Hi! Do you have high cholesterol and want to know how to lower it? You are in the right video.
Today I'm going to talk about the 10 best cholesterol-lowering foods and the 5 worst ones, in addition to explaining the differences between bad cholesterol (LDL) and good cholesterol (HDL), what high cholesterol can cause, and what you can do, in addition to food, to control cholesterol. So watch until the end But first, LIKE the video — let's make this video one of the channel's record holders… Help out. And also spread this video to your friends and family.
Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in Brazil. There are more than 1100 deaths per day, about 46 per hour. And cholesterol is all about cardiovascular disease.
It's one of those modifiable risk factors, which can change your risk of having a heart attack or stroke if you put it in the range. That's why this video is so important. And tell me: do you have high cholesterol?
Have you ever had a heart attack or stroke? What part of Brazil are you from? Write down there.
Come on! What is cholesterol? Cholesterol is a wax- like substance .
It's not necessarily "bad" because your body needs it to build cell membranes and produce vitamins — like vitamin D, hormones, and substances that work to digest fatty foods… But too much cholesterol can be a problem. Where does cholesterol come from? Cholesterol comes from two sources.
The main source is the liver—yes, your liver makes 70-80% of your circulating cholesterol. And the rest comes from your diet, from the foods you eat. That's why you should meet skinny people, who eat only healthy things, with high cholesterol.
It's her liver, it's her genetics, that keep her cholesterol high. Why is it important for you to know your cholesterol level? Simply because the higher the cholesterol in the blood, the greater the risk of cardiovascular diseases such as heart attack and stroke.
That's why it's important to have a blood test to check your cholesterol. What types of cholesterol? The two main types of cholesterol are LDL, which is bad, and HDL, which is good.
LDL cholesterol deposits cholesterol throughout the body. With high ldl, you can have fat buildup in your blood vessels that will eventually grow, making it difficult for blood to flow through your body's arteries. Sometimes these deposits can suddenly burst and form a clot that causes a heart attack or stroke.
HDL cholesterol, on the other hand, collects LDL cholesterol from the arteries and brings it back to the liver for disposal. For this reason, people often refer to HDL cholesterol as “good” cholesterol. If you have too much LDL cholesterol (which is the bad kind) or too little HDL cholesterol (which is the good kind) you increase your risk that the cholesterol will slowly build up on the inner walls of your arteries, forming atherosclerosis.
What is the normal value of cholesterol? By the latest Brazilian dyslipidemia guideline of the Brazilian Society of Cardiology. The HDL cholesterol value must be greater than 40 in men and greater than 50 in women.
And bad cholesterol (LDL) targets depend on the person, the individual risk. For example- a low-risk person (30 years old, athlete, has no other disease), LDL has to be less than 130. That same 30-year-old man, if he smoked, was sedentary and had decompensated hypertension, the risk would be another - intermediate risk, with LDL cholesterol target below 100 If it were a 50-year-old man, diabetic, smoker and decompensated blood pressure, the risk of having a heart attack in 10 years would be greater than 30%, putting him at high risk, so the value of LDL cholesterol would have to be less than 70.
And if it were a 70-year-old woman, diabetic and revascularized, her risk would be very high risk, having a goal lower than 50. So, it depends on the risk of each patient. If you have a stent and are bragging that your LDL is 90, know that you are out of range.
Okay, okay, you have high cholesterol. What can you do to naturally improve it? There are 3 things you can attack without necessarily using medication: 1.
Lose weight 2. Exercise 3. Improve your diet Why does losing weight improve cholesterol?
As I said, the liver produces almost 80% of circulating cholesterol. Excess weight causes the liver to overwork itself and produce more bad cholesterol and not be able to clear out excess cholesterol. 60-70% obese have high cholesterol.
And the place where the fat deposits influences a lot. If you have visceral obesity—of the belly, you have a high probability of having high cholesterol, but if your obesity is in your legs, you are at a lower risk. Losing 5-10% of your weight can significantly reduce LDL cholesterol levels, and a weight reduction of just 1-3% can improve HDL cholesterol levels.
