High Cholesterol: What You Should Do

• If your doctor prescribes a cholesterol-lowering drug, be sure to take it regularly, even though you can't feel its effects. Remember, too, that the drug is only one part of the treatment. For best results, you need to maintain good eating and exercise habits in addition to taking the drug.
• If you are overweight, work with a doctor or a registered dietitian to design a personalized nutrition plan to help you lose weight and keep it off.
• Eat a variety of fruits, vegetables, whole grain breads, cereals, and beans on a daily basis.
• Use only low-fat or skim milk, cheeses, sour cream, and yogurt.
• When eating meat, choose lean cuts and take small portions. Cook chicken without the skin. Add more fish to your diet.
• Limit your intake of high-fat and cholesterol-rich foods such as french fries, fast foods, sausage, bacon, and hot dogs.
• Do not fry foods. Instead, bake, broil, boil, grill, steam, roast, poach, or microwave.
• Read food labels carefully and avoid foods that contain hydrogenated vegetable oils, cocoa butter, coconut or palm oil, beef fat, and lard.
• Cook and bake with vegetable oils such as canola, sunflower, corn, soybean, peanut, and olive oils.
• Eat at least one meatless meal per day.
• Cook with egg whites or egg substitutes instead of whole eggs.
• Exercise regularly. Good exercises to aid in lowering cholesterol include walking, jogging, cycling, swimming, aerobics, and dancing. Find an activity you enjoy and do it 3 to 4 times per week for at least 20 to 30 minutes at a time.
• Smoking increases the risk of heart disease, so when you have high cholesterol it's doubly important to quit. If you have trouble, ask your doctor for quit-smoking aids.
• Have your blood cholesterol checked periodically by your doctor or a reputable lab to monitor your progress. Home cholesterol testing kits may alert you to a high cholesterol problem, but they are not as comprehensive as one performed by a lab or your physician's office. The National Cholesterol Education Program recommends routine testing once every five years. If you have a history of high cholesterol, your doctor may recommend more frequent testing.

Call Your Doctor If...

• You notice small, yellowish skin growths.
• You develop symptoms such as pain in the lower legs, dizziness, or an unsteady gait. These could be signs of heart trouble associated with high cholesterol.