7 Ways To Lower Your Cholesterol This Week

7 Ways To Lower Your Cholesterol This Week

1 / 8   Lower Cholesterol to Prevent Heart Attack and Stroke

If you need to lower your cholesterol, you can take steps each day that will help. First, if you're taking a cholesterol-lowering drug, remember to stick to your daily medication schedule. If you can then pick up some heart-healthy habits, you may see your numbers start to improve in only a matter of weeks, says Chauncey Crandall, MD, a cardiologist at Palm Beach Gardens Medical Center and Good Samaritan Medical Center in West Palm Beach, Florida.
Lowering your cholesterol not only reduces your risk for heart disease, but also helps prevent heart attack and stroke. So what are you waiting for? Here’s a week’s worth of tips — one a day — that will have you seeing better numbers in no time.

2 / 8   Sunday: Oatmeal for Breakfast

Start your week with a cholesterol-lowering food superstar: Choosing oatmeal for breakfast is a simple way to lower cholesterol fast. Oatmeal is high in fiber, and the TLC (Therapeutic Lifestyle Changes) diet recommends increasing your fiber intake to get to healthy cholesterol levels. Oatmeal contains more soluble fiber than other grains — you can actually imagine it sopping up the “bad” LDL cholesterol. Getting 5 to 10 grams (g) or more of soluble fiber a day decreases your total and LDL cholesterol, according to the Mayo Clinic, which recommends having 1 1/2 cups of oatmeal for 6 g of soluble fiber. And oatmeal doesn’t have to taste bland; sprinkle on some fruit or cinnamon for extra flavor.

3 / 8   Monday: Switch Your Snack to Walnuts

Eating nuts is one of the great and easy ways to lower cholesterol, and almost any type of nut will do. An analysis of 25 trials published in May 2010 in JAMA Internal Medicine found that eating an average of 67 g (just 2.4 ounces) of nuts a day can lower your cholesterol significantly, bringing total cholesterol down by about 5 percent and LDL cholesterol by 7 percent.

To get the most cholesterol-fighting power, walnuts are a top choice, says Harvey Kramer, MD, a cardiologist at Danbury Hospital in Connecticut. Almonds, pistachios, and peanuts are also top choices for lower cholesterol levels. “Snacking on a handful of walnuts is a great way to lower cholesterol, but you do have to be a little careful [with portion size] because, like other nuts, walnuts are high in calories,” Dr. Kramer says. 

4 / 8   Tuesday: Take a Walk During Your Lunch Break

It’s not only what you eat that affects your cholesterol. What you do counts, too. Our bodies simply weren’t meant to sit all day — we were made to move. Being active helps you achieve healthy cholesterol levels in two ways. First, it promotes weight loss, which is a tremendous aid if you want to lower cholesterol fast. And second, physical activity raises levels of HDL cholesterol, which is thought of as your body’s “good” cholesterol.

Working out at the right intensity can spark the production of HDL. The American Heart Association (AHA) says 40 minutes of moderate- to vigorous-intensity aerobic activity three or four times a week can help improve your cholesterol levels. Even walking helps: “I always recommend an hour walk a day, but you can just start with a brisk 15-minute walk and work up from there,” notes Dr. Crandall.

6 / 8   Thursday: Savor Some Salmon for Dinner

Get into the habit of choosing salmon over steak and you’ll be doing your heart a favor. Adding fish to your diet is beneficial in two ways, according to the American Heart Association. First, you’re replacing meat, which is often high in LDL-raising saturated fat, with fish, which is low in saturated fats. You’re also getting beneficial omega-3 fats from fish, which lower triglyceride levels (a type of fat that circulates in your blood). “That’s a double win,” Kramer says.

7 / 8   Friday: Enjoy a Blueberry Yogurt Parfait Dessert

“I consider blueberries one of my superfoods,” says Crandall, who eats them any chance he gets. All berries contain antioxidants, but certain berries contain more fiber. One serving size (about 1 cup) of blueberries contains 5 g — another reason they're a good choice to help lower cholesterol fast.

You can eat blueberries dried, and you can cook with them, too. If they’re not in season, you can buy packs of frozen blueberries — just be careful to use them as soon as they thaw out, so they're still firm. An excellent way to enjoy blueberries is to layer them with fat-free or low-fat yogurt for a tasty parfait as a desert. 

Refer: http://www.everydayhealth.com/high-cholesterol/diet/ways-to-lower-your-cholesterol-this-week/