Effective Tips to Lower High Cholesterol & Its Dangers

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TIPS TO LOWER HIGH CHOLESTEROL

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TIPS TO LOWER HIGH CHOLESTEROL

You’re not alone in your journey to lowering high cholesterol. Our Atlanta heart doctors are here to guide you every step of the way. Let’s explore some practical tips to help you reduce those numbers and improve your heart health.

First and foremost, your diet plays a crucial role in managing cholesterol levels. You’ll receive personalized advice on heart-healthy eating during your visit to our Atlanta cardiology clinic. Generally, you’ll want to focus on reducing saturated and trans fats in your diet. This means cutting back on red meat, full-fat dairy products, and fried foods. Instead, our doctors might recommend increasing your intake of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and lean proteins like fish and poultry.

Exercise is another powerful tool in your cholesterol-lowering arsenal. Our heart specialists can help you develop an exercise plan for your lifestyle and health. Even moderate physical activity, like brisk walking for 30 minutes daily, can help raise your good HDL cholesterol while lowering the bad LDL cholesterol.

If you carry extra weight, losing 5-10% of your body weight can significantly impact your cholesterol levels. Our Atlanta heart doctors can guide you through safe and effective weight loss strategies tailored to your needs.

For some people, lifestyle changes alone might not be enough to bring cholesterol levels into a healthy range. In these cases, our cardiologists might recommend medication. Statins are commonly prescribed cholesterol-lowering drugs, but there are other options too. Your CVG heart doctor will work with you to find the most appropriate medication based on your overall health profile and any other conditions you might have.

It’s important to remember that managing high cholesterol is often a long-term commitment. Regular follow-up visits to our Atlanta heart clinic allow us to monitor your progress and adjust your treatment plan as needed. We can track how well your chosen strategies work and make necessary changes.

Don’t hesitate to ask questions about your cholesterol management plan during your visits. Our heart doctors are here to provide clarity and support. Whether you’re wondering about the latest cholesterol-lowering foods or have concerns about medication side effects, we’re here to address all your queries.

Stress management is another aspect of cholesterol control our Atlanta cardiologists can help with. Chronic stress can contribute to high cholesterol levels, so learning relaxation techniques or finding healthy ways to cope with anxiety can be beneficial.

Lastly, if you’re a smoker, our heart doctors will strongly encourage you to quit. Smoking lowers your good HDL cholesterol and is a major risk factor for heart disease. We can provide resources and support to help you kick this habit for good.

Remember, lowering your cholesterol is about more than just numbers—it improves your cardiovascular health and reduces your risk of heart disease and stroke. By working closely with our Atlanta heart doctors, you’re taking a proactive approach to your health that can pay dividends for years.

Read about tips for lowering high cholesterol and how CVG provides comprehensive cardiac care.

High Cholesterol Facts, Testing, and Treatments

High cholesterol levels can be a worrying problem for many people, with elevated levels leading to an increased risk of heart disease, stroke, and other health complications. Thankfully, there are simple changes that we can make to our lives to reduce these numbers and improve our overall health.

Eating a healthy diet is one of the most effective ways to combat high cholesterol. This means reducing unhealthy fats such as saturated fat in red meat and processed food and replacing them with beneficial monounsaturated fat from sources such as olive oil, nuts, and avocados. Additionally, increasing the consumption of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains – which contain fiber that binds with dietary cholesterol in the gut before it enters the bloodstream – will also help lower LDL (low-density lipoprotein) or ‘bad’ cholesterol.

It’s also important to keep an eye on portion sizes – eating too much of any type of food can lead to weight gain over time – increasing total body mass, which tends to raise cholesterol further, creating a vicious cycle when left unchecked. In terms of drinks, switching sugary beverages & sweetened teas/coffees teas/coffees for plain water every now & then is highly recommended since these tend to lower one’s calorie intake significantly while still providing plenty of hydration throughout the day – important elements when looking to actively managing health levels long term!

As well as diet, regular exercise has been proven time & again as a key component, along with other lifestyle changes like quitting smoking/alcohol consumption in excess, etc., towards improving both HDL (high-density lipoprotein) or ‘good’ cholesterol values alongside changes seen via reducing intra-abdominal fat stores commonly seen among those who tend toward carrying excess weight around their midsection area rather than elsewhere on their bodies (known as visceral obesity).

If all else fails, then medications prescribed by doctors exist that target receptors within the liver, helping reduce production & escapement into the bloodstream – often combined with statins & lifestyle alterations being offered together by healthcare providers, all designed towards aiding patients through this process in achieving optimal desirable results over time whenever they find themselves struggling with levels that exceed what is deemed safe typically considered above 240mg/dL measured by a simple blood test known as a lipid profile or lipoprotein panel.

Why Choose CVG?

At CVG, our cardiologists offer extensive experience caring for patients using state-of-the-art techniques. Their compassion adds so much to your care because our doctors understand how heart issues can affect you physically and take an emotional toll. Trust is the #1 factor in the doctor/patient relationship. You can trust your CVG cardiologist with every aspect of heart care.

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Board-certified Doctors

CVG’s twenty board-certified heart doctors will guide you through your healthcare journey with the utmost compassion and individual attention. We aim to provide you with state-of-the-art cardiac care that includes the full spectrum of services, from testing to diagnosis and treatment. The doctor/patient relationship is built on trust. Through our combined efforts, we can conquer any challenge that comes our way.

Invasive therapies may also treat an abnormal heart rhythm, such as electrical cardioversion, which sends electrical impulses through your chest wall and allows normal heart rhythm to restart, or catheter ablation that disconnects the abnormal rhythm’s pathway. Suppose your doctor determines that electrical devices are the best course of action. In that case, you may be given a permanent pacemaker, an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD), or biventricular (B-V) pacemakers and defibrillators.

How CVG Can Help

CVG offers multiple services that can discover an enlarged heart or conditions that will lead to it. At CVG, we perform stress tests that will observe blood flow and test for various forms of heart disease. There are three types of stress tests that we perform:

A treadmill test is a test in which you will walk on a treadmill that gets faster and steeper every 3 minutes. This will stress your heart so that our nurse or doctor can determine your heart rate and blood pressure.
An echo test is performed before and after your treadmill test to determine how well your heart pumps blood.
A nuclear stress test is a treadmill test that is prefaced by an injection of medicine that shows the flow of blood to your heart.

We also offer cardiac catheterization to diagnose and treat several heart issues. If any of these tests determine a problem, we offer treatment solutions such as atrial fibrillation testing and catheter ablation. Learn more about our services here, or schedule an appointment to talk to our doctors.

Schedule Your Appointment with a CVG Atlanta Area Cardiologist

Expertise, experience, and compassion are the pillars of CVG’s patient-centered cardiac care. Please schedule your appointment with CVG today. Call (770) 962-0399 or 678-582-8586. You may also request an appointment online. If you have an emergency, don’t contact us online; please call 911.