Proven Natural Ways to Lower Cholesterol
It is believed that atherosclerosis is partly caused by high cholesterol. Atherosclerosis is commonly known as hardening of the arteries, which a danger sign for increasing risk of catastrophic diseases like stroke or heart attack. So, keeping your cholesterol levels under control is of paramount importance. There are several effective ways to lower cholesterol naturally including easy diet changes, stress reduction and natural cholesterol lowering supplements.
As far as diet adjustments go, there are several different approaches that have proven to be effective. A low fat diet is often recommended to lower cholesterol although research does not necessarily support this method.
While the low fat diet is not supported by research to be the only diet that can protect against heart disease, Dr. Dean Ornish is well known for his approach, which involves combining a low fat, vegetarian diet with stress reduction and increasing physical exercise. Don’t worry if you’re not thrilled with the idea of becoming a vegetarian. Other doctors advocate a much different dietary strategy. For example, Dr. Barry Sears developed a healthy non-vegetarian diet called the Zone Diet that is often considered to be one of many variations of the so-called “low carb diet.”
With the Zone Diet, Dr. Sears recommends a balanced regulation of fat, carbohydrate and protein ratios consistently in meals as well as in snacks taken in between meals. This often results in improvements in metabolism regulation and healthy weight loss without enduring feelings of going hungry. There are also many reports of improvements in many different health conditions, including reducing cholesterol and reversing heart disease.
Cholesterol lowering vitamins are another tactic that works well with diet changes. Concerning dietary supplements, it pays to go with quality rather than basing your decision on cost alone. There’s a lot of variation in the quality of supplements on the market, and it’s common to see exaggerated claims without providing research to back them up.
Some important and effective nutrients to look for in natural cholesterol lowering supplements include, green tea extract, tumeric, policosanol, guggulipid, theaflavins and beta sitosterol. Among these nutrients, policosanol and guggulipid can be considered the most important.
Many products on the market are claiming to contain policosanol, while sometimes they in fact are using a nutrient called octacosanol. This is an issue to pay attention to because octacosanol does not provide the same benefits as policosanol. Only genuine policosanol which is made from sugar cane wax produced in Cuba has shown significant cholesterol lowering abilities in clinical research trials.
As you can see, doing some simple research before you choose a cholesterol health supplement can make a difference. Check to confirm that the manufacturer uses genuine policosanol. Also, check to see if the product has been properly tested for biological contamination and that it is produced in a GMP (good manufacturing practice) facility as well as meeting the U.S. and/or the British Pharmacopoeia standards.
Making simple diet changes and using quality cholesterol lowering vitamins is an effective strategy to reduce cholesterol naturally. Other tactics that work well with this approach include stress reduction and exercise. All of the above have been proven effective and can help you avoid the notorius side effects and potential dangers of cholesterol medication. Be sure to consult your health care provider for guidance and to have any questions you may have answered.
Max Wardlow helps manage a website about natural health where you can find out more about lowering cholesterol levels.
Tags: cholesterol, health and fitness, heart disease, lower cholesterol naturally