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Does Red Wine Lower Cholesterol?

Red wine is one of the most popular alcoholic drinks in the world, and many people have heard of the resveratrol, which are prevalent in the drink, but does red wine lower cholesterol? Apart from the high amount of naturally occurring polyphenols in red wine, the high antioxidant count and flavonoids (which are known cancer fighters) there is yet another ingredient newly recognized in red wine that does indeed lower cholesterol.

An element called saponins that occur naturally in red wine, help to lower cholesterol. These are glucose-based plant compounds that have shown great promise in reducing LDL cholesterol and increasing HDL. Saponins come from the skins of grapes. Think of all the French people who eat a diet high in saturated fat, but drink red wine daily with their meals. They have lower incidences of high cholesterol among their population than those in the United States and several other countries. So does red wine lower cholesterol? Yes.

Although saponins are phytochemicals that can be found in many foods, there are concentrated amounts in red wine due to the fermentation process and the types of grapes used. In fact, there are about ten times as many saponins in red wines such as Merlot and Shiraz, as your favorite glass of Chardonnay or Sauvignon Blanc.

Saponins work by attaching or binding to bad cholesterol (LDL cholesterol) and not allowing it to stay in the blood. It is then excreted through the normal process of digestion. There are red grape extract tablets which you can take, but in studies they were not as effective as drinking one or two glasses of wine several times a week. Although drinking excessively can counteract the positive effects of red wine, it is quite helpful to pick a red wine if you are going to drink, and do it in moderation.

Does red wine lower cholesterol? Yes, indeed. Be sure to modify other habits though, for long lasting and effective results. Eat a balanced diet with lower fat foods and especially low saturated fats as these tend to increase bad cholesterol. Increase your fruits and vegetable intake, exercise at least 60 minutes three to five times a week, and lower your stress levels by spending time in nature or unplugging your cell phone. You can also take Niacin supplements and increase your Omega three intake by eating lean fish and olive oil. Drink your red wine a few times a week and Viva la France! Your cholesterol is on its way back to better levels — just because you asked does red wine lower cholesterol?

Do Phytoserols Lower Cholesterol?

You may already realize that there are many ways you can lower your LDL or bad cholesterol levels, so do phytoserols lower cholesterol and exactly what are they? Phytoserols are both sterols and stanols, plant compounds that occur naturally in our green, leafy friends as well as the delicious fruits that abound throughout the world, but are found more commonly as a food additive that has been shown to lower cholesterol.

Phytoserols occur abundantly and naturally in vegetable oils, and nuts. They also occur in fruits and cereal grains, but in smaller amounts. These substances do considerably lower cholesterol by increasing the bulk fiber in your colon and encouraging the liver to make more LDL receptor sites. These receptor sites then absorb LDL cholesterol (bad cholesterol) so that your blood lipids levels stay healthy. Essentially phytoserols are similar in structure to regular cholesterol. They also disallow the intestines to absorb cholesterol as readily, so it cannot recirculate in the blood, and this causes more good cholesterol to be made, (HDL cholesterol) or the kind that helps to reduce the LDL circulating in the blood.

How do phytoserols lower cholesterol? You can take phytoserols in supplements or you can eat them in a regular diet in order to receive their benefits. You can start to lower LDL cholesterol with as few as 150 mg a day. Just a few fruits and vegetables added to your daily diet will suffice to reach the recommended 150 mg, but it never hurts to add more, as phytonutrients, vitamins and minerals in fruits and vegetables are great for keeping your weight regulated and your blood sugar levels even. These are compounded positive benefits from getting your phytoserols from a natural food source. If you just know that there is no way that you will consume enough carrots, kale, apples, oranges, mangoes, bananas, cucumbers, green beans, lettuce, spinach, collard greens, etc. during a regular week, then you should opt for a supplement instead. Do phytoserols lower cholesterol? Absolutely, so add them in large amounts.

As with any other cholesterol lowering regime, it is helpful to add other habits besides just increasing your phytoserol intake. Be sure to exercise daily, eat lean meats (fish and chicken instead of red meats), nuts, and Olive Oil (rich in Omega 3 which has shown to reduce LDL and increase HDL cholesterol), and try to lower your daily stress levels. These additional lifestyle choices will ensure that your cholesterol numbers start to look really good the next time you visit your doctor or ask do phytoserols lower cholesterol.

Does Oatmeal Lower Cholesterol?

If you have been diagnosed with unhealthy cholesterol levels, meaning your LDL is high and your HDL is low, then you may be wondering does oatmeal lower cholesterol? Perhaps you’ve seen the boxes marked ‘heart healthy’ in the grocery store and wondered if it was really true, or just some ploy by the marketers of dry goods to get you to eat something that has been nicely packaged with the face of a Quaker man with a funny blue hat.

The truth of the matter when asking “does oatmeal lower cholesterol?” is that if you suffer from hypertension, arterial degeneration, are concerned about heart disease, including heart attack and stroke, or concerned about depression as a result of diminished heart health, then you need to eat more oatmeal. Oatmeal contains naturally occurring soluble fibers that allow the body to more easily reduce LDL (bad cholesterol) and increase HDL (good cholesterol).

So does oatmeal lower cholesterol? Even though eating more oatmeal won’t solve the problem all on its own, it can help. If you include the following behaviors, or lifestyle changes, in addition to increasing your intake of oats, bran, barley and amaranth, then you can expect to enjoy better heart health and lower cholesterol:

• Stop consuming alcohol and smoking. Both actions increase LDL cholesterol by over-straining the liver.                                                                                                                                
• Only take pharmaceutical statin medications if you have tried everything else first. Many homeopathic or natural cures are available for lowering cholesterol.                                                  
• Aside from weight, you should aim to keep a body mass index (BMI) of around 18.5 and 24.9, depending on if you are a man or woman.                                                                                     
• Exercise at least 30 minutes a day, and 60-90 minutes five times a week. This will help you to maintain your body weight and thus keep your cholesterol levels normal.                                        
• Eat a healthy diet, including oatmeal, but also the other grains mentioned herein as well as lots of fruits and vegetables, lean meats, and nuts (high in Omega 3s), olive oil, and B vitamins.

