Lower Your Cholesterol Naturally

Cholesterol is a fatty substance needed by the cells. Not only is it needed for the production of certain hormones, but is also essential for cell maintenance and growth. It can be said that without cholesterol a person would die. Fortunately, the body makes enough to maintain itself.

When we eat foods high in cholesterol, our blood levels will show the increase from dietary intake. If one maintains a high blood cholesterol level for a long enough time, it can accumulate in the artery-cell walls causing a plaque buildup. This is when cholesterol is no longer helpful, but becomes dangerous.

The accumulation of cholesterol has been positively linked to many cardiovascular diseases and to the blocking of blood vessels leading to oxygen lack in the heart or brain and eventually heart attacks and strokes. A diet, therefore, low in cholesterol foods and rich in cholesterol lowering foods are crucial in preventing artery damage and heart attacks.

A superfood for heart attack and stroke prevention is oats or oatmeal. An early finding on oatmeal is that it contains the soluble fiber known as beta-glucan. As beta-glucan passes through the digestive tract, it breaks down into a gel that absorbs cholesterol-rich bile acids thereby reducing the absorption of cholesterol into the bloodstream.

It acts on lowering LDL or bad cholesterol levels without affecting HDL or good cholesterol levels. This action by beta-glucan is reputed to lower LDL levels by as much as 20% on a daily breakfast bowl of cooked oatmeal containing only 3 grams soluble oat fiber. This greatly lowers the risk of heart disease.

Oats is also a rich source of the antioxidant compound called tocotrienol which, together with tocopherols, is an important compound in producing Vitamin E. Tocotrienol lowers cholesterol by reducing the capability of blood cells to adhere to the inside of artery walls.

But oats has many other important health benefits, which is only now being appreciated by consumers.

Oats contain many phytochemicals, which lessen a person’s risk of getting cancer. The lignans or phytoestrogen compounds in oats have been positively implicated in lowering a woman’s estrogen levels. And lower estrogen levels have been found to lower a woman’s risk of being stricken by hormone-related diseases like breast cancer and to similar hormone-related cancers affecting the ovaries, uterus and in males the prostate.

Oats are full of insoluble and soluble fiber, which are critical in maintaining regular bowel movements. Insoluble fiber, which does not dissolve in water, turns spongy in the gut and, like a sponge, absorbs many times its own weight in liquefied matter. By making stools heavier, the insoluble fiber speeds up the passage of fecal matter through the digestive system, preventing constipation and reducing the formation of carcinogens in the gastrointestinal tract.

Soluble fiber, on the other hand, forms into a gel, which makes the contents of the stomach more “sticky” or viscous. The gelatinous fiber delays stomach emptying to make one feel full longer, promoting weight reduction. Recently, a study showed that 2-18-year-old children who regularly consume oatmeal are 50% less likely to be fat when compared to children who did not eat their oats.

Like all cholesterol-lowering agents, oats are most effective when consumed regularly. The beneficial health effects of oats are best if 40-80 grams or half a cup to one cup of oats are eaten every day.

This contention is backed up by several studies. One study found that the daily intake of 40 grams of oatmeal for two months led to a total cholesterol loss of 3% and a 14% reduction in LDL. A similar study confirmed that a one-and-a-half month to two-month daily dose of 40-80 grams of oat lowered total cholesterol by 20% and LDL by as much as 25%. A third study discovered that the daily consumption of 100 grams of oat bran reduced cholesterol by up to 15%.

The USDA National Nutrient Database has summarized the high nutritional value, which can be found in 100 grams of oats:

• Energy – 390 kcal / 1630 kJ
• Carbohydrate – 66 g
• Dietary fiber total – 11g (beta glucan – 5g; insoluble – 6g)
• Total fat – 6 g
• Protein – 17 g
• Cholesterol – 0 g
• Minerals: calcium – 54 mg; iron – 4.72 mg; magnesium – 177 mg; phosphorous-523 mg; potassium – 429 mg; sodium-2 mg; zinc-3.97 mg; copper – 0.626 mg; manganese – .916 mg
• Vitamins: thiamin (B1) – 0.763 mg; riboflavin (B2) – 0.139 mg; niacin – 0.961 mg; pantothenic acid -1.349 mg; Vitamin B-6 – 0.119 mg; total folate – 56 mcg; Vitamin B-12 – 0 mcg; Vitamin A – 0 IU; retinal – 0 mcg
• Amino acids: tryptophan – 0.234 g; threonine – 0.575 g; isoleucine – 0.694 g; leucine – 1.284 g; lysine – 0.701 g; methionine – 0.312 g; cystine – 0.408 g; phenylalanine – 0.985 g; tyrosine – 0.573 g; valine – 0.937 g; arginine – 1.192 g; histidine – 0.405 g; alanine – 0.881 g; aspartic acid – 1.448 g; glutamic acid – 3.712 g; glycine – 0.841 g; proline – 0.934 g; serine – 0.750 g.

