Lifestyle Changes to Lower Your Cholesterol

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If you suffer from high cholesterol levels, are obese, or have cardiovascular problems, you should consider taking steps to lower your cholesterol levels back in check with simple changes in your life that are easy to implement and most of them are even fun.

Top 6 Lifestyle Changes to Lower Your Cholesterol Levels

Here are the six most critical lifestyle shifts to decrease your cholesterol levels without medication.

1. Change Your Eating Habits

You can lower your cholesterol levels by changing your diet. After all, you are what you eat.

Reduce Saturated Fats

These are from animal sources as they are bad for your cholesterol levels if you eat them in high amounts. However, moderate saturated fats from red meat, shrimp, lobster, cheese, butter can be eaten once in a while.

Avoid Trans Fats

Trans Fats are produced by adding hydrogen to liquid fats to make them solid, with the sole purpose of extending their shelf life. Considering that the goal is only benefiting the food industry, and is terrible for your health, you should consider eliminating them from your diet. You don’t want to eat a hundred years old egg, as you don’t want to eat a hundred years old margarine, do you?

So, check the labels of the products you want to buy and avoid those with “partially hydrogenated” or “hydrogenated oil.”

Eat Monounsaturated and Polyunsaturated Fats

Eating Monounsaturated or Polyunsaturated Fats instead are proven to be good for your health and regulate your cholesterol levels. They reduce bad cholesterol LDL and the risk of cardiovascular diseases.

Polyunsaturated fats are olive oil, canola oil, almond oil, walnut oil, hazelnut oil, and avocadoes.

Omega-3 rich foods are another great type of polyunsaturated fat, and you can find them in seafood, salmon, mackerel, herring, tuna, and fish oil, also in seeds and nuts.

Eat Soluble Fibers

Add more soluble fiber to your diet as they are your “power ball.” They’ll roll down through your intestines, binding to fatty substances along the way, thus taking them out of the system. This cleansing is a good move and a good bowel movement, as it lowers your bad cholesterol levels.

Examples of soluble fibers are psyllium, beans, peas, lentils, oats, whole grains, and fruits.

Eat Fruits and Vegetables

Add more colorful fruits and vegetables in your diet as they provide essential nutrients, vitamins, minerals, and fiber, which are critical to your health. Also, they don’t contain cholesterol or fats so you can eat them as your heart desires.

Instead of topping your dish with cheese, opt for pieces of veggies or sprinkle herbs on top of it.

2. Exercise

Your heart is probably the hardest working muscle in your body. It pumps blood, and it never starts moving. You should start doing what your heart loves doing to keep it healthy and happy.

Physical exercise improves muscle tonus and physical fitness, help reduce and prevent obesity, reduces “bad” cholesterol LDL levels, and increase “good” cholesterol HDL.

You don’t need to sweat like crazy in the gym, however, you can do other types of exercise that are fun, pleasant, and easier to do, with the same results on your cholesterol levels. Also, you don’t have to do it for hours, 20-30 minutes of mild to intense physical exercise of any type per day are enough to keep your cholesterol levels in check or regulate them.

Types of exercises that may regulate your cholesterol levels:

  • Walk – take a stroll in the park, on the beach, around the block, to work, or during your lunch break.
  • Bicycling – indoor or outdoor biking is excellent for your heart and your cholesterol levels.
  • Jogging – indoor or outdoor.
  • Play a sport you like, such as baseball, basketball, football, skating, skiing, and swimming are excellent exercises that are great for your heart and arteries.
  • Dance the cholesterol out of you. Whether you take ballroom classes, do salsa, rumba, or Zumba, belly dance, and any dance you like, know that it is a form of fun exercise that will keep your cholesterol levels in check.
  • Gardening or mowing the lawn.
  • Aerobics and cardio.
  • Pilates.
  • Yoga.
  • Tai Chi.
  • Qi Gong.

3. Stop Smoking

It’s a well-known fact that smoking increases the risk of heart diseases, as it alters how the body handles cholesterol. The immune cells become incapable of transporting cholesterol from vessel walls to the blood and in turn to the liver. This dysfunction may generate arteries to clog faster. Smoking studies have shown that there is a connection between smoking, low HDL levels (good cholesterol), and high LDL levels (bad cholesterol).

The good news is that as soon as you give up smoking, these harmful effects on your arteries start to reverse quite fast:

  • After three months without smoking, blood circulation, cholesterol levels, and lung function improve drastically.
  • After one year without smoking, the risk of getting heart diseases reduces by half.

4. Less Alcohol

While alcohol abuse has been showing to lead to serious health problems (high blood pressure, high cholesterol levels, cardiovascular diseases, and strokes), moderate use of alcohol has been proven to be beneficial for your HDL cholesterol for people who drink already. But if you’re not drinking, you should stay this way, as your health is better without it. For those who drink, it’s ok to have one glass a day.

5. Lose Weight

A few extra pounds will add soft curves to your figure. However, too many pounds on, you will not only look bad but will make you feel bad as well, as they will affect your health. One of the downsides of obesity is that it increases the risk of cardiovascular diseases and cholesterol levels. Studies show that weight loss also reduces cholesterol levels by increasing the absorption of cholesterol from the diet and reducing the production of new cholesterol. It keeps the LDL in control – in decreasing amounts – while the good HDL cholesterol is continuously produced as it should, leading to a reduced risk of cardiovascular diseases.

6. Have Healthy, Happy Relationships

You’ll have to make changes in this area, too. Studies show that people in loving, happy relationships score a lower risk of heart disease.

Simple gestures like:

  • Hugging several times during the day.
  • Cuddling on the sofa or in bed.
  • Holding hands when you’re walking outside.

Touching each other affectionately causally have a substantial impact on your health and well-being, research shows. On the other side, people who don’t have sexual intercourse at least once a month with theirs. Partners have a higher risk of cardiovascular problems, compared to people who engage in sexually frequently, an average 2-3 times a week.

Relationships that are not necessarily romantic, like friendships, also have a positive effect on your heart when they are loving, caring, supportive, and compassionate.

So, try to love more, be compassionate, care for others and help them, be there for others in their tough times, support people emotionally when they go through hardships, have more fun together, laugh more, hug more often, and play together.

It counts for your heart and theirs.

Influence Your Cholesterol Levels with Healthy Lifestyle Changes

Lifestyle alterations can be life-changing for your body, spirit, and soul. If you have high cholesterol, consider making a few of the everyday suggestions mentioned. They could help reduce your cholesterol levels, keeping you healthy and happy.