How to Lower Your Cholesterol

Knowing how to lower cholesterol is vital info in this day and age. As you may know, heart disease is the #1 killer in the Western world, even beating cancer and other diseases.

Clearly, high cholesterol, fed by a high-cholesterol diet, is one of the telltale signs of approaching heart disease including strokes and heart attacks.

Before we discuss just how to defeat high cholesterol, it may be useful to talk about just what cholesterol is for there are many misconceptions about its role in human health. No how to lower cholesterol page would be complete without dicussing the different types of cholesterol. Let's do that now.

First, there are two different types of cholesterol -- HDL (high-density lipoprotein) and LDL (low-density lipoprotein) cholesterol.

Many people don't know that your body actually requires cholesterol in order to make key cellular compounds like hormones.

In addition, the LDL cholesterol carries cholesterol to your cells while the HDL cholesterol takes excess LDL cholesterol and sends it to the liver for breakdown where hopefully most of it is eliminated by the body.

Just to be clear: LDL cholesterol is the bad cholesterol, HDL the good cholesterol. The problem is that too much LDL is a prime contributing factor to heart disease. The 19th century naturalist and philosopher Henry David Thoreau once stated, "For every thousand hacking at the leaves of evil, there is one striking at the root."

So what is the primary reason, or the root, of heart disease in the Western world? While there are always mitigating factors, the prime reason is the Western diet. It is a diet rich in sugar, salt, and processed foods.

How To Lower Cholesterol Naturally

Let's get back to the core theme of this How To Lower Cholesterol web page by discussing how to lower cholesterol naturally without statin drugs. LDL cholesterol is what contributes to heart disease, clogging your arteries. When too much circulates in the bloodstream, it slowly, imperceptibly, builds up in the inner walls of the arteries that feed the heart and brain.

This is called atherosclerosis. If this happens, it is a very dangerous situation for if a blood clot forms and blocks a narrowed artery due to plaque build up, it can cause a heart attack or stroke. Are there other factors contributing to heart disease besides high cholesterol? Absolutely.

Homocysteine and the triglyceride connection. Many people with heart disease have high triglyceride levels.(A triglyceride is a form of fat.) We will be contributing specific articles to this website soon discussing homocysteine and tyiglycerides and their role to heart disease and why you need to be aware of them.

Homocysteine & Heart Disease

Homocysteine has been called the "silent killer." Like cholesterol, homocysteine performs a vital function in the body. Homocysteine (pronounced ho-mo-sis-teen) is an amino acid that can attack the lining of our arteries, which results in sparking events that lead to heart diseases like strokes and heart attacks.

One Dr. Kilmer McCully believes that "homocysteine is the underlying cause of heart disease."

There are certain levels of cholesterol to consider as well as to gauge your overall cholesterol rating.

Let's briefly discuss them now. LDL cholesterol (the bad cholesterol) less than 100 mg/dL is desirable. Less than 130 mg/dL is good. LDL levels with more than 160 mg/dL is undesirable.

Generally speaking, total cholesterol levels of 200 or below is considered to be non-risky. However, 200 and above is regarded as "borderline" with total cholesterol of 240 and higher considered "high risk."

Lower Cholesterol Naturally

If we told you how to lower cholesterol naturally anywhere from 10 to 20% without side effects, would that be of interest to you? Well, you can. So, how can one lower their total cholesterol, specifically their LDLs? Here are some general, common sense things to do.

Still, remember, there is power in the basics and in the fundamentals -- that is a key, core message of this How to Lower Cholesterol web page.

• Start a program of cardiovascular exercise. You don't have to train like an Olympic athlete to derive benefits of aerobic exercise. The key is consistency. Three to four 15 minute to 30 minute hard sessions is sufficient. If you can't run, bike, or swim, consider brisk walking but whatever you do, do something.
• Eat healthier. There is contemporary research that suggests cholesterol-lowering foods include, but are not limited to, almonds, avocados, beans, cayenne pepper, garlic, fish, flax seed, oat bran, olive oil, and onions can lower cholesterol and even raise the good HDL cholesterol levels.
• Stop smoking. Tobacco is a powerful herb that should be used with discretion and wisdom by properly trained herbalists but one thing is for certain: it was never meant to be smoked or chewed.
• Eat more raw fruits and vegetables.
• Take a cholesterol lowering supplement that is pharmaceutical grade quality.
• Avoid statin cholesterol lowering drugs.
• Drink a lot of non-fluoridated water.

Choosing A Nutritional Supplement to Lower Cholesterol

1. The supplement should have gugulipid, policosanol, vitamins C and E, and the B vitamin complex. Policosanol has been found in clinical studies to lower LDL cholesterol while raising HDL cholesterol (the good cholesterol). Gugulipid has been well researched validating its potency as a blood purifier and agent in lowering cholesterol. The B vitamins in addition to providing energy also help minimize and counteract homocysteine. Vitamin C and vitamin E, meanwhile, may just be the king of the vitamin world for their multiplicity of capability. They are also powerful antioxidants that help to counteract free radical, oxidizing molecules in the body.
2. The cholesterol lowering supplement should be produced pharmaceutical standard GMP registered facilities. This ensures nutraceutical quality while eliminating the possibility of unwanted contamination. Today, over 1 in 5 supplements not only don't have the proclaimed ingredients on the label, but they actually harbor harmful contaminants!
3. Ideally, make sure the cholesterol lowering supplement does not contain any fillers or additives such as sucrose (sugar), starch, gluten, silica (sand), artificial colors and dyes.
4. Look for tablets with enteric coating as this inert substance protects the vitamins from being lost in the gastric acids. Enteric coating protects the vitamins until they can dissolve in the upper intestine where they are then assimilated into the blood stream.
5. Look for your cholesterol lowering supplement to guarantee 80% or more assimilation.

Cholesterol Lowering Supplement

The above criteria is a tall order but we know of one company that meets all of the above list and more. A New Zealand company has a lower cholesterol formula that is clinically tested to significantly lower cholesterol -- without the side effects of prescription medication.

This Cholesterol Formula has policosanol, gugulipid, vitamin C, E, and the B vitamin complex as well.

Here at nutritional-supplement-bible.com don't have high cholesterol, (we do use other products from this company faithfully and daily), colleagues of ours have used this lower cholesterol naturally formula to tremendous benefit, lowering their total cholesterol count significantly.

I hope this how to lower cholesterol web page has been useful to you.

Yours in health, hope, and harmony,
Nutritional-Supplement-Bible.com