Having high cholesterol levels can be a major health concern. It can lead to serious health problems like heart disease.
But what is cholesterol? It is a wax-like substance that is produced by the liver.
Cholesterol can be found in food products like meat, egg yolk, and dairy products. Regularly consuming these products can lead to an increase in cholesterol in the blood. Some fats and oils may allow the liver to create more cholesterol. Thus, increasing the levels of cholesterol even more.
So, if you’re looking for ways to reduce your cholesterol levels, you may be wondering how long it will take to see the results?
Fortunately, there are several things you can do to lower your cholesterol levels. And with some lifestyle changes, you can see results fairly quickly. It can take approximately three to six months to lower your cholesterol through exercise and a proper diet. It can take longer for women than for men. You may see the effects within a few weeks. But one must follow lifestyle changes to maintain cholesterol.
Change in Lifestyle
The best way to improve cholesterol levels is by making changes to your lifestyle. Even the slightest change in lifestyle can make a huge difference in your overall health.
Maintain a Diet
First, you should start with what you eat. To lower your LDL cholesterol, you need to have a balanced diet plan. LDL cholesterol is considered bad as saturated fats can increase LDL cholesterol.
You can follow a plant-based diet as it can help lower cholesterol. It will promote healthy living and improve your overall health.
A DASH diet or the Mediterranean diet is recommended
DASH diet to maintain cholesterol includes plenty of vegetables and fruits, nonfat or low-fat dairy. Lean proteins like fish, soy, poultry and beans. It also contains nuts, seeds, vegetable oils, red meats etc.
The Mediterranean diet includes plenty of vegetables, fruits and whole grains. Nuts, olive oil, fish and poultry are good sources.
Maintain Exercise
Being physically active is a great way to maintain good health. There are many exercises to maintain cholesterol.
Aerobic exercises are popular to boost HDL cholesterol levels. HDL is important to keep your heart away from diseases. Being overweight is a bad sign for the heart so it is essential to do at least 60 minutes of cardio a day.
Other forms of exercise for cholesterol reduction are brisk walking, cycling, dancing and gardening. Swimming, jogging, and aerobics will also provide you with the cardio benefits.
What are the levels of cholesterol?
You can have high cholesterol and not even be aware of it. This is the scariest thing you can think of. So it is important to regularly see a doctor and have a thorough body check. It is important to keep track of your cholesterol after every four to six years starting from the age group of 20.
These cholesterol levels may help you know about your health and determine the treatment to overrule any risk of heart diseases.
LDL Cholesterol “bad” cholesterol
- Good: 100 mg/dL or lower
- High: 160 mg/dL or higher
HDL Cholesterol “good” cholesterol
- Good: 60 mg/dL or higher
- Low: 39 mg/dL or lower
Triglycerides
- Good: 149 mg/dL or lower
- High: 200 mg/dL or higher
How long does it take to reduce cholesterol levels?
The burning question is, how fast can I reduce cholesterol levels. There are many ways to achieve that. Although maintaining a proper diet and exercising are the best and natural ways to reduce cholesterol.
Often people opt for medications for a faster reduction. Such as statins which enable to decrease the level of cholesterol quicker. With the help of medicines, you can reduce cholesterol within weeks. And they work more efficiently than lifestyle changes involving diet.
But, it is recommended that you make changes in your diet. And lifestyle rather than taking medicines for cholesterol reduction. Making minor changes to your diet can go a long way. It may vary from person to person on how the food intake and body weight of the individual.
The changes in the body can be seen within a few months after starting the diet and exercise as mentioned above.
FAQs
Any plant-based food is ideal to reduce cholesterol. They are high in soluble fibre and are very beneficial for lowering bad cholesterol. Food items like beans, yams, oats, barley, and berries are good sources to reduce bad cholesterol quickly.
You can follow a specific diet. You can try the Mediterranean diet, increase exercise, limit your alcohol consumption and eat food with protein and fibre.
Taking at least a clove of garlic a day can significantly bring down the cholesterol levels up to 10%. It has been proven to lower LDL cholesterol and triglyceride levels.
