According to Medline Plus, cholesterol is a fatlike substance that occurs naturally in your body and is necessary for good health. However, when you have too much cholesterol in your blood, it can begin to stick to the walls of the arteries as plaque, which can build up and block the flow of blood. Having too much cholesterol in your blood therefore increases your risk of having heart disease. Fortunately, there are steps you can take to control your cholesterol levels.
Testing Your Cholesterol Levels
Merck Source states that one of the steps toward controlling cholesterol levels is to test your cholesterol levels frequently. According to the University of Iowa Hospitals and clinics, this test is the important first step to knowing just how much at risk of heart disease or stroke you are. The test should be done on an empty stomach. Cholesterol levels are measured in milligrams per deciliter of blood. A middle-aged man with 200mg/dl is at very low risk of heart disease.
Diet and Exercise
One of the steps to control cholesterol listed by Merck Source is healthy eating. The diet should be low in saturated fats or low in all fats in general. Foods like biscuits, pastries and butter are high in saturated fats and must therefore be avoided. Foods like liver and kidneys have a different kind of cholesterol called dietary cholesterol. These do not have the same negative effect on your blood cholesterol. The traditional school of thought that believed eating eggs can cause an increase in blood cholesterol has been recently disputed. According a February 2009 BBC News article, eating eggs does not contribute to higher blood cholesterol as much as saturated fats do. BBC News further reports that eggs should be included as part of a balanced diet. A lot of exercise is also required to keep the cholesterol levels within the limits.
Medications
Taking cholesterol-lowering medications helps to control cholesterol, according to Bupa, a health organization in the United Kingdom. The main medicines that are used to lower cholesterol are called statins, which reduce the amount of cholesterol in the blood by decreasing its production in the liver.
