Natural Remedies for High Cholesterol...
and the Myths (and Facts) about Cholesterol being Bad for You

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When to Use Natural Remedies

Natural remedies for high Cholesterol are an effective and safer alternative to statin drugs which can cause many other problems when used, even as directed.

In fact, there have been many studies that show that statin drugs, which basically stop your liver's production of the enzyme that produces cholesterol, have some pretty severe side effects including muscle pain and weakness, neuropathy, and memory loss. Natural remedies for high cholesterol will not have side effects.

Cholesterol is not the enemy; in fact it is necessary for almost every function in your body. One major purpose of cholesterol is to repair damaged blood vessels and nerves. It's also contained in every cell you have.

Natural remedies for high Cholesterol are actually more about balancing your cholesterol levels.

If you'd like to know more about that, as well as what cholesterol really is and why you need it, go ahead and skip down to the "Causes" section below.

List of Natural Remedies that Treat this Condition

(Clicking on the underlined name of the remedy below will take you the page that tells you specifically how to use it for this condition. It will open a new window.)

Apple Cider Vinegar
Bee Pollen
Cinnamon
Coconut Oil
Flax Seed
Garlic
Green Tea
Niacin (Vitamin B3) - has been shown to lower cholesterol by raising HDL and lowering LDL. If you have existing liver issues or you are Diabetic, talk to your health practitioner before starting a Niacin therapy because it has been known to irritate the liver at higher doses.
Omega 3 - One of the best natural remedies for high cholesterol can either come from high quality fish, krill, green lipped mussels, or Flax Seed. Omega 3's help balance your cholesterol numbers.
Psyllium Husk - Increasing your fiber intake is said to help absorb some of the damaged cholesterol you've eaten while it's still in the intestines. Both Psyllium and Flax are great for this purpose. Just be sure to drink enough water as well or the psyllium could actually clog your intestines instead – about 64 ounces per day is good.
Vitamin C
Vitamin D

Symptoms

When you need natural remedies for high cholesterol you won't actually have symptoms. The only way to know is to get your blood tested. When you get your blood tested, here's what to look for:

Total Cholesterol - This number is not near as important as the drug companies (and most traditional doctors) say that it is. In fact, by itself, it means nothing unless it's over 330.
HDL (High-density lipoprotein) - This is the part of your cholesterol that has been labeled "good" because what it does is go around in your blood stream and pick up any extra LDL's floating around and take them back to the liver to be recycled into bile which is used in digestion. That's why having a higher percentage of HDL is a good thing. It means that you have enough of it to take care of any problems. However, by itself, it doesn't necessarily indicate anything in particular.
LDL (Low-density lipoprotein) - This is the part of cholesterol that has been labeled as "bad" because you apparently want lower numbers. Too much of it without the appropriate amount of HDL to go with it is a potential issue. Once again though, by itself, these numbers mean nothing because there are actually 6 different kinds of LDL in the total count and not all of them are "bad".
Triglycerides - This is just a medical term for "fat". Of course having a lot of fat running around in your blood can be dangerous. High levels (over 200 mg/dL) are generally found in people who eat grains and sugars regularly, smoke or consume excessive alcohol, are obese or overweight, have diabetes, or are physically inactive. Basically, too much in your blood stream simply means you are making too much fat and/or not burning enough of it.
Lipoprotein (a) or Lp(a) - This is a combination of an LDL and a special protein called apo(a). This isn't a test that is normally ordered with your regular cholesterol test because the testing hasn't been regulated yet and the numbers can vary from lab to lab. It's also more expensive. Elevated levels of this are inherited and are generally only tested when coronary artery disease is showing up in people who don't show any other factors for it.

Ratios are also important numbers to look at when determining your risk for heart disease. Here are the two to check out:

HDL/Total Cholesterol - Take your HDL number and divide by your total Cholesterol number. This will give you a percentage. Anything over 24% is great.
Triglycerides/HDL - Take your triglycerides and divide by your HDL number. If you get a percentage below 2 you're fine in that arena.

Causes

Why would you want to take natural remedies for high cholesterol?

We hear a lot about cholesterol these days, especially from people and companies who would like you and your children to take their medications.

There are many natural remedies for high cholesterol that have none of the side effects of these billion dollar drugs, but how do you know when you're really in danger or when you're just being given misinformation as a scare tactic?

To find out, let's take a real look at what cholesterol is and it's purpose in your body.

