms sometimes used — “blood fats” or “blood lipids”.  For times between meals, hormones regulate the release of triglycerides from fat tissue, so that your body can get the energy it needs.

Too much in your blood plasma is called hypertriglyceridemia (isn’t that a mouthful).  It’s linked to coronary artery disease and untreated diabetes mellitus.

What is Cholesterol?

So, what exactly is cholesterol?  It’s produced by the liver as a waxy substance.  Your body needs cholesterol to make vitamin D build cell walls, make bile salts for digestion and even creates some hormones.  And you thought cholesterol was the bad guy!  Not really; it’s just like anything else — too much of a good thing can be a bad thing.  Too much cholesterol can build up in your arteries, clogging your coronary system.

Triglycerides, Cholesterol and Your Body

OK, so maybe you’ve had your levels read recently and they are high.  Or maybe you are just concerned that they may be high.  Let’s see what you can do about it.

Two ways of the best ways through which you can lower your triglycerides and cholesterol levels are diet and exercise.

Medications prescribed by your doctor can also bring down the cholesterol levels.  However, the prescription drugs carry their own risks, so should be considered a last resort.  Honestly, making better food choices and staying with a diet plan dedicated to promoting good heart health is the best plan.

OK, time for a true story.  My husband has had high triglycerides and cholesterol for as long as we’ve been married. 

At one point, his cholesterol was in the high 300’s and his triglycerides were off the charts.  Of course, the doctors prescribed drugs to get the readings down – now!

Unfortunately, the drugs had worse side effects than the problems they were trying to cure!  So after trying several different prescriptions with no real difference, he quit taking them.

Fast forward a few years, and David’s levels are almost normal now.  How?  Simply diet and exercise.  He’s not a fanatic about it — he likes a juicy steak as much as anyone else.  It’s just that now, it’s all about moderation.

The Foods You Eat

Your first task:  gather as much as information as you possibly can about the food that you consume which pose challenges for maintaining acceptable triglyceride and cholesterol levels.  Then compare that list against your current diet.

When you understand which food choices are problems for you, you can switch them out with healthier substitutes. Try identifying the healthy foods that you enjoy eating that can be replaced for the unhealthy ones. Once you try this, you’ll start liking the healthy foods much better than the unhealthy foods that you have been eating.  I know, it seems unlikely, but it does eventually happen!

Triglycerides, cholesterol and your body.  Take care of the readings, and they’ll help take care of you.