A simple test could show if you might have future heart problems. The C-Reactive protein (CRP) has been shown to be a marker of inflammation in the body particularly for inflammation due to atherosclerosis of hardening of the arteries.

Atherosclerosis is a systemic disorder and involves the injury of our arteries’ glistening and responsive lining tissue called the endothelium. This lining allows the underlying muscle layer to expand and contract in order to regulate and fulfill the expanding or decreasing needs of the tissues supplied by the blood vessels. Atherosclerosis can stiffen and distort this layer causing it to behave differently.

Atherosclerosis begins with whitish streaks being deposited in the arteries. Depending on diet and physical activity, overtime these streaks may become plaque deposits which can block blood flow through the artery.

As the plaques accumulate, part of the unstable outer surface may break off and cause a blood clot blocking flow to heart muscle and causing a heart attack.

Inflammation is a key component in the atherosclerotic process. The body produces C-reactive protein during the general process of inflammation. When atherosclerosis damages arteries around the heart, they become inflamed, which triggers CRP production, so increased levels of CRP may indicate that a patient is at risk for heart attack.
This has become particularly important since a surprising number of heart attack victims do not have high cholesterol or other risk factors of heart disease – seemingly healthy people have heart attacks.

The American Heart Association has recommended using the CRP level to determine a patient’s risk of heart disease. This simple, inexpensive blood test (high sensitivity C-reactive protein or hs-CRP test) takes the traditional cardiac check-up a step further, pinpointing those people who are at a much higher risk than others for heart disease.

From hs-CRP results, doctors gain crucial insight into inflammation of the blood vessels around the heart.
Results:

Less than 1.0 mg/L = Low Risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD)
1.0-2.9 mg/L = Intermediate Risk for CVD
Greater than 3.0 mg/L High Risk for CVD

The hs-CRP test may help you avoid a heart attack when you think you don’t fall in the high risk category.

I always emphasize the eating of natural foods over manufactured whether it is fast food or food bought prepared. And as early as 1951, Dr. Royal Lee gave a speech which contained this quote:  “One of the biggest tragedies of human civilization is the precedent of chemical therapy over nutrition.   It’s a substitution of artificial therapy over natural; of poisons over food, in which we are feeding people poison in trying to correct the reactions of starvation.”
Medications are those chemicals he speaks of so called artificial therapy. Today we are facing an obesity epidemic and also a diabetes one which has the capacity to bring our health system to its knees. Can we afford more obesity and heart related illnesses? I think not.
Natural foods are what our ancestors ate along with daily exercise. Today our children are developing diabetes and many are obese. That is because many sit at home and play video games and snack on manufactured foods. Foods that are designed to taste and look good, but guess what – they are toxic to their hearts and their bodies in general. They are not physically active and in some areas of the country children have been placed on medications (Statins and Children) for heart disease.
Starting an eight-year old child on heart medication (Cholesterol Drugs Urged for Children) is really a bit too much – isn’t it? How about throwing away the video games, fast food, eating your vegetables, and riding your bike like the older generations did?
The new president wants to give universal health care of some kind. Do you really think we all can afford it with our children starting on medications?

