1. Shake Up Your Lifestyle
Start lowering your cholesterol by changing your lifestyle. Diet, exercise and weight loss are all-important components to a healthy lifestyle. Maintain a healthy weight to reduce risks from high cholesterol. Eat a low cholesterol diet that's rich in soluble fiber. Load up on oats, beans, fruits and vegetables. Supplement your diet with foods containing plant sterols. Raise good cholesterol and lower bad cholesterol by walking or doing some other form of exercise 30 minutes daily. Stop smoking to improve your good cholesterol levels.
2. Turn Down Liver Cholesterol Production
Statins are one of the most commonly prescribed cholesterol lowering medications. This group of drugs operates by reducing the amount of cholesterol produced by the liver. By using these medications, bad cholesterol and triglycerides are reduced. These drugs also increase good cholesterol. Common brand name statins include Lipitor, Mevacor, Pravachol, Zocor, Lescol and Crestor. Some statins, such as Lipitor and Crestor, are stronger than others are.
3. Convert Extra Cholesterol
Some drugs function by forcing bile acids out of the body via the stool. When this happens, the liver thinks it needs to produce more bile acids. To fix the problem, the liver converts cholesterol to bile acid. Ultimately, levels of bad cholesterol go down. Brand name examples of bile-acid-binding resins include Colestid, Questran and Welchol.
4. Soak Up Less Cholesterol
Typically, the small intestine collects cholesterol from your food and then sends it off into your blood. However, when you take a cholesterol absorption inhibitor, such as Zetia and Vytorin, less cholesterol is absorbed into the small intestine reducing your bad cholesterol levels. While this sounds good, recent research, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, has raised concern about the efficacy of these drugs. Specifically, it was noted that while the drugs lower bad cholesterol, they aren't slowing the growth of plaque in the arteries. Therefore, most cardiologists agree that these drugs should be a last resort, only after other medications have proved unsuccessful for a patient.
5. Knock Out Triglycerides and Boost Good Cholesterol
If triglycerides are part of your problem then your doctor may prescribe medications, such as fibrates, that specifically lower triglyceride levels. Fibrates, including gemfibrozil and fenofibrate, reduce the liver's production of triglycerides, which are laden with very low-density lipoprotein (VLDL). Niacin, another option for lowering triglycerides, also gives your good cholesterol a boost. Niacin is most effective when given in prescription form, such as Niaspan.
