Simple Ways To Lower Cholesterol
Why start today, what you can put off until tomorrow? Today there is a cure and tomorrow there might only be chronic management. Take cholesterol for example.
Today – dietary fiber
Tomorrow – prescription bile acid sequestrants
Dietary fiber plays a role in lowering cholesterol. Soluble fiber in the gut binds the cholesterol building blocks called bile acids. People who think fiber is food for termites might, unfortunately, miss out on years of fiber’s health benefits and later require medication to bind bile acids.
Today – adequate dietary vitamin B3
Tomorrow – prescription extended release niacin
Fast-food diets are low in the B vitamin niacin, not low to the extreme of a fatal niacin deficiency called pellagra, but low enough to impair cholesterol processing. After years of less than optimal niacin, cholesterol creeps up. Some people with high cholesterol are prescribed Niaspan, which releases niacin into the body at a slow even pace at doses 10 to 15 fold higher than the niacin found in multivitamins.
Today – healthful dietary fats
Tomorrow – prescription fibrates such as gemfibrozil
Diets low in trans fats, low in saturated animal fats, and adequate in plant and fish fats promote healthful cholesterol profiles. Fibrate medications such as gemfibrozil have been prescribed since the 1970s to lower cholesterol. Now molecular science is finding that medication and diet create their positive effects in similar ways.
Today – whole foods and water
Tomorrow – prescription statins
Most of our cholesterol is made “in house.” Our body makes more cholesterol than we take in from our diet. The important point is that our diet sets a precedent for how much cholesterol to make. Whole food diets generally signal the body to make less cholesterol than less healthful diets do. Hydration also helps the “cholesterolostat,” because dry cells use cholesterol to patch weakened cell membranes. So, camel up before your next lab test. Start now!
Click on the “Cholesterol” Health Challenge Tab above for more…
Cheers,
Ingrid Kohlstadt, M.D.