Like some of you —I have an icky family history of high cholesterol and I’m not a huge fan of taking any medication if you can do natural / dietary changes to remedy the problem.  So when checked my cholesterol for my IU HEALTHY RESULTS test last week —I realized that I have slipped up some in the past few months.  I’m going to get back to the basics and practice what I preach.  Here are a few tips that might help you out.

First—the inflammation in your arteries is what is causing your high cholesterol — this inflammation causes the liver to make cholesterol to patch that inflammation in those damaged vessels.  So really– high cholesterol is a symptom of an inflammatory diet.

We must remove the DANGER foods from our diet for any of these natural tips to help.  I would remove sugar (sorry:( ) along with conventional grains like cereal/flour and wheat products.  Also, this is a bad time to talk about this one but excess alcohol and caffeine are inflammatory also.

Take healthy / high quality supplements.  I have almost everyone add a quality fish oil to their diet to help bring triglycerides down—here is my fish oil supplement that I love (I have been out for over 6 weeks now and apparently my numbers have suffered)

—about 2000mg to 3000mg should work.  Remember that you can put them in the freezer to prevent the dreaded “fish burp”–but, don’t forget to take them if you put them in there.  Eating high quality wild caught fish like salmon, mackerel and tuna will give you tons of the good Omega 3’s.   I try to eat these at least 2-3 times a week.  Grass fed beef/venison can give you those as well.  Don’t forget about organic eggs.

Eat soluble fiber like chia seeds, berries and green leafy veggies— you can add all these to a morning smoothie

Eat healthy herbs —-in particular rosemary, basil, and turmeric (the yellow spice often used in curries and mustard) are excellent and cutting down chronic inflammation.

Use olive oil (extra virgin) which will naturally raise HDL (good cholesterol) —- 1-2 Tbs daily will help

Don’t forget to MOVE —20 min of exercise just 3 times a week will help.

I hope everyone enjoys this wonderful holiday season and let’s keep these tips in mind for setting our resolutions.