Lifestyle changes are often recommended by physicians to increase the efficacy of therapeutic management of many health disorders. Moreover, there are certain disorders, where changing lifestyle habits is the first line treatment option. High cholesterol is definitely one of such disorders, because before prescribing medications doctors usually recommend to implement certain changes of patient’s lifestyle to fix his cholesterol level.
Taking into account that people with high levels of cholesterol may also suffer from such health disorders as diabetes or some cardiovascular problems, lifestyle changes, such as following a healthy diet or quitting smoking, may help a lot not only in lowering blood cholesterol level, but also in improving general health.
Bellow you can find a list of recommendations on lifestyle changes, which can help you lower your cholesterol, as well as to promote overall good health.
Learn to choose healthy foods, especially healthy fats. If you are unsure what the expression “healthy foods” means, talk to your physician or dietitian. But even before visiting a doctor, you can always start changes for better by taking an honest look at your eating habits and daily foods. It is known that saturated and trans fats raise your total level of cholesterol. As a general rule, get no more than 10 percents of your daily calories from saturated fats and try to avoid trans fats.
Reduce your cholesterol intake. Take no more than 300 mg of cholesterol every day. If you suffer of heart disease take less that 200 mg cholesterol daily. Appropriate diets and recipes can help you to reduce cholesterol intake. There are plenty of them nowadays and doctors can usually recommend the one which is right for you.
Do not forget about fruits and vegetables, which are the sources of dietary fiber. It plays very important role in keeping cholesterol at the appropriate level. Taking fruits and vegetables may help you reduce bad cholesterol. Doctors also recommend eating at least two servings of fish a week However, in order to maintain the heart- healthy benefits of fish - bake or grill it.
Maybe you’ll find this statement boring or annoying, but this is a proven fact that quitting smoking really works for lowering cholesterol. If you cannot quit smoking on your own, talk to your doctor about prescription medications, such as Zyban or Chantix.
Everybody knows that regular alcohol consumption may lead to serious health problems (high blood pressure, heart failure, etc.). If you don’t drink, don’t even begin doing this. But if you do, try to limit your alcohol consumption to one drink a day if you are a woman and to one or two drinks a day if you are a man.
Increase Your Physical Activity
In fact, this may be a very exciting and interesting method to reduce your cholesterol. Besides, following this recommendation - you’ll always be in good shape. Nowadays there are a lot of opportunities to increase your physical activity. You should exercise at least 30 minutes a day about five times a week. This will help you improve your general health – hence, you’ll be able to control your cholesterol.
There are also many different fitness programs; joining one of which may become your first effective step towards improving your health in general. In addition to lowering cholesterol, physical training, fitness or any other kind of physical activity may help you reduce chronic diseases risk, improve your metabolism and promote weight loss.
If you follow these guileless recommendations and make the above mentioned changes a part of your life – it will definitely help you lower your bad cholesterol level. Try to do your best in helping yourself; don’t be lazy because it is your own life and your own health.
Of course, to be unbiased enough, it should be mentioned that sometimes lifestyle changes may not be enough to reduce the total cholesterol level. In this case it is necessary to visit your doctor once again and he’ll find the appropriate treatment for you. Nowadays it is not a big problem to do this. There are a lot of medications and cholesterol lowering treatment options. Take medications as the doctor prescribed.
Take care of your health. It is in your hands.
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