You should consider starting these changes now before you suffer from diabetes and depression in addition to high LDL cholesterol, since there has been a link between the two in recent studies. If you eat just 8-15 grams of soluble fiber daily, the kind you find in oatmeal, you can expect to decrease your LDL cholesterol by up to 60%. So does oatmeal lower cholesterol? Absolutely, the man on the box with the funny blue hat is your friend.

How to Lower Cholesterol without Statins

You can lower cholesterol without statins; that is the pharmaceutical kind. This is because statins also occur naturally in fruits and vegetables and if you add them to your diet, you need not take the statin drugs which require a prescription. Statins are a naturally occurring element in many fruits and vegetables, but they are also made synthetically as a means to inhibit HMG-CoA reductase, and block the liver from processing cholesterol. They are found in pharmaceutical drugs, most often in medicines called Rosuvastatin, Simvastatin, Pravastatin, Atorvastatin, Fluvastatin and Lovastatin. Although these drugs are often prescribed, there has been no documentation that the drugs reduce morbidity rates due to high cholesterol any more than a placebo.

When looking to lower cholesterol without statins, taking a Niacin supplement can reduce triglycerides and increase HDL cholesterol (the good cholesterol) more effectively than most of these drugs and without the side effects. Even the Mayo Clinic advises taking Niacin, a B vitamin, to lower the incidence of Cardio vascular disease by as much as 60%. When high density lipoproteins (HDL) are increased, they help to seek and destroy low density lipoproteins (LDLs) which are not good for the body in large amounts because they can make the blood start to clot and adhere to arterial walls causing stroke, heart attack and other cardiovascular diseases.

Niacin will also help keep the hair and skin healthy. It helps the body process carbohydrates, and aids in keeping the nervous system healthy. Aside from reducing cardiovascular disease, it does all these other beneficial things for the body, and it can cause no side effects, like some of the most commonly prescribed statin medications. The many side effects include:

• Nausea
• Headaches
• Feeling dizzy
• Stomach aches
• Cramping in the stomach or legs
• Bloating
• Gas
• Diarrhea
• Sleeplessness/Insomnia
• Moodiness
• Constipation
• Skin rashes
• Drowsiness/Weakness

There are much better, natural ways to lower cholesterol without statins. You can decrease your alcohol consumption, thus freeing the liver to make more LDL cholesterol receptors, and increasing HDL (good cholesterol). You can eat a more balanced diet (full of fruits and vegetables, lean meats, lots of Omega 3s and whole fibers like oats, amaranth and barley), and exercise often. These small changes, as well as adding Niacin to your diet either in supplement form or through adding high levels of fruits and vegetables which are vitamin B rich, will significantly reduce your bad cholesterol levels and protect you from heart disease.

Why suffer from this list of side effects as well as the non-ending trips to the pharmacy to renew a drug that wreaks havoc on your body. Instead, seek a more homeopathic approach to your health and lower cholesterol without statins, and you can expect to live longer and better.

Does Metamucil Lower Cholesterol?

If you have been diagnosed with high cholesterol you may have heard that adding fiber to your diet will help, so does Metamucil lower cholesterol? Metamucil contains a naturally occurring dietary fiber known as Psyllium, which comes from the husk of a plant that has been used as a natural cure for heart disease for many decades. Psyllium come from the plant called plantago ovata. It grows all over America, Europe, Pakistan, China and India. It is authorized by the FDA to be used primarily in bulk fiber laxatives in the United States.

Does Metamucil lower cholesterol?

Any dietary fiber that you add to your diet will aid in lowering cholesterol, so taking Metamucil can in fact help. The primary efficacy of bulk-fibers like the Psyllium in Metamucil is its ability to help move toxins through the colon and help the body eliminate waste. This action also helps to reduce blood sugar levels and control body weight. Soluble fiber is better at helping the colon push waste through the system than insoluble fiber, but both types are beneficial.

The scientific details of fiber’s benefits are that it helps reabsorb the bile that is in the intestines. As the body then eliminates this bile, the liver is forced to make more bile salts. In order to rid the body of these extra bile salts, cholesterol is utilized, thus lowering its prominence in the blood. Specifically, LDL or ‘bad cholesterol’ receptors increase. These receptor sites are responsible for absorbing LDL cholesterol from the blood. So, in short, eating more soluble fiber leads to increased LDL cholesterol absorption where it cannot cause blood lipid levels to become unhealthy, and cause heart attack, stroke or other cardiovascular diseases.

When asking, “does Metamucil lower cholesterol?” aside from adding Metamucil to your diet, you can also increase your intake of vegetables and fruits will contain naturally occurring soluble, or dietary fibers. You can also eat oatmeal or whole-grain cereals and breads. It is estimated that adding an extra 6 to 11 grams of soluble fiber to your daily diet will result in a five percent decrease in LDL cholesterol levels. More specifically, a substance called beta-glucan can lower LDL cholesterol even more, and adding just 11 grams of this substance that naturally occurs in oats and barley as well as amaranth, can lower your LDL cholesterol levels by as much as 14 percent.

The National Cholesterol Education Program recommends adding at least 10 to 20 grams of soluble fiber to your diet daily in order to experience better cholesterol numbers and increased cardiovascular health. So, does Metamucil lower cholesterol? The answer is yes. But also add oats, barley and other whole grains as well as more fruits and vegetables to your diet.

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