Natural Lowering Cholesterol

Introduction

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The main goal of cholesterol-lowering treatment is to lower your LDL (bad cholesterol) level enough to reduce your risk of developing heart disease or having a heart attack. The higher your risk, the lower your LDL goal will be. There are two main ways to lower your cholesterol:

Lifestyle Changes – includes a cholesterol-lowering diet, physical activity, and weight management. Lifestyle changes revolve around a proper diet with low saturated fat, trans-fats and low cholesterol foods and eating plan as well as weight management, physical activity, drug treatment and stopping smoking. To reduce your risk for heart disease or keep it low, it is also very important to control any other risk factors you may have such as high blood pressure and smoking.
Drug Treatment – if cholesterol-lowering drugs are needed, they are used together with lifestyle changes and treatment to help lower your LDL. Natural remedies are excellent tools as treatments for helping to lower your cholesterol levels and reduce your risks.

Natural Remedies and How They Lower Cholesterol.

Herbs and other natural products have been around much longer than the standard prescription drugs used today to control high cholesterol.

There are many natural alternatives to treating high cholesterol. This may be especially optimal to patients who are regulating their cholesterol levels with diet and exercise. Natural products reduce cholesterol levels by dissolving fat in the blood.

Arjuna

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A blessing of Ayurvedic system of medicine, arjuna is the best herbal cardio protective agent existing on the lap of mother nature. It is has been used by ancient ayurvedic healers ever since ayurvedic system came in existence. Due to its wonderful properties it has been successfully used as heart muscle tonic and cardio-protector agent. It has the properties of that helps in lowering the LDL levels and increase the HDL levels in the body. It prevents deposition of cholesterol in the arteries and also helps in regulating the cholesterol flow towards liver from heart so as to prevent any kind of damage done by cholesterol. Arjuna also contains Co- Enzymes Q 10 which is responsible for providing energy to heart muscles and strengthens them. The bark of arjuna is rich in saponins and flavonoids, gallic acids, certain phytosterols and glycosides like arjunetosides I, arjunetosides II, arjunetosides III and arjunetosides IV along with arjunine and arjunetin which are the most important heart toners.

Other

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Other forms of natural herbs and supplements believed to help reduce LDL cholesterol include:

Vitamin E and C
Green Tea
Licorice Extract
Aspirin (80 mg a couple of times per week)
Extra Virgin Oil (1 tablespoon daily)

Psyllium

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Psyllium comes from the crushed seeds of the Plantago ovata plant, an herb native to parts of Asia, the Mediterranean and North Africa. The psyllium seed husks have been used in herbal remedies. Similar to oats and wheat, psyllium is rich in soluble fiber. Traditionally, psyllium husk is used as a gentle bulk-forming laxative for constipation.
Indeed, psyllium has long been recognized for its potential role in reducing blood cholesterol. As early as in 1998, the FDA already approved a health claim on psyllium:
"3g to 12g soluble fiber from psyllium seed husk when included as part of a diet low in saturated fat and cholesterol, may reduce the risk of heart disease"
Studies have shown that psyllium is effective in lowering total cholesterol and low density lipoprotein or LDL (the bad cholesterol) levels.

Beta-sitosterol

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Beta-sitosterol is a type of phytosterol, or plant compound, that is chemically similar to cholesterol. You can find beta-sitosterol in nature in foods such soybeans and wheat germ, as well as in corn oil. While beta-sitosterol is also used to increase prostate health, it may also help reduce cholesterol.
Most manufacturers produce this supplement in pill form, with a suggested serving size of one 300 mg capsule taken 30 minutes before each meal.
Use beta-sitosterol to limit the amount of cholesterol naturally produced by your liver. This type of treatment is indicated for patients with a genetic predisposition to high cholesterol. Beta-sitosterol works with liver enzymes to inhibit excess cholesterol production.
Eat a diet low in saturated fats and high in monounsaturated fats when taking a beta-sitosterol supplement to see an increase in HDL cholesterol while you lower your LDL and overall cholesterol levels.

Fish Oil (Omega-3)

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Dr. Fran Hu of the Harvard School of Public Health reviewed data on 84,688 female nurses, ages 34 to 59, who were part of the Nurses' Health Study over 16 years. They found that high consumption of fish (4-5 times a week) cut the risk of dying from heart disease by 45 percent compared to women who rarely ate fish. Another study published in The New England Journal of Medicine compared 94 men who died suddenly to 181 other men. Men with the highest levels of omega-3 fatty acids had an 81 percent lower risk of dying suddenly than men with the lowest levels. According to Dr. JoAnn Manson of Boston's Brigham and Women's Hospital, “the fat in fish actually lowers cholesterol, helps prevent blood clots that form in heart attacks and lessens the chances for the irregular heart beats that cause about 250,000 sudden deaths a year.” If you don't like fish or have allergies to certain kinds of fish, supplements are very effective as shown by the study published in the American Heart Association’s journal Circulation. Participants who took one gram daily of an omega-3 fatty acid supplement reduced their risk of sudden cardiac death by 42 percent.

