The Healthy Way

Thursday, October 06, 2005

Cholesterol can be tricky to control

Q: I am a 28-year-old female, 125 pounds. I just found out I have high cholesterol and I was shocked.

My diet is way better than most of the people I know. I eat a balance of many food groups, including veggies. Occasionally, I will have a small burger at a fast-food restaurant.

I thought only overweight people have high cholesterol. How could I have high cholesterol? And how can I lower it?

Signed, A.J.

A: Cholesterol is not only high in overweight people, however you are right in being shocked.

Usually young people can get away with lots of things before it catches up with them, so their blood work is normal even when they make questionable lifestyle choices.

There are some hereditary factors that can lead to high cholesterol at a young age. If you have family history of high cholesterol, it could be genetic and you need to take greater care than an average 28-year-old when it comes to health.

If you are on a birth control pill, that could also effect your fat metabolism and increase cholesterol.

You may have high cholesterol if you have inflammation in your body. Cholesterol acts as an anti-inflammatory molecule and helps protect inflamed tissues. It may be temporarily elevated.

Liver cleansing can help push the good cholesterol/bad cholesterol ratio towards healthy (HDL) cholesterol.

Exercise also increases the HDL cholesterol.

Currently there are numerous natural products on the market that help lower cholesterol. Some of the newer ones actually work very well.

There are some products that use plant sterols in combination with anti-oxidants that can lower blood cholesterol without any side-effects very efficiently. Specially fermented green tea leaf extract, known under the trade name Theo-Stat, effectively reduces LDL cholesterol up to 16 per cent.

Other commonly used supplements are Niacin-containing products, Vitamin B5, lecithin and anti-oxidants.

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Dr. Elena Krasnov is a registered Naturopathic Doctor and Clinic Director of the Toronto Naturopathic Clinic. Submit your questions online here