<p><em>You can keep off statins as well as protect your heart by following a few simple dietary and lifestyle changes, says <strong>Rachna Chhachhi</strong></em><br><br>We’ve all heard and read about how high cholesterol is bad for you and how statins have severe side-effects. So how can we ensure that we don’t get high cholesterol to avoid medication and keep our hearts healthy?<br><br>Cholesterol is a waxy, fat-like substance that the body needs to function normally and is naturally present in the body. It performs three main functions: Helps make the outer coating of cells, makes up the bile acids that work to digest food in the intestine and allows the body to make vitamin D and hormones, like estrogen in women and testosterone in men. Without cholesterol, none of these functions would take place, and without these functions, human beings wouldn’t exist. But, it takes only a small amount of cholesterol in the blood to meet these needs.<br><br>If a person has too much cholesterol in the bloodstream, excess is deposited in arteries in the heart, brain and legs. Blockage to the leg arteries causes claudication (pain with walking) due to peripheral artery disease. Carotid (brain) artery blockage may cause stroke, and blockage of the coronary arteries leads to angina (chest pain) and heart attack.<br><br>High cholesterol levels are due to a variety of factors including heredity, diet, and lifestyle. Less commonly, underlying illnesses affecting the liver, thyroid, or kidney may affect blood cholesterol levels.<br><br>If a person has high lipoproteins and thus high cholesterol, you need to drastically change your diet and lifestyle to reduce cholesterol and become heart friendly. Follow these simple but very effective steps to get rid of high cholesterol and protect your heart.<br><br>Increase good fats and reduce bad ones. Reduce your intake of cooked and saturated fats, and increase intake of good fats at room temperature like cold compressed extra virgin olive oil, flaxseed oil, oily fish like tuna, salmon, sardines, trout, rawas, nuts and seeds like almonds, walnuts, sunflower seeds, and avocados, which are high in mono unsaturated fats. Good fats lower LDL (the bad cholesterol) and raise HDL (the good cholesterol that protects the heart). Total calories from fat should be 20 per cent, 15 per cent out of which should come from good fats. Vegetarians should take fish oil capsules.<br><br>Eliminate milk and milk products. Many vegetarians wonder why they get high cholesterol. It’s because of milk, ghee, butter, paneer, etc. Cholesterol is caused by animal fat, and milk is animal fat.<br><br>Reduce coffee to two cups a day. Regular heavy coffee consumption can raise cholesterol so reduce it to two cups a day.<br><br>Swallow garlic. Garlic is a natural antibiotic and cleanser. Countries that use a lot of garlic in their diets have a naturally low incidence of heart disease, like Japan, Thailand and China. Garlic reduces blood pressure and prevents our arteries from getting deposits since it reduces the lipids in blood.<br><br>Increase fibre intake. It is essential to wash away bad cholesterol, bad fats from our blood, and a higher intake of fibre does this action of washing away these. Fibre is present in raw fruits and vegetables that are very effective in flushing bad lipids out of your blood.<br><br>Munch on red grapes. These contain antioxidants that protect our hearts by lowering bad cholesterol and reducing blood pressure and blood clots. In fact, red wine is good for the heart for this reason only. The action of crushing and fermenting the grapes releases a higher quantity of resveratrol and catechins in red wine, hence one unit of red wine (150 ml) 3-4 times a week is even better than eating grapes or drinking grape juice.<br><br>Follow these, get off statins and reduce your risk of heart disease. Such a simple remedy to avoid spending lakhs of rupees on surgery, right? <br><br>(This story was published in BW | Businessworld Issue Dated 13-07-2015)</p>
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