So if you are overweight, lose weight! And physical exercise? Exercise can raise your HDL (the good cholesterol) and lower your LDL.
It also helps you to lose weight, reduce fat in the liver and change the place where fat is deposited. Both aerobic exercise (walking, running, swimming, biking) and weight training and resistance exercise improve your cholesterol levels. How much exercise?
150 minutes a week is enough. And the diet? What can we do to improve the diet?
That's the main subject of today's video. Diet is very important. There are foods that we must add to the diet and others that we must remove.
What foods should we introduce into the diet? Mainly 3 things 1. Soluble fiber — which binds to cholesterol in the digestive system and prevents it from entering the bloodstream.
2. Polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats, which directly reduce LDL cholesterol. 3.
And phytosterols, which block the body's absorption of cholesterol. What should you include in your diet? What are the 10 best foods?
10. Oats. Eating just one and a half cups of cooked oatmeal a day can lower cholesterol by 5-8%.
Oats contain both soluble and insoluble fiber. But there's another benefit: fiber can also help with weight loss because it helps you feel full and improves your intestinal transit. 9.
Eggplant I'm not talking about eggplant with orange juice or eggplant water. This we know doesn't work. But eggplant is one of the low-calorie vegetables with lots of soluble fiber, which can lower your cholesterol if it is part of a healthy diet.
Don't go taking eggplant capsules… that's not it. 8. Beans Beans are rich in soluble fiber.
They also take a while to digest, meaning you feel fuller for longer after a meal. If you don't like beans, chickpeas, lentils, peas have the same benefit—eating 3/4 cup can reduce LDL cholesterol by 5%. It's just not worth feijoada!
7. Okra You know that gooey substance in okra? So this thick, gel-like substance is called mucilage, which can bind to cholesterol during digestion, causing it to be excreted in the stool rather than absorbed into the body.
6. Chia Chia seeds are full of nutrients, including omega-3s, iron, calcium and antioxidants. In addition to having many fibers and mucilage, like okra.
A 2021 review of 10 clinical trials found that chia seeds increased HDL cholesterol and decreased LDL cholesterol. It is worth introducing into the diet. 5th- Flaxseed Some studies suggest that alpha-linolenic acid, present in flaxseed and flaxseed oil, may benefit people with heart disease.
They can reduce high blood pressure, lower LDL cholesterol and lower blood sugar levels. And flaxseed is rich in phytosterols, which block the body's absorption of cholesterol. 4th- Olive oil Olive oil is rich in monounsaturated fatty acids.
If you replace saturated fats with monounsaturated fats you will lower LDL cholesterol. In addition, olive oil has antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. Observational studies have shown a link between lower risks of cardiovascular disease, some cancers, and even dementia in people who consume greater amounts of olive oil than those who use little or none.
3rd - Fish with omega 3 What are they: they are cold water fish, such as salmon, tuna, sardines, mackerel, herring. These fish eat phytoplankton, a species of algae, which contain the omega 3 fatty acid. Omega 3 increases HDL cholesterol and can reduce triglycerides, has an antioxidant, anti- inflammatory, vasodilator effect, reduces planetary aggregation and has studies showing that it reduces sudden death .
Then introduce these fish into your diet 2nd Some fruits like apples, citrus fruits and avocados Both apples and citrus fruits (oranges, tangerines, lemons) contain pectin, a type of soluble fiber that lowers LDL cholesterol. Avocados are rich in monounsaturated fat. Research suggests that adding avocados helps improve LDL cholesterol levels in overweight or obese people.
1. Nuts and Almonds Almonds, walnuts and chestnuts can improve blood cholesterol. Basically, all are good.
They are rich in vitamins, minerals and monounsaturated fat, which can lower cholesterol. But, we have to take into account that chestnuts are caloric, so don't exaggerate. What should you reduce (or remove) from your diet?
3 Things - Refined Carbs, Trans Fat, and Saturated Fat So, the first thing you should get out of your diet: 1. Coconut Oil Coconut oil is 85% saturated fat. And it raises cholesterol a lot.
