Good Lifestyle to lower Cholesterol

How good is your lifestyle to lower your cholesterol level? Here are few factors to assess.

Eat a healthy diet - Saturated fats and trans fats must be kept to low level. This can be achieved by eating meat that have any visible fats removed. Consumes low fat dairy products, and cooking with oil from vegetable sources instead of annimal fats. Limit the amount of trans fats, as the medical research concludes that there is no safe level of trans fats.

Lower Triglycerides - Excessive calories will be transformed to triglycerides and stored as body fat.

Exercise - Regular exercise can help you to raise the HDL level which can reduce your cholesterol level. It is not the difficulty level of the exercise you should focus. It is the duration of exercise that matters. You do not need to exercise long in one session. Taking multiple short exercises is an alternative. Get started now no matter what is your cholesterol level, exercise will improve your health.

Plant Sterols - Include your diet with food fortified with plant sterols because they have the ability to block cholestrol absorption.

Alcohol - Limit excessive intake of alcohol.

Soluble fibre - Foods like oat, beans or whole grains are rich in soluble fibre. Soluble fibre has the effect of lowering bad LDL cholesterol without lowering the good HDL cholesterol. 5-10 grams daily soluble fibre intake can decrease LDL level by about 5%.

Omega-3 Fatty Acids - Food rich in Omega-3 fatty acids was noted to lower LDL cholesterol level and raise HDL cholesterol level at the same time. Researches suggest that eating omega-3 rich food weekly can reduce significantly the risk of heart disease.

Cholesterol, depression linked to gender

While cholesterol increases the risk of depression in the elderly, it may affect men and women differently, a new research indicates.

Good cholesterol may mean little for statin users

People with high levels of the so-called good cholesterol HDL tend to have fewer heart attacks but HDL may offer little protective benefit in people who take statins to lower harmful LDL cholesterol, U.S. researchers said on Wednesday.

Cholesterol Study: Low HDL May Not Be So Bad

Patients on statin drugs who reduce their LDL ''bad'' cholesterol to very low levels may not need to be so concerned about boosting their HDL ''good" cholesterol levels for protection against cardiovascular disease, according to a new study.

Good Cholesterol Seems Less Important Once Statins Have Lowered Bad Cholesterol

Results of an international trial suggest that once statins have lowered LDL or "bad" cholesterol, the level of HDL or "good" cholesterol is less important in terms of predicting cardiovascular risk than it is during pre-treatment assessment. You can read about the research behind these particular findings from the JUPITER trial in a report published in the early online issue of The Lancet on 22 ...

No firm conclusions about HDL cholesterol can be drawn from JUPITER sub-analysis

The European Society of Cardiology is concerned that interpretations of a paper about cholesterol could act to deter ongoing research efforts into developing new therapeutic strategies to increase high density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol. Caution, the ESC experts advise, should be displayed in the interpretation of the results.