How to lower cholesterol without medication? Nutritionist Lin Yuwei: 5 tips to adjust your lifestyle and improve your cholesterol

How to lower cholesterol without medication? Some people have high cholesterol but do not need medication. The American Heart Association points out that "adjusting lifestyle" is an important way to maintain health! Nutritionist Lin Yuwei said that five tips, such as getting enough sleep and smoking less, can adjust your lifestyle and help improve cholesterol.

Blood cholesterol can be divided into two types:

Low-density lipoprotein (LDL or often called “bad”) cholesterol

High-density lipoprotein (HDL or often called “good”) cholesterol

Nutritionist Lin Yuwei said that high LDL cholesterol can easily cause blood vessel blockage, affecting the heart's blood output and normal blood circulation. If LDL cholesterol is < 100 mg/dl, it helps with overall cardiovascular health. When total cholesterol is < 200 mg/dl, the risk of heart disease is still low at this stage. Before drug treatment is available, it is recommended to "adjust lifestyle" to lower cholesterol and reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease in the future.

5 ways to adjust your lifestyle to improve your cholesterol

1. Get enough sleep

The human body can process excess cholesterol when sleeping at night, so get enough sleep.

2. Smoke less

Smoking may lead to a decrease in high-density lipoprotein in the body and an increase in the concentrations of triglycerides and bad cholesterol, so it is recommended to smoke less, and it is best to quit smoking.

3. Adjust pressure in time

Cholesterol is one of the raw materials for synthesizing stress hormones. Once the stress is too great, the bad cholesterol (LDL-C, low-density cholesterol) in the human blood will also increase, so it is necessary to adjust the stress in a timely manner on a daily basis.

In addition to the above 3 tips, which are helpful for improving cholesterol, adding the following 2 lifestyle adjustments can bring more benefits:

4. Exercise regularly

Exercise can promote the release of good cholesterol into the blood, help clear fat plaques deposited in blood vessels, and transport them to the liver for metabolism. Regular exercise can help lower your cholesterol, especially if you haven't exercised before. However, the speed at which cholesterol levels decrease varies from person to person, so don't be discouraged if it doesn't decrease immediately.

The American Heart Association recommends that adults get more than 150 minutes of moderate physical activity or 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity physical activity per week. Types of exercise, such as walking, swimming, weight training, dancing, or whatever you enjoy. The intensity of exercise should be so that it is difficult to speak while exercising. Make sure your heart rate reaches a certain frequency so that the exercise process can reach a certain intensity.

5. Diversified diet

A diet that relies on just one type of food to improve health may not be as effective as one that gets better nutrition from a variety of foods. A 2018 systematic review of seven clinical trials (a total of 439 people with high cholesterol who did not require medication) found that a diverse diet can reduce LDL cholesterol by up to 30%.

In addition, a 30-year follow-up study of 210,000 American adults published in 2021* found that people who strictly followed a diversified dietary combination had a 14% lower risk of cardiovascular disease than those who ate less of these foods.

A diverse diet is divided into three food groups as follows:

1. Plant-based beans

For example: soy products such as tofu, dried tofu, and bean buns, and other plant protein foods such as red beans, mung beans, and chickpeas. Replacing red meat in the diet with the above foods can help improve cholesterol. Plant protein can inhibit the production of Apo-B.

[Note]: An increase in Apo-B will increase the risk of coronary heart disease. Apo-B is a structural protein on the top of bad cholesterol (LDL), so reducing its presence is more helpful in lowering the body's cholesterol control.

2. Foods rich in water-soluble dietary fiber

Foods rich in viscous fiber and water-soluble dietary fiber, such as oats, psyllium, berries, okra, eggplant, apples and citrus fruits. Water-soluble fiber combines with cholesterol in the intestines, reducing the chance of cholesterol being absorbed by the body.

3. Food sources rich in good fats

(1) Eat more nuts, seeds and avocados

The above foods are good sources of unsaturated fatty acids, plant sterols and dietary fiber, which help lower bad cholesterol. You can add chopped nuts to oatmeal or eat nuts, sesame seeds, and avocado as snacks.

(2) Healthy vegetable oil

Healthy vegetable oils, such as canola oil and olive oil, can help lower cholesterol. This type of oil can be used especially for home cooking.

Healthy vegetable oils, such as canola oil and olive oil, can help lower cholesterol.

Nutritionist Lin Yuwei said that the diet is effective because it combines various foods and nutrients to lower cholesterol in different ways. Diet, exercise, and other healthy habits can go a long way toward lowering your cholesterol. It is recommended to consider adjustments from an overall perspective, which will be more effective in lowering blood lipids and cholesterol.

1. Excessive intake of saturated fatty acids can easily increase cholesterol. Not only red meat contains saturated fatty acids, but sweets such as biscuits, cakes, ice cream, and puffs also contain saturated fatty acids due to the palm oil and cream used in the manufacturing process. Friends who like to eat this kind of food should be more restrained, but it still does no harm.

<References>

1.doi:10.1016/j.pcad.2018.05.004

2. https://doi.org/10.1161/HYP.00000000000000196

*The experimental samples were taken from the first and second Nurses' Health Study (NHS) and the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study (HPFS) in the United States.