Natural Ways To Control Cholesterol
The functional medicine model of care offers a patient-centered approach to finding out the root cause of illness.
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Cholesterol: Friend or Foe?
Cholesterol is a waxy, fat-like substance that is found in all cells of your body. Your body needs some cholesterol to make vitamins, hormones, and digestive substances. Cholesterol is also found in animal sources such as eggs, meat, and cheese. When you have too much cholesterol in the blood, it can combine with other substances to form plaque. Sometimes, this plaque can build up in your arteries and cause damage and inflammation.
When we think of cholesterol being treated in the conventional medical world, your provider looks at your blood cholesterol levels. If they’re elevated past a certain level, medication is often prescribed. Many people are placed on cholesterol medication for “prevention” of heart disease due to other conditions like diabetes regardless of the cholesterol levels. Although these medications decrease LDL (the bad cholesterol) and some even raise HDL (the good cholesterol), do they actually address the root cause? NO. This has become the standard practice without truly addressing the main cause of heart disease (and diabetes and other chronic illness).
It’s so important to address the upstream root causes of high cholesterol such as sedentary lifestyle, consuming high sugar and refined flour, excessive stress, lack of sleep, and environmental toxins. Simple lifestyle changes truly can help to balance out cholesterol levels. The size of your HDL and LDL particles is also important. Differences in sizes tends to determine whether or not they’re likely to form plaque. This is a simple blood test your doctor can order from LabCorp: NMR particle sizes.
Here is how you can fix your cholesterol and reverse metabolic syndrome without medications:
Check for metabolic syndrome:
Do you have a large belly? Measure your waist at the belly button and your hips at the widest point. If your waist to hip ratio is bigger than 0.8 as a woman or 0.9 as a man, it’s time for some positive change.
If you have small LDL and HDL particles it is likely that you may have metabolic syndrome.
If you’re triglycerides are higher than 100 and your HDL is less than 50, or the ratio between LDL and HDL is more than 4, you could possibly have metabolic syndrome.
Check your insulin and glucose levels.
Check your Hgb A1c, if it is greater than 5.5 you could possibly have metabolic syndrome.
2. Get the right lab test by talking to your doctor about ordering an NMR particle size from LabCorp.
3. Eat a healthy diet with a low glycemic load and high in protein.
4. Exercise - you already know what this means!
5. Get good quality sleep - sleep is vital for healing, detox, and keeping inflammation down. While you’re sleeping, your body is doing so much work. So, get to sleep!
These are some supplements that can help reverse high cholesterol levels:
Omega 3’s
Vitamin D
Red rice yeast
Broad range, balance concentration of plant sterols
Will a few supplements alone fix the problem entirely? That’s unlikely. However, it’s a step in the right direction!
If you want targeted support, get on our waitlist to see a practitioner who is ready to help you reverse your cholesterol and metabolic syndrome. It’s time for you to take care of you!
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If you need help navigating your health concerns or want our experts to be a partner in your preventative health journey, schedule a Free Discover Call today, or if you have questions give us a call!
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Written by Virginia Conner, PA-C