Are there alternative treatments for high cholesterol?

A healthy diet and regular exercise are the most natural ways to lower your cholesterol, though plant sterols have proven to be effective, too. Watch as cardiologist Suzanne Steinbaum, DO, shares the safest ways to lower cholesterol naturally.

Transcript

00:00

I will tell you first and foremost, eating a healthy diet high in fruits, and vegetables, nuts,

00:06

and legumes, and fish, that's probably your first step. And then adding exercise to that is the best way

00:13

to decrease your cholesterol.

00:21

I think we all wish that there was a quick fix and an easy way that we can get our cholesterols down.

00:28

But the truth of the matter is that diet and exercise is probably the safest way. There are multiple different alternative medicines out there

00:36

for vitamins that we can consider in decreasing cholesterol. But they might not be as helpful or they might have some risk.

00:46

We don't exactly know. I will tell you first and foremost, eating a healthy diet high in fruits, and vegetables, nuts,

00:55

and legumes, and fish, that's probably your first step. And then adding exercise to that is the best way

01:01

to decrease your cholesterol. But eating things like nuts and avocados, that can help too.

01:09

On the lining, of the outside of a nut, there's something called plant sterols. And that's been shown to decrease your cholesterol.

01:16

You can find plant sterols also in some spreads that you can eat. But this is part of a heart healthy diet.

01:25

I would recommend getting it from the food, better than getting it from a pill. Because that way, you know exactly what's