Cholesterol is something that many individuals are frightened of, but most individuals do not understand. Individuals are scared of having ‘cholesterol’, but they do not understand that there are two sorts of cholesterol and that they have to have some of both sorts.
The difficulty comes if you have more cholesterol than you require. This is because cholesterol is a waxy, fatty substance that can stick to the walls of arteries, build up and result in obstruction.
This means that the heart has to work more to send enough oxygen and nutrients to where they are required. This in turn means that a rise in blood pressure, which often leads to heart disease, which in turn leads to heart attacks and strokes.
Luckily, there are three methods out of this problem: diet, exercise and medication. The medication would have to be taken daily and for life, so most individuals would rather strive to reduce their levels of cholesterol without taking drugs. However, this does require lifestyle alterations.
A great deal of individuals have tried dieting to lose weight and failed. Dieting to reduce cholesterol is not quite the same, but there are similarities and a weight loss diet could be linked with a low cholesterol diet fairly easily.
However, there is another method and that is exercise. You can either exercise a great deal and eat more or less what you like or exercise a bit and be careful with what you eat as well. If you decide to exercise a lot, the manner that it will work for you is by increasing your rate of metabolism and strengthening your heart.
Before embarking on an exercise routine, you ought to talk to your doctor, particularly if you have not carried out much exercise for a long time. Your doctor will probably advise you to do mild types of exercise such as rambling for an hour a day (two times thirty minutes) until you are within a stone or so of your goal weight. Swimming in a swimming pool is another good alternative.
Exercise can have a fairly rapid effect on your cholesterol levels. In fact, it will have a faster effect than dieting, but the best way to go is to eat less HDL (saturated fats, trans fats and hydrogenated fats) and exercise too.
When you are exercising a great deal more, bear in mind to hydrate your body by drinking lots of water. Water, not soda or caffeinated drinks or beer. Merely water and at least two litres a day, which is roughly eight tumblers full.
You can also imbibe water by eating watery fruits like watermelons and other fruits, which would kill two birds with one stone as eating fruit is seen as a way of staving off cancer.
Owen Jones, the author of this piece, writes on several subjects, but is now concerned with food that lowers cholesterol. If you want to know more, please visit our site at What Foods Lower Cholesterol?