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.”

A balanced ratio of carbohydrates, fat and protein is emphasized by Dr. Sears in the Zone Diet. Sr. Sears’ diet has been described as “eating the way our grandparents ate.” Many people report success in losing weight with a low carb approach, without having to count calories or going hungry. Along with healthy weight loss, many different health conditions have seen improvement, including reducing high cholesterol.

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.

There are many products currently on the market claiming to use policosanol, but many in fact are using an incomplete form of policosanol called octacosanol. Octacosanol will NOT give the positive results outlined in the clinical trials. The cholesterol lowering results apply ONLY to the genuine policosanol extracted from sugar cane wax which is produced in Cuba.

So do your “due diligence” before choosing a nutritional supplement to help lower cholesterol. Make sure it contains genuine policosanol and that it has been tested for micro biological contamination in a GMP approved laboratory. Also try to verify that it meets the standards set by the U.S. and/or the British Pharmacopoeia. This way, you can be sure of the purity and the effectiveness of the supplements you buy.

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.

About the author: Max Wardlow writes about quality health supplements. Visit his website today to find out more about how to lower bad cholesterol.

Tags: congestive heart disease, ischemic heart disease, woman and heart disease