Cholesterol levels & our Lifestyle

Posted on Jul 16th, 2009. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

Cholesterol levels

Cholesterol levels

A Question that usually arises among people with high cholesterol is what medication should be used and what is the best choice. Those with elevated triglycerides should reduce sugar and simple starch in their diet for about three months.Certain foods like potatoes, white rice, pasta, and baked goods should be avoided and they should be replaced by smaller quantities of whole grains like brown rice, whole wheat pasta and bright colored vegetables and fruits. Reducing soft drinks which contain high sugar content like soda should be cut down completely. After taking all these dietary precautions, if stil the triglyceride doesn't reduce, then medication is must.

Niacin, one of the vitamin B is a good and effective treatment for people with high cholesterol, it is because it is a natural way to get treated. The different forms of niacin are not so strong, so high doses are prescribed. The problem that people encounter is that such high doses might cause redness and sweating in the face and upper chest, which is called flushing reaction. This can be reduced by taking slow releasing forms of niacin and taking asprin before taking each dose might help.

Certain medicines like fibrates are also helpful in lowering triglycerides.The most commonly used fibrates is gemfibrozil and fenofibrate. The common side effects are upset stomach but people are least bothered by it. Very rarely, it has an effect on liver which gets normal when the medication is stopped. Another medication which lowers triglyceride is Statins. But it is not as good as niacin and fibrates.

If the main problem is elevated LDL then dietary fat should be stopped. In spite of reducing fat in diet for three months, and there are no positive results, then Statins should be taken. There are many drugs in the market to reduce cholesterol but the best way is to see a doctor, who will give you the right medication according to your body.

The common side effects of Statin is liver or muscle irritation. But it very rarely happens to people, that is 1 in 1000 and stops when the drug is stopped.

A very exciting thing about statin is that, it not only lowers LDL levels but also reduces the risk of heart attack and stroke.If If taking statin and reducing fat intake simultaneously doesn't lowere your LDL levels, then Ezetemibe consumption might benefit you. When taken alone it is not so good, but combining it with statin will give excellent results with no side effects at all. These four drugs niacin, fibrates, statins and ezetimibe are the best
and most commonly used.

The FDA warned people to not consider, red rice yeast and policosanol as cholestrol reducing agent only because it contains lovastatin and it is natural.
Garlic, fish oil, and a variety of other products are sometimes advertised as lowering cholesterol, too.But always consult with your doctor to monitor whether such natural products do really working and to make sure they aren't causing any side effects.

1 Response for “Cholesterol levels & our Lifestyle”

  1. Tips says:

    hii… indeed niacin is very good for treating cholesterol. As we all know high cholesterol can cause heart attack. so we should really care about high cholesterol. Your post is really very great. Everyone should follow your tips in this post. thanks a lot for this post and good luck…

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