Every 40 seconds in the United States, someone has a heart attack. While there are a few different risk factors that can lead to this dangerous health crisis, high cholesterol levels account for some of these cases.
Given that millions of Americans have concerning total cholesterol levels — about 86 million adults over the age of 20 and 7% of kids and teens — this is an area of your health that deserves your attention.
In this month’s blog post, Dr. Madaiah Revana and our team at Humble Cardiology want to focus on some ways you can improve your cholesterol numbers, starting with foods that should become part of your daily diet.
When we run blood tests to check your cholesterol, we provide you with values for a few key lipids in your blood, including:
In brief, your body uses LDLs to transport cholesterol for cell repair. Your HDLs perform the role of removing excess cholesterol in your blood so it doesn’t build up and form plaques along the walls of your blood vessels. Lastly, your body relies on triglycerides for energy.
In an ideal world, we want to see the right balance of these lipids because they all perform invaluable functions in your body, from providing fuel for cells to becoming building blocks for hormones.
Unfortunately, our transition to a modern diet and sedentary lifestyle can wreak havoc on this balance and allow too many fats to build up in your bloodstream. If your artery walls become damaged, cholesterol and other substances can accumulate, which leads to narrowing and leaves you at higher risk for serious complications that may include:
As you can see, these potential consequences of cholesterol issues are serious.
A great step toward improving your cholesterol numbers is to lower your LDLs and triglycerides while increasing your HDLs to create a healthier balance of lipids.
Some types of foods that help accomplish this include:
A good way to address cholesterol is to focus on soluble fiber-rich foods that may help bind to cholesterol in bile acids in the gastrointestinal tract. In addition to their fiber content, these whole foods contains other substances, such as antioxidants, that are linked to lower cholesterol and better health.
Some examples of high-fiber foods include:
These foods have an added bonus of improving your digestive health.
To lower LDLs and triglycerides in your blood we recommend foods that are rich in omega-3 fats. And the best source of those can be found in fatty fishes, such as salmon, mackerel, tuna, herring, and trout.
So swap out that steak and burger for a nice fish dish a few times a week.
Sterols and stanols are plant-based substances that can help block cholesterol from being absorbed, so experts recommend getting at least 2 grams of these every day.
Plant sterols and stanols can be found in many whole foods such as:
You can also look for foods that are fortified with sterols and stanols or you can take a supplement.
Not only will these food groups improve your overall cholesterol levels, they can improve your health on every other level, as well.
If you’d like a more personalized heart-healthy dietary plan that fits your tastes and lifestyle, please contact one of our two offices in Humble or Houston, Texas, to schedule a consultation.