In your supermarket’s produce isle you will find all the healthy natural (super) foods that will not only keep your heart healthy, but will also build up your immune system. With a strong immune system you will be a good shape to ward off colds and the flu.
These fresh fruits and vegetables contain immune-boosting antioxidants which are vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients that protect and repair cells from damage caused by free radicals.
Free radicals are charged molecules that are the results of body processes. They roam in the bloodstream looking for cholesterol particles to oxidize with. When this happens the cholesterol becomes much more capable of penetrating the artery-cell wall and accumulating there accelerating the process of hardening of the arteries or atherosclerosis. Free radicals can cause many other problems also. Hence, the neutralizing of them with antioxidants helps prevent further complications.
The three major antioxidant vitamins are beta-carotene (a form of vitamin A), vitamin C, and vitamin E. You’ll find them in colorful fruits and vegetables – especially those with purple, blue, red, orange, and yellow hues. To get the biggest benefits of antioxidants, eat these foods raw or lightly steamed; don’t overcook or boil.
Produce high in beta-carotene: Apricots, asparagus, beets, broccoli, cantaloupe, carrots, corn, green peppers, kale, mangoes, turnip and collard greens, nectarines, peaches, pink grapefruit, pumpkin, squash, spinach, sweet potato, tangerines, tomatoes, and watermelon.
Produce high in vitamin C: Berries, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cantaloupe, cauliflower, grapefruit, honeydew, kale, kiwi, mangoes, nectarines, orange, papaya, red, green or yellow peppers, snow peas, sweet potato, strawberries, and tomatoes.
Produce high in vitamin E: Broccoli, carrots, chard, mustard and turnip greens, mangoes, nuts, papaya, pumpkin, red peppers, spinach, and sunflower seeds.

I have made posts about the danger of smoking on the cardiovascular system. Basically, smoking introduces free radicals into the bloodstream. These charged molecules can oxidize cholesterol and make it easier for cholesterol to penetrate artery cell walls and accumulate there giving rise to plaque. This encourages hardening of the arteries or atherosclerosis and may lead ultimately to a heart attack and sudden death.
Perhaps nothing a person can do is more harmful to the heart than smoking. This is probably one of the reasons why smoking has been banned in many public buildings.
Be aware that secondhand smoke can also have a serious impact on your heart. The U.S. Surgeon General determined that the separation of smokers and nonsmokers within the same airspace may reduce, but does not eliminate, the exposure of nonsmokers to secondhand smoke. The Environmental Protection Agency has determined that secondhand smoke cannot be reduced to safe levels in businesses by high rates of ventilation.
Numerous studies have found that tobacco smoke is a major contributor to indoor air pollution and that breathing secondhand smoke is a cause of disease in healthy nonsmokers, including heart disease, stroke, respiratory disease and lung cancer.
Air cleaners, which are only capable of filtering the particulate matter and odors in smoke, do not necessarily eliminate the known toxins in secondhand smoke. A significant amount of secondhand-smoke exposure may occur in a workplace. Employees who work in smoke-filled businesses suffer a 25 to 50 percent higher risk of heart attack and higher rates of death from cardiovascular disease and cancer, as well as increased acute respiratory disease and measurable decrease in lung function.

I have written about nuts and their good effects on the heart. Lately there have been a few articles on pistachios and its positive effects on reducing total cholesterol and LDL or bad cholesterol levels.
According to the American Heart Association, replacing saturated and trans fats with healthy mono- and polyunsaturated fats is a major dietary recommendation to improve heart health. Researchers at Pennsylvania State University conducted a randomized, crossover, controlled feeding study to test the effects of pistachios added to a heart healthy, moderate-fat diet on cardiovascular disease risk factors.
Twenty-eight men and women with moderately elevated LDL cholesterol began the study by following a diet designed to mimic the current average American intake, consisting of 35 percent total fat and 11 percent saturated fat for two weeks. The researchers randomly assigned subjects to follow three test diets for four weeks each, with a two-week break between each diet.
All three diets were variations on the National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP) Step 1 Diet, a cholesterol-lowering diet advocated by the American Heart Association and the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute.
The three diets included a Step 1 Diet control group without pistachios; a Step 1 Diet with one dose of pistachios a day at 10 percent of total calories (equal to 1.1 to 2.2 ounces of pistachios a day depending on calorie level); and a Step 1 Diet with two doses of pistachios a day at 20 percent of total calories (equal to 2.2 to 4.4 ounces of pistachios a day depending on calorie level).
Total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, and non-HDL cholesterol levels were significantly lower with the two pistachio diets compared to the control group. The one dose pistachio diet lowered harmful LDL cholesterol by nine percent and the two dose pistachio diet lowered LDL by 12 percent.
In addition, the researchers documented lower amounts of saturated fats in the blood and higher amounts of monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats in both pistachio diets. Compared to the control diet, HDL-cholesterol levels were higher in women following the two dose pistachio diet. HDL-cholesterol levels were not significantly different across the diets in men.

