Five simple steps to keep your cholesterol in check
The NHS is set to roll out a new cholesterol-busting jab, inclisiran.
Given twice a year, it will boost the liver’s ability to remove harmful cholesterol from the blood. With experts saying it could save 30,000 lives in a decade, it’s good news for the nation’s heart health.
While we wait, however, there are plenty of things we can do to start lowering our cholesterol.
Here are a few.
NO LAUGHING MATTER
Not everything comedian Bob Mortimer says is a joke.
The Gone Fishing star, who has charted his own battle with high cholesterol following a triple heart bypass in 2015, has been extolling the benefits of pears, plums and chestnuts on Twitter – and it’s seriously good advice.
“Make pears, chestnuts and plums (or prunes) three of your five a day,” he wrote. “Send cholesterol down the pot.”
It seems there is some solid science behind the tip – all three contain types of fibre that can help to lower your cholesterol by blocking it from being transferred from the intestines into the bloodstream.
Pears, for example, are a good source of lignin, an insoluble fibre that helps to transport “bad” LDL cholesterol out of the body when you go to the loo.
STEPPING OUT
You don’t have to become a gym bunny to see the benefits of exercise on cholesterol.
Just going for a brisk stroll has been shown to have significant heart benefits, reducing LDL and raising your good HDL cholesterol, which helps to remove other forms of cholesterol from your bloodstream.
A six-year study, published in an American Heart Association journal, found that walkers who expended the same energy as runners (for example, by covering 4.3 miles briskly rather than running three miles) saw similar reductions in cholesterol.
GO RED
All booze can be bad for cholesterol levels – the body breaks it down and rebuilds it into triglycerides and cholesterol in the liver. When triglyceride levels are too high, our liver becomes less efficient at removing cholesterol from the blood.
But if you don’t want to go teetotal, a 2019 study from King’s College, London, found red wine drinkers tended to have lower “bad” cholesterol than those who opt for white wine, beer or spirits. They believe this is due to the polyphenols in the grape skin boosting our gut’s good bacteria, which helps break down
cholesterol in the intestines.
DON’T WAIT FOR STOPTOBER
According to Heart UK, smoking makes your LDL cholesterol “stickier” – so it clings to your artery walls and clogs them up. Cigarettes also lower your levels of good HDL cholesterol.
The charity says: “Stopping smoking improves your HDL cholesterol level and within a year your risk of heart disease is half that of a smoker, so there’s no better time to quit than today.” Go to nhs.uk/live-well/quitsmoking for advice and support.
SLEEP IT OFF
Experts have been saying for years that not getting enough shut-eye increases our risk of heart disease, but no one knew why.
Then, in 2016, the bods at the University of Helsinki revealed that those who sleep poorly have lower levels of healthy HDL cholesterol.
Try to keep your bedtime routine regular and aim for at least seven hours of kip each night – what a great excuse to have a lie in.