• Home
• About
• Contact NutriBody

What to do to Lower Cholesterol

If you have high cholesterol, then there are some additional factors you need to look at: your HDL, LDL and Cholesterol to HDL ratio (Cholesterol divided by HDL).

Cholesterol and your cholesterol ratio are used as risk indicators, but they aren’t fool-proof. If your cholesterol is 200 or lower, chances are your risk factor is probably in the normal range. With a reading of 200 or lower, your doctor probaby won’t dig any deeper, although even with a 200 or lower cholesterol, it’s possible to have other readings that indicate some increased risk. I recommend you always do a full profile to get your HDL, LDL and triglycerides too.

HDL: The ‘good’ cholesterol, the high density lipo-protein particles that act as scrubbers to keep the low density lipoprotein (LDL) particles out of the blood. For a man, you want your HDL to be at least 40. For women, 50. If your HDL is lower than that, you could be at increased risk. If you can get your HDL higher than 60, that’s good, as HDL higher than 60 has been proven to actually give some protection against heart disease.

Cholesterol/HDL Ratio: Works like this: if your cholesterol is 200 and your HDL is 50, then your ratio would be 4 to 1. If your ratio is 4 to 1 (or better), then your risk factor is normal or even better than normal (the lower the better).

LDL: This is the bad stuff, the gunk that sticks to the inside of your arteries. The less you have of this, the better. Your LDL level is actually a better predictor of risk than your total cholesterol. You want your LDL to be 100 or lower.

HDL/LDL Ratio: Since LDL is such a good indicator of risk, this is yet another number that’s worth looking at. What’s your ratio of good stuff to bad stuff? If you have HDL of 50 LDL of 150 , then your number would be 50/150, which equals .33. Your goal here is to be .4 or higher. The higher the better. My last number here was 69HDL/128LDL = .54 – pretty good!

Lowering Risk Factor: When it comes to understanding your real risk factors, you need to look at all these numbers. When you ask, “What do I need to do to lower my cholesterol”, what you really mean is, “What do I need to do to reduce my heart attack and stroke risk factor.”

And how do you do you lower your risk factor? Two ways really:

1. Raise HDL
2. Lower LDL

I’m not going to go into the dirty details, but there are three main things you can do to accomplish 1 and 2 above.

1. Diet
2. Exercise
3. Supplements

Diet: Eliminate processed carbs and sugar. No bread or other grains (rice), or grain based food (pasta). No startches (corn adn potatoes). No sugar (soft drinks, fruit juice, candy, etc). Drink water or unsweet tea. Limit red meat to 1 – 2 times a week, eat more fowl (chicken and turkey) and fish. Grilled not fried or baked. No potatoes. You can eat a little dark chocolate if you want.  If you do fry, use olive oil.

Eat all the fruit, vegetables, and nuts you want. Peanuts are not nuts. Walnuts and almonds are best. Corn and potatoes are not vegetables, they are starches. And drink alcohol. Yes, alcohol, but no more than 2 drinks a day. Any alcohol will do; beer, wine, whiskey, whatever. Drinking 1 – 2 servings of alcohol a day raises HDL and lowers LDL. More than that does the opposite and is BAD.

Exercise: Do cardiovascalar exercise for a minimum 30 minutes 3x a week.  The more the better here. Cardiovascular exercise is a proven method for raising HDL and lowering LDL. Cardiovascualr exercise is something that raises the heart rate to your target zone.

Quick guidelines:

• Max heart rate = 220 – Your Age
• Target heart rate = 60 to 80% of your max

If you’re really out of shape, your doctor might recommend starting around 50% of your max. It’s also recommended that you don’t exceed 85% of your max.

Walkign is exercise. Walking is not cardiovascular exercise (unless you are so out of shape that it gets your heart rate into the target zone). Riding a bike slow is not cardiovascular exercise. Rising a bike fast can be. You need to do something that gets your heart rate into the target zone. Quite arguing.

Supplements: This is based on my own experience. Your mileage may vary, but this combination worked for me. It didn’t lower my total cholesterol, but it took my HDL from the 20s into the 60s, my LDL down from a high of 170 to the 120s, and my cholesterol to HDL ratio from 10+ to 3.13 (half normal risk factor – cholesterol reading posts).

Every day, I take:

• 2,000 mg niacin
• 5,000 IU Vitamin D3
• 4,000 mg fish oil

I take half the dose in the morning, and half in the evening. My research has indicated that niacin in even larger doses (up to 5,000) can be even more beneficial.

I’ve read about some other supplements that are supposed to have a  beneficial effect on your cholesterol profile(Vitamins A and K2), but I haven’t tried them yet. I will though, and when I do, I’ll write about it here.

Don’t start any exercise or supplement program without talking to your doctor!

Did you enjoy this post? Why not leave a comment below and continue the conversation, or subscribe to my feed and get articles like this delivered automatically to your feed reader.

Copyright Nutribody