Are you living your life with high cholesterol and looking for some natural methods to reduce it without medication? High cholesterol is a risk factor for stroke and heart diseases as well as diabetes.
Here are natural ways by which you can control your cholesterol level, all you need to do is, change your lifestyle by adding some simple day to day routines to it like changing your eating habits, adding some excercise to your day to day life.
Nowdays people work mostly sitting in front of computers or laptops for long hours. Having sedentary life style is also one cause of rise in cholesterol levels. Also fast foods like pizza, burger, pasta and noodles have taken the place of our traditional food, which were healthier and full of nutrients.
It's always better to switch to our traditional foods which are rich in Omega-3 fatty acids and soluble fibre than having unhealthy processed foods. Here are simple routines which you can add to your current lifestlyle for lowering cholesterol level and living healthy life with healthy heart.
If you have high level cholesterol, smoking is the first thing you should quit. The major risk factor for various heart diseases is one's smoking habit.
Smoking builds up a fatty plaque in the blood vessels, due to this plaque blood flow is restricted to the other parts of the body and after some years of growth, this plaque burst and forms blood clots. These blood clots reduces or blocks the blood flow to the heart causing heart attacks. Blood clots can also travel throughout the body, causing stroke if the blood flow to the brain is stopped. So smoking is the most dangerous habit for your heart.
According to a research, people who quit smoking improved their level of HDL the "good" cholesterol within short period and also their blood pressure was improved. So quitting smoking saves you from many cardiovascular diseases.
2. Have more fruits and vegetables in your diet:
Having a diet rich in fruits and vegetables is good for your overall health. Since these are very low in saturated fat and total fat, and have no cholesterol.
A diet high in fruit and vegetables is good for heart and also help in lowering cholesterol. It's a really healthy if we substitute our snacks high in saturated fat and other fats with fruit salad or some healthy vegetable delicacy.
3. Excercising :
Include the habit of excercising regularly, without excercising no diet plan will help. Excercising helps in improving HDL or the "good" cholesterol and it also help in lowering triglycerides which
are responsible for many coronary artery diseases.
Regular excercise help you in maintaing healthy body weight; being overweight increases the LDL, the "bad" cholesterol in the blood which is linked to many heart diseases. Excercising help to maintain your cholesterol to a healthy level.
4.Completely cutting foods having trans fat:
Cut off trans-fat from your diet completely beacause they pose the major risk for your heart. Stop having yummy cookies, pizza, and other processed foods if you have high cholesterol as they only tantalize your taste buds but once its get digested causes most health risk to your heart by clogging your arteries and forming a sludge that is hardly degradable.
Always check the pakaging label for the amount of trans-fat content or the list of ingredients for the partially hydrogenated oils. The trans fats raises your bad cholesterol LDL and lowers your good cholesterol HDL, increasing the risk of developing heart diseases and stroke.
5. Reduce Stress:
Everybody knows stress increases a person's heart rate but do you know it also raises a persons cholesterol level. A study has shown that chronic stress and high cholesterol together leads to heart diseases if not quickely taken care of. Leading a streefree life has positive impact on overall health.
During stress, the hormones, adrenaline and cortisol trigger the production of cholesterol, a fatty substance like wax which liver makes to provide energy to our body and also to repair damaged cells. If the stress is persistent, too much cholesterol is formed which gets clogged in the arteries leading to heart diseases.
A research has shown that people who are capable of coping stress have higher level of good cholesterol than the people who are not capable of coping stress. So keeping yourself stressfree is important for controlling your cholesterol levels. Do some activities like yoga, meditation, playing some sports, listening to music, having adequate sleep etc. to reduce stress.
6. Have foods rich in omega-3 fatty acids and soluble fibre:
Omega-3 fatty acids lower the risk of heart diseases. It reduces unhealthy fat called triglycerides in the blood stream. They can also slow the plaque build up in the bloodvessels. Since our body cannot make these omega-3 fatty acids, we must get these essential fatty acids from the food or supplements.
We must also have foods rich in soluble fiber to lower cholesterol level. Soluble fibre forms a gel in water that helps bind acids and cholesterol in the intestinal tract, preventing their re-absorption into the body. This is how soluble fibre help in lowering cholesterol.
Some foods rich in omega-3 fatty acid and soluble fibre are given below :
- Flax-seeds and chia seeds, are rich source of omega-3 fatty acids and soluble fibre.
- Sea food is the largest source of this essential fatty acid which includes fishes like salmon, sardines and tuna. Oyesters are also good source of these fatty acids. Cod liver oil is also rich in omega-3 fatty acids.
- Soya bean, black beans, kidney beans, chickpea etc, all beans are rich in soluble fibre which help in lowering cholesterol.
- Other foods which are rich in soluble fibre are oats and oats fibre, barley, brown rice, carrots, apple, avacado and other fruits and vegetables.
- Nuts like walnuts, almonds, peanut, hazel nut, pistachios etc help in lowering cholesterol as they are rich in protein, fibre, healthy monosaturated fats, vitamins, minerals and antioxidents. Eating one ounce of nuts daily can reduce heart diseases. So you can have these nuts as snacks but in moderation, is good for your heart.
7. Drink alcohol in moderation:
You must have heard that drinking a glass of wine reduces the risk of heart diseases but drinking too much alcohol does much harm to your heart.
It increases your risk of heart diseases like stroke, heart attack, raise your blood pressure, weakening of heart muscles and also contributes in weight gain. Excessive drinking also causes liver damage and have many more bad effects on your overall well-being.
Various heart organisations and heart specialists never recommend you to start alcohol for lowering your cholesterol level or improving your heart health, instead they advice healthy eating habits and regular excercise to control your cholesterol level.
So always drink alcohol in moderation for healthy heart and keeping your cholesterol level in control.
8. Reduce excess weight:
If you are overweight or obese, loosing extra pounds of weight will help you in getting your cholesterol level in control. People who are overweight or obese are more likely to have diabetes and high cholesterol.
So if you are overweight, you need to be more active. Do some excercise, go for the long walks, head to the gym and cut those extra pounds to reduce cholesterol.
Include more fruits and vegetables in your diet. Have a healthy diet plan from your nutrition for healthy heart and body.
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