Cardiologists of the world hold the opinion that every person senior than 20 years must know his own level of cholesterol, i.e. make a necessary blood test. If cholesterol level is high – this is dangerous, as this is the factor which contributes to the development of atherosclerosis and hard cardiovascular diseases. Level of cholesterol can be lowered by observing simple rules: be more active, quit smoking and make your food healthy.
Basis of all diets on lowering cholesterol is decrease in consumption of fats of animal origin (lardy meat, by-products, butter, fat dairy products, fat grades of cheese, pastry and etc.). Replace most part of animal fats with vegetable oils: sunflower-seed oil, olive oil, corn oil.
Choose only soft grade of margarine (in cans, not in packages). You may use in moderate (limited) quantity low in fat dairy products, low-fat cheeses (not more than 30% of fattiness), lean meat, pastry containing vegetable fats or soft grades of margarine, fried fish, fried only on vegetable fats potatoes.
You may eat only 2 boiled eggs a week. Extend you menu with low fat and cholesterol products: coarse bread, any porridges, macaroni products, skimmed dairy products, various vegetable dishes and fruits.
From the range of meat products you should prefer chicken, turkey, veal. Remove fat and skin from the poultry before cooking it. Eat more fish, particularly sea fish, by introducing two fish days a week or one fish dish every day. Chose desserts without fat, cream and sugar, best choice - fruit desserts.
Pay extra attention to regular consumption of products which decrease cholesterol level in the organism and facilitate its excretion. Such products contain soluble cellulose and tend to form jelly substance when boiling. These are oat flakes (rolled oats), apples, plums, different berries.
Eat regularly bean products (haricot, pea). When cooking avoid frying on oil and better stick to boiling, stewing, and baking. Use utensils with special covering since there is no need to add grease during the cooking process. By carefully following such a diet you can reach lowering cholesterol in the blood by 10-12%.
If following of this diet within 6-8 weeks doesn’t lead to the desirable lowering level of total cholesterol in the blood (less than 5 millimole/l) and the risk of the development of the diseases caused by atherosclerosis is high, physician may raise the question about prescription of medicines that lower cholesterol.
Doctors more often prescribe statins from the range of medicines that lower level of cholesterol in blood. These drugs in average doses lower cholesterol by 20-40%. But the most important that attracts doctors to prescription of statins is the results of the performed researches. It showed that statines not only lower cholesterol, but also ease the course of the disease caused by atherosclerosis, decrease the mortality from the cardiovascular diseases and general death rate. Advanced studies of heart vessels revealed that treatment by statines checks the growth of atherosclerosis plaques and even causes its size reduction.