Making lifestyle changes are sometimes necessary in order to lower your cholesterol. Medications are great for improving your cholesterol level as well, but if you want to try out making changes to your lifestyle first before jumping in to using medication, or if you are taking medication, but would like to make lifestyle changes to further its effect then you have come to the right article. Here are 5 lifestyle change that you need to improve your cholesterol.

1. Exercise and Increase physical activities

Both exercise and doing other physical activities can give the benefit of improving your cholesterol and raising your HDL cholesterol, aka the good cholesterol. It is recommended that you work up to 30mns of moderate exercise 5 times a week or hardcore aerobic exercise for 20mns 3 times a week. Adding physical activities such as taking brisk walk, riding your bike or playing your favorite sports can help you greatly in improving your health.

2. Eat Heart-Healthy Food

Making necessary changes to your daily food consumption can improve your health greatly. You can start by reducing saturated fats that is found in red meats and dairy products, and eliminating trans fat that is usually found in margarines and other store-bought cookies and cakes. This will significantly cut down on your LDL cholesterol level.

In addition to that, you can increase your omega-3 fatty acid foods consumption, soluble fibers, and take whey protein as supplements to boost your health without affecting your LDL cholesterol.

3. Quit Smoking

Smoking has been proven times and times again to be very bad for your health. The benefits of quitting smoking are significant. Firstly, after 20mns of quitting, your blood pressure and heart rate recover from the highs of smoking. After 3 months of quitting, your blood flow and lung begins to improve and after a year of being sober, your risk of developing a heart disease a greatly reduced compared to those who smoke.

4. Lose Weight

Being overweight are really detrimental to your health. Start losing those extra pounds by switching from sugary beverage to regular water, and be mindful of what you eat like those donuts, candies and other sugary foods.

It’s also a good idea to increase the amount of physical activities you have in your routine such as taking the stairs instead of the elevator, biking to work and taking walks during break.

5. Drink Alcohol in moderation

We all know alcohol is essential in various social aspect, but it’s important to be mindful that it is linked to higher levels of HDL cholesterol. For healthy adults, it is recommended that women and men at the age of 65 and above only take one drink a day, and two for those at 65 and below. Excessive alcohol intake can cause high blood pressure, heart failure and strokes.

It’s important to note that if the lifestyle change isn’t enough, you should seek help from medical professional and ask for medication to help with lowering your cholesterol. Continue to make adjustments to your lifestyle while taking the prescribed medication as it can help keep your medication dose low.

Link reference: https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/high-blood-cholesterol/in-depth/reduce-cholesterol/art-20045935