If you have Diabetes, you’re at increased risk for cardiovascular disease, including heart attacks and stroke. You can decrease your risk and help prevent this Diabetes complication by lowering your cholesterol levels. You probably know that eating healthy foods is one way to lower your cholesterol. But there are other ways to lower your cholesterol, such as exercising, maintaining a healthy weight and taking medications, if necessary.
Lower Your Cholesterol by Eating a Healthy Diet
The most unhealthy high cholesterol foods are those high in saturated fat, which is responsible for increasing your LDL (bad) cholesterol level. Eating too much saturated fat is the primary reason for high cholesterol levels and heart disease.
High cholesterol foods come from animals and animal products, including egg yolks, red meat (particularly organ meats), and higher fat milk products such as butter, cream and whole milk.
Heart healthy foods that are low in saturated fat and cholesterol include fruits, vegetables, legumes (beans, peas, lentils), whole grains, oatmeal and oat bran, fatty fish such as tuna and salmon, nuts such as walnuts and almonds and fat-free or low-fat dairy products.
Exercise to Improve Your Cholesterol Level
You can also lower your cholesterol by exercising on a regular basis. Aerobic activity, i.e., exercise that elevates your heart rate for at least 20 minutes, can lower triglycerides and boost your HDL (good) cholesterol.
Control Cholesterol by Maintaining a Healthy Weight
If you are overweight and have high cholesterol, you need to lose the excess weight. Losing weight can lower your bad LDL cholesterol and triglycerides and increase your good HDL cholesterol. Once you’ve reached your target weight, you should maintain it to keep your cholesterol within an acceptable range (less than 100 mg/dL for LDL, more than 60 mg/dL for HDL, less than 200 mg/dL for total cholesterol and less than 150 mg/dL for triglycerides).
Lower Cholesterol with Medications
If lifestyle changes such as eating a healthy diet, exercising and losing weight still don’t lower your cholesterol levels enough, especially your bad LDL cholesterol, your doctor might recommend you take a cholesterol-lowering medication.
Your doctor is more likely to prescribe medication if you have additional risk factors such as heart disease or Diabetes. The most commonly prescribed cholesterol-lowering drugs are statins, which block the effects of an enzyme that helps make cholesterol. Statins can lower your LDL cholesterol by up to 20 to 55% while increasing HDL cholesterol. Other classes of prescription drugs include ezetimibe, niacin, bile acid resins and fibrates.
If you take a cholesterol-lowering medication, that doesn’t mean you can slack off on your diet, exercise routine or weight loss program. Those lifestyle changes have health benefits beyond cholesterol control; they can lower your blood pressure and heart rate, as well as decrease your risk of Diabetes, cardiovascular disease and other chronic diseases.
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