Cholesterol is a fatty substance created in the liver and used by your body to produce steroid hormones and cell membranes. Triglycerides, a type of fat also manufactured by the liver, influence cholesterol levels. While your liver synthesizes about three-quarters of your total cholesterol, the remaining quarter comes from the foods you eat. The National Cholesterol Education Program Expert Panel on Detection, Evaluation and Treatment of High Blood Cholesterol in Adults developed Adult Treatment Panel (ATP) III guidelines for lifestyle modifications around diet, physical activity and weight management to lower cholesterol and triglyceride levels.
Step 1
Eat a heart-healthy diet. The ATP guidelines introduced the therapeutic lifestyle changes, or TLC, diet designed to lower LDL, or "bad" cholesterol and triglycerides. The first step involves reducing your daily intake of saturated fats to less than 7 percent of your total calories and your cholesterol intake to less than 200 mg per day. The TLC diet also recommends limiting polyunsaturated fats to 10 percent of your daily calories and monosaturated fats to 20 percent of the calories you eat each day. Your total fat intake should be between 25 and 35 percent of your caloric intake.
Step 2
Increase physical activity. A sedentary lifestyle contributes significantly to elevated cholesterol and triglycerides, according to the American Heart Association. The National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, or NHLBI, recommends 30 minutes of physical activity on most, if not all, days of the week.
Step 3
Lose weight. Even a small weight loss of 5 to 10 pounds can lower your cholesterol and improve triglyceride levels, says MayoClinic.com. Watch the foods you eat, establish realistic long-term goals and stick with your lifestyle changes. Weight management can reduce your waist size to a target below 40 inches for men or 35 inches for women, which lowers your LDL cholesterol. If your triglyceride levels are borderline high, or between 150 to 199 mg/dL, ATP guidelines recommend increasing your physical activity and maintaining an ideal weight. If your triglyceride level rises to 200 mg/dL or above, you may need prescription medications.
Step 4
Take your medications. When lifestyle changes aren't enough to bring your cholesterol and triglyceride levels into desirable range, your physician can prescribe a variety of medications. Statin drugs work by blocking a substance your liver needs to produce cholesterol, while bile-acid-binding resins stimulate your liver to bind excess blood cholesterol into bile acids. Cholesterol absorption inhibitors limit the amount of cholesterol your gut absorbs from the foods you eat, according to MayoClinic.com. Your physician may also recommend fibrate or nicotinic acid to lower triglycerides in your blood.
References
- American Heart Association: Cholesterol Q & A
- National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute: Detection, Evaluation and Treatment of High Blood Cholesterol in Adults (Adult Treatment Panel III) Executive Summary
- MayoClinic.com: High Cholesterol
- National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute: High Cholesterol: What You Need to Know
