As you may know, cholesterol can lead to hardening of the arteries, heart attacks, and strokes. It is important to keep your cholesterol as low as possible. Depending on your other risk factors, you want your “bad” cholesterol, LDL, to be between 130 and 55.
These risk factors include:
- being a smoker,
- having diabetes or high blood pressure,
- being overweight,
- doing limited exercise,
- and having a family history of heart disease.
Please review your diet and try to limit:
- Sweets and sweetened drinks (soda, juices),
- Red and fatty meats,
- ALL DELI MEATS (including processed turkey and chicken),
- Sausage and bacon,
- full-fat dairy products,
- saturated oils (coconut and palm oil),
- and fried foods.
Unfortunately, diet changes may not get you to target numbers, especially if you have a family history of high cholesterol. If you cannot achieve your cholesterol target, you might require medication to help. The best cholesterol-lowering drugs are known as Statins (Lipitor, Crestor) They work very well, are inexpensive, and are very well tolerated (despite what you may read on the internet.) Keeping your cholesterol low and stopping smoking are two of the very best measures you can take to stay healthy.
Should you have questions regarding your cholesterol, you can discuss it during your annual visit with your IMA primary care provider or message your IMA primary care provider using the Patient Portal.
For more info: https://www.heart.org/-/media/Files/Health-Topics/Answers-by-Heart/How-Can-I-Improve-Cholesterol.pdf