Cholesterol Information
High cholesterol,a major risk factor for heart and blood vessel disease, is most effectively treated with a combination of diet,exercise and cholesterol lowering medications.
When treating high cholesterol,ask your doctor what your treatment goals are as these will vary depending on each individual patient’s current state of health.
Regular exercise can be extremely effective at not only lowering total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol,but also at increasing HDL cholesterol.
Meet with a registered dietician to discuss an aggressive yet practical dietary approach to lowering your cholesterol.
Treatments
TLC is a set of lifestyle changes you can make to help lower your LDL cholesterol. The main parts of TLC are:
The TLC Diet, which recommends:
Limiting the amount of saturated fat and cholesterol you eat.
Eating only enough calories to achieve or maintain a healthy weight.
Increasing the soluble fiber in your diet. For example, oatmeal, kidney beans, and apples are good sources of soluble fiber.
Adding cholesterol-lowering food, such as margarines that contain plant sterol or stanol esters that lower cholesterol for some people.
Weight management:
Losing weight if you are overweight can help lower LDL. Weight management is especially important for those with a group of risk factors that includes high triglyceride and/or low HDL levels and being overweight with a large waist measurement (more than 40 inches for men and more than 35 inches for women).
Physical activity:
Regular physical activity is recommended for everyone. It can help raise HDL levels and lower LDL levels, and is especially important for those with high triglyceride and/or low HDL levels who are overweight with a large waist measurement.
Cholesterol-Lowering Medicines
Along with suggesting that you change the way you eat and exercise regularly, your doctor may prescribe medicines to help lower your cholesterol. Even if you begin drug treatment, you will need to continue TLC. Drug treatment controls but does not "cure" high blood cholesterol. Therefore, you must continue taking your medicine to keep your cholesterol level in the recommended range.
The five major types of cholesterol-lowering medicines are:
Statins
Very effective in lowering LDL (bad) cholesterol levels
Safe for most people
Rare side effects to watch for are liver and muscle problems
Bile Acid Sequestrants (seh-KWES-trants)
Help lower LDL cholesterol levels
Sometimes prescribed with statins
Not usually prescribed as the only medicine to lower cholesterol
Nicotinic (Nick-o-TIN-ick) Acid
Lowers LDL cholesterol and triglycerides, and raises HDL (good) cholesterol
Should only be used under a doctor's supervision
Fibrates
Lower triglycerides
May increase HDL (good) cholesterol levels
When used with a statin, may increase the chance of muscle problems
Ezetimibe
Lowers LDL cholesterol
May be used with statins or alone
Acts within the intestine to block cholesterol absorption
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