Lower Cholesterol, Without Statins

We’ll start this off by saying that lowering cholesterol might not, in fact, be critical or even especially helpful for everyone, especially in the case of women. We covered this more in our article about statins:

Statins: His & Hers?

…which was largely informed by the wealth of data in this book:

The Truth About Statins – by Dr. Barbara H. Roberts

…which in turn, may in fact put a lot of people off statins. We’re not here to tell you don’t use them—they may indeed be useful or even critical for some people, as Dr. Roberts herself also makes makes clear. But rather, we always recommend learning as much as possible about what’s going on, to be able to make the most informed choices when it comes to what often might be literally life-and-death decisions.

On which note, if anyone would like a quick refresher on cholesterol, what it actually is (in its various forms) and what it does, why we need it, the problems it can cause anyway, then here you go:

Demystifying Cholesterol

Now, with all that in mind, we’re going to assume that you, dear reader, would like to know:

• how to lower your LDL cholesterol, and/or
• how to maintain a safe LDL cholesterol level

Because, while the jury’s out on the dangers of high LDL levels for women in particular, it’s clear that for pretty much everyone, maintaining them within well-established safe zones won’t hurt.

Here’s how:

Relax

Or rather, manage your stress. This doesn’t just reduce your acute risk of a heart attack, it also improves your blood metrics along the way, and yes, that includes not just blood pressure and blood sugars, but even triglycerides! Here’s the science for that, complete with numbers:

What are the effects of psychological stress and physical work on blood lipid profiles?

With that in mind, here’s…

How To Manage Chronic Stress (Even While Chronically Stressed)

Not chemically “relaxed”, though

While relaxing is important, drinking alcohol and smoking are unequivocally bad for pretty much everything, and this includes cholesterol levels:

Can We Drink To Good Health? ← this also covers popular beliefs about red wine and heart health, and the answer is no, we cannot

As for smoking, it is good to quit as soon as possible, unless your doctor specifically advises you otherwise (there are occasional situations where something else needs to be dealt with first, but not as many some might like to believe):

Addiction Myths That Are Hard To Quit

If you’re wondering about cannabis (CBD and/or THC), then we’d love to tell you about the effect these things have on heart health in general and cholesterol levels in particular, but the science is far too young (mostly because of the historic, and in some places contemporary, illegality cramping the research), and we could only find small, dubious, mutually contradictory studies so far. So the honest answer is: science doesn’t know this one, yet.

Exercise… But don’t worry, you can still stay relaxed

When it comes to heart health, the most important thing is keeping moving, so getting in those famous 150 minutes per week of moderate exercise is critical, and getting more is ideal.

240 minutes per week is a neat 40 minutes per day, by the way and is very attainable (this writer lives a 20-minute walk away from where she does her daily grocery shopping, thus making for a daily 40-minute round trip, not counting the actual shopping).

See: The Doctor Who Wants Us To Exercise Less, And Move More

If walking is for some reason not practical for you, here’s a whole list of fun options that don’t feel like exercise but are:

No-Exercise Exercise!

Manage your hormones

This one is mostly for menopausal women, though some people with atypical hormonal situations may find it applicable too.

Estrogen protects the heart… Until it doesn’t:

Menopause can bring increased cholesterol levels and other heart risks. Here’s why and what to do about it

See also: World Menopause Day: Menopause & Cardiovascular Disease Risk

Here’s a great introduction to sorting it out, if necessary:

Dr. Jen Gunter: What You Should Have Been Told About Menopause Beforehand

Eat a heart-healthy diet

Shocking nobody, but it has to be said, for the sake of being methodical. So, what does that look like?

What Matters Most For Your Heart? Eat More (Of This) For Lower Blood Pressure

(it’s fiber in the #1 spot, but there’s a list of most important things there, that’s worth checking out and comparing it to what you habitually eat)

You can also check out the DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) edition of the Mediterranean diet, here:

Four Ways To Upgrade The Mediterranean Diet

As for saturated fat (and especially trans-fats), the basic answer is to keep them to minimal, but there is room for nuance with saturated fats at least:

Can Saturated Fats Be Healthy?

And lastly, do make sure to get enough omega 3 fatty-acids:

What Omega-3s Really Do For Us

And enjoy plant sterols and stanols! This would need a whole list of their own, so here you go:

Take These To Lower Cholesterol! (Statin Alternatives)

Take care!

Dr. Greger’s 21 Tweaks… We say 20, though!

We’ve talked before about Dr. Greger’s Daily Dozen (12 things he advises that we make sure to eat each day, to enjoy healthy longevity), but much less-talked-about are his “21 Tweaks”…

They are, in short, a collection of little adjustments one can make for better health. Some of them are also nutritional, but many are more like lifestyle tweaks. Let’s do a rundown:

At each meal:

• Preload with water
• Preload with “negative calorie” foods (especially: greens)
• Incorporate vinegar (1-2 tbsp in a glass of water will slow your blood sugar increase)
• Enjoy undistracted meals
• Follow the 20-minute rule (enjoy your meal over the course of at least 20 minutes)

Get your daily doses:

• Black cumin ¼ tsp
• Garlic powder ¼ tsp
• Ground ginger (1 tsp) or cayenne pepper (½ tsp)
• Nutritional yeast (2 tsp)
• Cumin (½ tsp)
• Green tea (3 cups)

Every day:

• Stay hydrated
• Deflour your diet
• Front-load your calories (this means implementing the “king, prince, pauper” rule—try to make your breakfast the largest meal of your day, followed my a medium lunch, and a small evening meal)
• Time-restrict your eating (eat your meals within, for example, an 8-hour window, and fast the rest of the time)
• Optimize exercise timing (before breakfast is best for most people, unless you are diabetic)
• Weigh yourself twice a day (doing this when you get up and when you go to bed results in much better long-term weight management than weighing only once per day)
• Complete your implementation intentions (this sounds a little wishy-washy, but it’s about building a set of “if this, then that” principles, and then living by them. An example could be directly physical health-related such as “if there is a choice of stairs or elevator, I will take the stairs”, or could be more about holistic good-living, such as “if someone asks me for help, I will try to oblige them so far as I reasonably can”)

Every night:

• Fast after 7pm
• Get sufficient sleep (7–9 hours is best. As we get older, we tend more towards the lower end of that, but try get at least those 7 hours!)
• Experiment with Mild Trendelenburg (better yet, skip this one)*

*This involves a 6º elevation of the bed, at the foot end. Dr. Greger advises that this should only be undertaken after consulting your doctor, though, as a lot of health conditions can contraindicate it. We at 10almonds couldn’t find any evidence to support this practice, and numerous warnings against it, so we’re going to go ahead and say we think this one’s skippable.

Again, we do try to bring you the best evidence-based stuff here at 10almonds, and we’re not going to recommend something just because of who suggested it

As for the rest, you don’t have to do them all! And you may have noticed there was a little overlap in some of them. But, we consider them a fine menu of healthy life hacks from which to pick and choose!