So about a handful of pistachios a day can make a significant difference in lowering blood cholesterol levels

You may have heard about probiotics and the benefits of live cultures of bacteria. A probiotic is an organism which contributes to the health and balance of the intestinal tract. It is also referred to as a “beneficial”, or “good” bacteria which when ingested acts to maintain a healthy intestinal tract and help fight illness and disease.
There are many yogurts that have live cultures of beneficial bacteria that may be classified as probiotics. Research has suggested that these yogurts may prevent the reabsorption of cholesterol in the intestines back into the blood stream.
Having a healthy balance of probiotic bacteria in the intestine will definitely boost up the immune system. But the jury is still out on whether probiotics will lower blood cholesterol directly. It seems that a more indirect route to lowering cholesterol might be closer to the truth.
The healthful benefits of eating yogurt have been touted for many years. It might have all started when food scientists studied the Masai tribe in Africa. These people eat large quantities of red meat and were observed to have low cholesterol. When researchers studied their diets they found that the tribe also ate large quantities (3 or more liters) of fermented milk (yogurt) each day. The scientists suggested that it must be the yogurt that prevented high cholesterol.

For lunch every day I eat a good two cups of probiotic yogurt. I do believe it does me good. I make a concoction of yogurt, walnuts, chunks of pineapple, and powdered whey. It fills me up and it makes me feel great until supper.

We hear the (health) words  omega-3 and omega-6 a lot. But what are they? They are important to promoting heart health as well as many other health related problems.
Omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids are essential which means we can’t make them in our bodies. We have to get them from our diets. Both are polyunsaturated fatty acids (good fats) and have different chemical structures.

Omega-3 can be obtained from the fat of cold water fish such as salmon, sardines, herring, mackerel, black cod, and bluefish. There are two critical omega-3 fatty acids, (eicosapentaenoic acid, called EPA and docosahexaenoic or DHA), that the body needs. EPA and DHA are the building blocks for hormones that control immune function, blood clotting, and cell growth as well as components of cell membranes.
Walnuts and flaxseeds contain a precursor omega-3 (alpha-linolenic acid called ALA) that the body must convert to EPA and DHA.
Sources of omega-6 fatty acids are numerous in modern diets. They are found in seeds and nuts, and the oils extracted from them. Refined vegetable oils, such as soy oil, are used in most of the snack foods, cookies, crackers, and sweets in the American diet as well as in fast food. Soybean oil alone is now so ubiquitous in fast foods and processed foods that an astounding 20 percent of the calories in the American diet are estimated to come from this single source.
Here’s where another fast-food rub comes in. In the US as well as many other developed countries we eat too many omega-6 fatty acids – our diets are out of balance. We need more omega-3. In ancient times, man got as many omega-3’s as he got omega-6’s. But today this is no longer true. We should have a 1 to 1 balance of these fatty acids.
Researchers think that many diseases of which one is heart disease, are brought about by this imbalance.

Talk about snacks! When you have those hunger pangs between meals – do yourself a heart favor and blend a smoothie. These are my favorite snacks. Making them is up to your imagination. Whatever fruits you like and low-fat milk, or I use soy milk, can make a delicious heart-healthy almost sinful drink (it can be so good).

The recipe for an apple smoothie follows:   1 frozen banana, 1/2 peeled chopped apple, 1 cup apple juice, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, pinch of nutmeg. Place them all in the blender and push blend. It tastes great and it has so many heart-healthy ingredients that I could write an ebook explaining them all.

I have a (FREE) ebook of 126 smoothie recipes for the athlete. If you want a copy just comment, and I’ll give you the download url.

To present a current, accurate view on the articles I publish, I try to find as many scientific studies as I can. Some vitamins and nutrients have very little published on them. And sometimes I wonder if the reports I find are used to discourage any positive reporting on a vitamin or nutrient.

For example – vitamin C is touted by many to be a great antioxidant. If one looks for scientific studies to support those hypotheses – well, you might come up lacking. Linus Pauling – some say he was the greatest scientist of the 20th century – swore by vitamin C. He was awarded more than one Nobel prize for his research. And I don’t think he had any monetary interest in promoting vitamin C. He stated that he regularly took 17 grams daily.

Now the pharmaceuticals don’t have anything to gain by promoting vitamin C or niacin, two very heart protective vitamins. Do they actively discourage research into the benefits of taking these vitamins? Your guess is as good as mine.

I have found other heart-protective nutrients that suffer the same fate. I have read that a pharmaceutical company spent a good bit of money on research to create a drug that would replace niacin, but was not successful. It goes to show that some old-timey cures do work and even here in the 21st century you can’t do much better.