High Cholesterol Even Though You Have Eaten Healthy Foods, Get To Know The Reason

YOGYAKARTA - You may be wondering, even though you are diligent in eating vegetables, limiting eating fried foods, exercising regularly, why is cholesterol still high too? The following explains several reasons why bad cholesterol (LDL) remains high even though you are trying hard to live a healthy lifestyle.

Even if you eat very healthy foods, sometimes it is the genetic factor that plays a major role. If your family has a history of high cholesterol, your body may have difficulty lowering LDL through a diet only. In conditions like this, lifestyle changes may not be quite effective because genetics can significantly inhibit cholesterol reduction.

Often, people think they have eaten healthy but actually still eat hidden saturated fats or not quite soluble fiber. Foods such as fatty meats, milk products full of fat, or processed snacks can increase LDL. While soluble fiber from oatmeals, nuts, apples, or urus is proven to help reduce cholesterol absorption in the blood, reported by Better Health, Sunday, September 7.

Exercise is also important, so make sure you are physically active consistently. Like 30 minutes of aerobics per day or a cumulative 150 minutes per week. With regular exercise, it helps increase good cholesterol (HDL) and lowers LDL.

Other factors such as chronic stress, lack of sleep, excessive alcohol consumption, or medical conditions such as diabetes, hypothyroidism, obesity, can also worsen your cholesterol profile even though your healthy diet has been implemented. Stress hormones, for example, can trigger higher cholesterol production. Some specific drugs can also increase LDL or lower HDL, such as certain blood pressure drugs, steroids, or drugs for autoimmune diseases.

Did you know that most cholesterol in the blood does not come directly from food? Organs such as the liver and intestines naturally produce cholesterol for the needs of hormones, cells, and vitamin D. If you eat less cholesterol, the body can actually produce more of its own to balance so that the impact of diet to cholesterol levels can be limited.

If all efforts to change lifestyle have been taken seriously, diets are very low in saturated fat, regular exercise, and manage stress well but LDL remains high, discuss with doctors about reducing cholesterol. Citing Men's Health, drugs may be effective in reducing the risk of heart attacks and strokes, even in the long term, especially if you already have plaques in arteries, diabetes, or high cardiovascular risk.

So, you are not wrong if cholesterol remains high even though you have tried to live a healthy life because there are many things that need to be considered other than food. Genetics, body conditions, a comprehensive lifestyle, and even natural cholesterol production of the body all play a role. Wise steps, combine a healthy lifestyle with medical consultation to determine whether drug therapy will help. That way, you can control cholesterol more effectively, without guilt, and stay cheerful in living a healthy life.