It doesn't protect against Alzheimer's — no studies have proven it, and it's expensive. Avoid coconut oil. Swap it for olive oil, simple as that.
2. Processed Meats Bacon, sausage, sausage, salami are all high in sodium and low in nutrition. And they are potentially carcinogenic, because they have a lot of nitrates and nitrates — especially stomach and colorectal cancer.
In addition, they increase cholesterol. Avoid! 3.
Fried Nuggets such as chicken wings, onion rings are among the worst when it comes to cholesterol. 4. Bakery products: Cookies, cakes and pastries are usually made with large amounts of butter and fat, making them high in cholesterol.
In addition, processed carbohydrates will increase your liver fat and fattening, which lower your cholesterol 5. Whole dairy products Whole milk, butter, cheese, yogurt are high in saturated fat. Swap for skim milk, low-fat yogurt and reduce butter.
And the egg? If you don't overdo it, the egg won't raise your cholesterol. Do not worry.
But of course, if you eat 20 eggs a day, it will raise your cholesterol! But you do everything right and your cholesterol—your weight is good, you eat right, you exercise. What to do?
Should you be concerned anyway? Talk to your doctor. He's the one who will tell you if you should go on medication—you have atherosclerosis, or your LDL cholesterol is too high (above 190mg/dl) or you have a high cardiovascular risk… We have 3 main cholesterol medications on the market.
Statins (simvastatin, rosuvastatin, atorvastatin, pitavastatin. . ).
They act on the liver, not only reducing cholesterol levels, but also stabilizing the fatty plaques, preventing them from breaking down, decreasing the chance of you having a heart attack and stroke. Ah, but don't statins increase the risk of dementia? No, the newest studies, from 2015 onwards, say the opposite, they reduce risk of Alzheimer's, Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
And cancer? Here's how it goes: in breast cancer, most studies suggest that the use of statins reduces mortality by up to 43%. It's a lot, huh!
And this reduction is mainly for the lipophilic statins – atorvastatin, pitavastatin, simvastatin… Another important medication to reduce cholesterol is ezetimibe. Oezetimibe reduces the absorption of cholesterol from the intestine. In isolation, it is weak, but if you combine it with a statin, the result is impressive.
You block production by the liver and absorption by the intestine, having a potentiating effect. And the third major class of cholesterol-lowering drugs are the pcsk9 inhibitors. In 2006 they found that some people who had defects in a pcsk9 gene had very low cholesterol, had fewer heart attacks and fewer cardiovascular deaths.
PCSK9 is an enzyme that binds to LDL receptors, which prevents bad cholesterol from being removed from the blood. It's like this protein clogs the drain. There are some people that even if you turn off the hot water faucet (using statins), the cold water faucet (using ezetimibe), the bathtub is still almost overflowing.
We have to unclog the drain. That's why we use pcsk9 inhibitors. These drugs are expensive and injectable—it is applied 1x every 15 days—and we rarely use them, because in the vast majority we manage to reduce cholesterol only with statins and ezetimibe.
But it's always good to know that we have an ace up our sleeve and from time to time, we need to use it. Important things: High ldl and low hdl cholesterol are, yes, important risk factors for heart attack and stroke. High cholesterol increases the risk of some types of cancers, such as colon, rectal, prostate, breast, and testicular cancer.
And lipophilic statins may reduce breast cancer recurrence and mortality. Try to do your part to lower cholesterol naturally: losing weight, exercising, eating right, but if you don't have the desired effect, don't be alarmed if your doctor prescribes medication. Take the medicine, listen to your body.
And if you have any side effects, report it to him. The important thing is your health and well being. Did you like it?
Now do you understand more about cholesterol? I hope so And what's the next video you're going to watch? I'll leave my two suggestions right here The 10 best fruits for diabetics and the 5 you should avoid AND 10 WORST HABITS FOR YOUR HEART (and what to do to improve) My name is André Wambier, cardiologist, and this is cardiodf.
com. br Remember to subscribe And until the next video, Thank you very much!