Garlic

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In people with high cholesterol garlic lowering effects extend to a range of anywhere between 10 to 20 percent. A growing number of studies have shown positively that garlic can lower cholesterol.
In a large study of 220 patients, the garlic group took 800 milligrams of a powdered garlic for four months. This group experienced a 12 percent drop in cholesterol and a 17 percent drop in triglycerides. The placebo group had little change.
Modern medical science suggests one reason garlic might reduce cholesterol: garlic is a proven anti-oxidant. This property might help to prevent LDLs from being oxidised. In this way the cholesterol build-up that clogs the arteries could perhaps be reduced by garlic.

Curcumin

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Curcumin is the principal curcuminoid of the popular Indian curry spice turmeric, which is a member of the ginger family (Zingiberaceae) and has been shown to have multiple health benefits. The other two curcuminoids are desmethoxycurcumin and bis-desmethoxycurcumin. The curcuminoids are polyphenols and are responsible for the yellow color of turmeric. Curcumin can exist in at least two tautomeric forms, keto and enol. The enol form is more energetically stable in the solid phase and in solution.
Curcumin is a very strong antioxidant that provides antiviral, anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer, and cholesterol-lowering effects. In addition, it was been widely used for patients suffering from Hepatitis C.

Pantethine

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Pantethine is the active form of pantothenic acid. It has been shown to significantly reduce serum triglycerides, total cholesterol, and LDL-cholesterol (the so-called "bad cholesterol") levels while increasing HDL ("good cholestrerol") levels in several clinical trials. Pantethine has the advantage of being an effective treatment for high cholesterol while avoiding the undesirable side effects of synthetic lipid-lowering drugs. In fact, there appear to be no toxicity or side effects from to pantethine, making an attractive and natural treatment alternative. Pantethine has been used for the past 30 years in Japan, where it is approved as a pharmaceutical agent for the purpose of increasing HDL-C, the "good cholesterol" needed by the body to maintain a healthy heart.
Pantothenic acid has its own benefits, including enhanced adrenal functions and the reduction of hypertension, or high blood pressure. Pantothenic acid is also known as vitamin B5, and is a member of the water-soluble B vitamin family. It is an essential ingredient of two substances, coenzyme A and acyl carrier protein, which are needed to metabolize carbohydrates and fats. The same coenzymes play a part in production of certain hormones, vitamin D, red blood cells, and the neurotransmitter acetylcholine. Pantothenic acid is necessary for proper growth and development.

Policosanol

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Policosanol is a mixture of alcohols isolated and refined from sugar cane. The main ingredient in Policosanol is octacosanol, but as the name implies, Policosanol is actually a mixture of many (hence the prefix "poli") alcohols, including hexacosanol, triacontanol and others. As a nutritional supplement, Policosanol has been associated with lower levels of LDL or "bad" cholesterol. The level of LDL in a person's blood is linked to atherosclerosis (narrowing of the blood vessels due to build up of lipids, sometimes known as "hardening of the arteries"). Having a high level of LDL cholesterol puts a person at risk of having coronary heart disease. Patients who have taken Policosanol have also shown increased levels of high-density lipoprotein or HDL, the "good" cholesterol. HDL actually helps carry cholesterol away from the arteries to the liver, where it is processed and excreted from the body. A relatively high proportion of HDL in your total cholesterol level may be beneficial in reducing the risk of coronary heart disease.

Guggul

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Guggul is the yellowish resin (or gum) that is produced by the mukul Commiphora mukul tree, a small, thorny plant that grows throughout northern India. Guggul is also referred as guggul gum, guggal, gugglesterone, gugulu and gum gugal.

Guggul plays a major role in the traditional herbal medicine of India. It is often combined with other herbs and used in the treatment of arthritis, skin diseases, pains in the nervous system, obesity, digestive problems, infections in the mouth, and menstrual problems.

The mukul myrrh tree is closely related to the Commiphora Mukul tree (or common myrrh). Myrrh was one of the first medicines with hieroglyphic notation of use during ancient Egyptian times depicting its many uses. With such a close relation, many scientists believe that Guggul may have many of the same properties as Myrrh as even their ancient status is similar.

Indian researchers discovered an ancient Sanskrit medical text, Sushruta Samhita, in the 1960s. This classical medical text prescribed guggul for the treatment of medoroga, a disease that closely resembles the symptoms of high cholesterol and hardening of the arteries. Indian scientists subsequently tested animals and found that guggul gum both lowered cholesterol levels and protected against the development of hardening of the arteries. These trials culminated in a pilot study that examined guggul's effectiveness in humans. Although the evidence that it works remains preliminary, the Indian government was sufficiently impressed to approve guggul as a treatment for high cholesterol.

In the Sushruta Samhita, guggul was also suggested for fat loss and the relief of arthritis. Some recent studies have noted benefits for these conditions as well as acne and other conditions. The guggul used in ancient times, as well as that first used after the rediscovery, was a crude, powdered form. The supplements that are available worldwide are a more refined form.