Cholesterol is a wax-like fatty substance that your liver makes and is contained in every cell of your body. Here are a few of the major things that cholesterol does:

Cholesterol is used to keep the integrity of a cell's membrane – basically preventing it from being a pile of mush. It also prevents the other parts of the cell from crystallizing and becoming too hard, creating the perfect balance.
Cholesterol is also a necessary component in cell communication. Without it, our cells would not know what to do and you would just be a big pile of cells.
Cholesterol is vital in the role that proteins play in our cells. Without cholesterol, the proteins (amino acids) in our bodies would not be able to fulfill on their functions which vary from cell communication and fat burning or storing, to allowing or blocking substances into and out of each cell, etc. Essentially every process that happens in your body is regulated by these proteins and it couldn't be done without the help of cholesterol.
Cholesterol is necessary for your skin to produce Vitamin D from sunlight.
Cholesterol is needed to make the hormones that your body uses for cell communication. This is in addition to the cellular membrane's use of cholesterol to receive the signals from these hormones.
Cholesterol also helps produce bile in the bile ducts so that you can digest the fat that's in foods you eat.
Cholesterol is sent by the liver to damaged blood vessels to block any cracks in their walls so we don't bleed to death internally before the vessel walls are repaired.
Cholesterol is what makes up the protective coating (Myelin Sheath) around all of your nerves.
Your brain is made of about 25% cholesterol, mostly contained in the protective layers over all of the nerves up there.

There are studies that suspect that the cholesterol in the brain is self sustaining and doesn't come from the cholesterol found in the blood. Apparently cholesterol doesn't cross the blood-brain barrier. This could mean that there has to be a degeneration of the blood-brain barrier before any harmful cholesterol finds its way into the brain.

Natural remedies for high Cholesterol will help you balance your cholesterol levels rather than just stop your body from making it altogether like statins do.

This is obviously important, but overlooked by a lot of people in the pharmaceutical and medical industries. Here is a more detailed explanation of why natural remedies for high cholesterol are better than chronic use of pharmaceuticals.

Your liver makes about 75% of the cholesterol we need to keep our bodies healthy, so the other 25% or so come from the foods we eat – basically from other animal products like meat, dairy and eggs.

The more undamaged cholesterol you eat, the less your liver has to make. What do I mean by "undamaged" cholesterol?

Natural remedies for high cholesterol are necessary when the cholesterol has been damaged or oxidized. This happens to cholesterol molecules when they're heated to 100 degrees Fahrenheit.

The body does make some of these oxidized cholesterol molecules (or "oxy-cholesterol") on its own to help regulate your cholesterol naturally, but problems occur when oxy-cholesterol is introduced to the body from the outside.

These problems are the result of your body seeing these "outsiders" as strange and foreign. It doesn't know what to do with them so they float around in your blood, showing up as a high cholesterol level on a test and get stuck in the lining of arteries causing the calcified plaque of heart disease.

So it makes sense that whenever you see cholesterol on a food label, it will most likely be an oxy-cholesterol. The only exceptions to this would be completely raw foods but, once you cook them of course, they become oxidized.

Natural remedies for high cholesterol are an ideal choice for long term care.

If you have severely high cholesterol, very short term use of drugs along with permanent lifestyle changes can save your life, but long term use of cholesterol lowering drugs has been shown to be quite harmful.

Nutritional and Dietary Support

Nutritional and dietary changes are the most effective of the natural remedies for high cholesterol.

Any cooked meat will contain damaged cholesterol – the more it's been cooked, the worse it is.

If you can't handle eating your meat very rare or raw, then limit your damaged cholesterol intake by trimming all fat possible, stay away from the skin on poultry and make sure you are getting enough protein and B vitamins if you're limiting your total intake of meat altogether (or if you are vegan or vegetarian).

If you remember, pasteurization is a process that heats products like milk and cheese to well over 100 degrees Fahrenheit (where cholesterol oxidizes).

So we could logically assume that if you consume pasteurized dairy, you are consuming damaged cholesterol, not whole useful cholesterol.

Drinking raw (unpasteurized) milk and eating raw cheese from organic sources will provide the type of cholesterol that your body recognizes and can use rather than the kind that turns into plaque in your arteries.

Although eggs aren't pasteurized in the same manner as other products, it is still best to eat them unpasteurized and organic, especially if you consume them raw as well (which is better for you of course because this keeps the cholesterol undamaged).

Organic eggs have also been shown to be much less likely to carry harmful bacteria than regular eggs.

Here is an "Organic Egg Scorecard" from the Cornucopia Institute that is very useful in knowing whether the eggs that you buy are truly organic.

Regarding consuming raw meat, dairy and eggs: If you are going to eat meat, dairy or eggs raw, you must make sure it comes from a clean and organic source!

The amount of nasty stuff in factory farmed chicken, fish and beef is very dangerous if not cooked thoroughly (and still isn't very good for you even when it is cooked) – thus the warnings you see on packages about consuming raw meats.

However, there are millions of people who comfortably eat raw foods and have no issues their entire lives - they in fact live healthier lives.

Additional Actions You Can Take

Other actions that support natural remedies for high cholesterol can include:

This may seem like common sense and I'm sure you've heard it before, but quitting smoking helps balance your cholesterol.

I haven't found anything that says exactly how it does it, but in people who change nothing else except that they quit smoking, their HDL goes up and LDL goes down.

This includes non-smokers who hang around smokers constantly too. Limit your second hand smoke exposure as much as you can.
Exercise - If you're a bit sedentary, start moving around a bit; go for a walk every day or lift weights in your chair – if you have special circumstances, talk to your health practitioner about ways you can increase your exercise routine.

Exercise will increase those HDLs in your system, essentially creating more troops to carry away other fats back to the liver for re-processing.