So, you’ve just been told you have high cholesterol. The doctor tells you to change your diet and prescribes prescription for a statin drug.
You go home confused because you think, change my diet? How do I do that? What do I eat? Did you ask what a stain drug is and how does it work?
What it comes down to is we are even less informed than when we walked into the doctor’s office. You may have been told that your triglyceride levels were high.
The first thing you should ask is, what is a triglyceride? A triglyceride is an ester that comes from glycerol and three fatty acids, hence the name(tri-+glycerides) an effortless way to think of it as three fatty acids and sugar.
Triglycerides move adipose (Fat) and Glucose (sugar) out of the liver and travels in the blood.
How does it affect my health? High triglycerides don’t cause diabetes. It does however, indicate that your body’s process for turning food into energy is not working properly.
The body makes insulin which helps escort glucose (blood sugar) into the cells in a healthy body. Your body then uses glucose as energy.
How to Lower Triglyceride Levels
What can I do to lower Triglycerides? And increase overall health? Eat less Processed Carbohydrate. Make sure you are not eating an excess of daily calories.
Exercise. A study shows that an acute decrease in serum Triglycerides with exercise in untrained men, after only one hour of exercise! The untrained men worked out one hour, with a 22 % reduction in triglycerides.
Don’t know where to start, Hire a personal trainer. Make sure to find a personal trainer Tomball who is knowledgeable in dealing with health issues.
If you are unable to hire a trainer there are other ways to get started. Do what you like. Brisk walking, swimming, biking, running and weight training. You can go to your library or a book store to get started.
You don’t have to spend countless hours working out. Two to three times a week will do the trick.
Control Your Calorie Intake
Remember The body stores excess calories as fat. When you lower your daily calorie and carbohydrates the body can process the carbohydrate and sugars properly, resulting in overall health.
If you combine diet and exercise, you will get fantastic results.
You may not have diabetes, high blood pressure or any metabolic problems yet. If you continue to allow cholesterol to stay high, statistics show you probably will develop metabolic syndrome.
Keeping Triglycerides In Control Long Term
How do I keep triglycerides down for the long term? Use dietary intervention first. A diet rich in meats, vegetables and lesser amounts of fruit is the best.
Stay away from processed carbs, like pasta, bread, cookies, candies, soda and every guilty pleasure you can think of.
Make sure you are eating enough by using a calorie calculator to calculate you recommended daily calories. Planning and preparing a shopping list is key.
Do not be afraid of fats and cholesterol, like whole eggs and meats, poultry and fish. They are not the problem it’s all the excess sugars, carbs and calories.
Don’t forget exercise, move it or lose it.
Please make sure to consult your physician with any changes in diet. As always this is for entertainment purposes only and not to be taken as medical advice.
Good source for more information: Study metabolism Aug. 31, 1982 Cullnane E, Siconolfi S, Saritelli A, Thompson PD