How many times have you gone to your doctor with a problem, only to walk out with a prescription for a drug of some kind? Do you ever feel as though there might be other ways of solving the problem? You might well feel like this if you have been diagnosed with high cholesterol levels. It might have crossed your mind that you could find out how to lower cholesterol naturally, for example.

If this sounds familiar you’d be right – you can indeed do this naturally, and there are plenty of ways to do it too. The idea is to keep the good cholesterol in your body – otherwise known as HDL or high density lipoprotein – and to get rid of as much of the bad stuff as you can. The bad stuff is called LDL or low density lipoprotein, so you can see it is only slightly different from the good stuff. But this slight difference can have a marked effect on your health.

Anyone with high cholesterol carries a higher risk of having a stroke or a heart attack that could threaten or even claim their life. The worrying thing is that most people don’t even know they have high cholesterol as there are no symptoms that they have it. Most people find out when they are routinely tested at the doctor’s surgery.

This means it pays to start making moves to lower your levels now, even though you may not be aware of what those levels are. There are lots of ways you can learn how to lower cholesterol naturally, so the sooner you start putting some of them into practice the better you will fare for the long term.

First off, make sure you get some regular exercise. Exercising speeds up your metabolic rate and causes you to burn more calories. This in turn will lead to you losing any excess weight you are carrying – and this is another way to reduce those nasty LDL levels. In essence you’re getting two benefits for the price of one, since the exercise has a positive knock on effect on your body.

Of course you have to be careful what you eat too. Focus on getting a balanced diet and cut down on the saturated fats. Eat more foods that are rich in healthy oils instead, such as olive oil and fatty fish for instance. Increase your fruit and vegetable intake and add in things that are naturally good for lowering cholesterol. These include garlic, oat bran and beans.

Some naturally occurring items aren’t as easy to get into your diet as others though. In this case you could look to get a supplement that is specifically designed to help lower cholesterol while giving your body a healthy boost. This doesn’t take the place of a healthy diet but it does offer you another line of defense in the fight against heart disease and other ailments.

Now you know how to lower cholesterol naturally, you can get started right now to get the results you want.