High Cholesterol
Show 1232: What Should People Do to Protect Thei…
Far too many Americans have died of COVID-19 during 2020, but heart disease is still the number one killer. Moreover, people with heart disease are more vulnerable to complications from the coro…
What Is the Link Between Low Thyroid and High Ch…
An estimated 12 percent of US adults have thyroid disease. Most often, the butterfly-shaped gland at the front of the neck falters and no longer produces hormones as it should. As a result, people wit…
Big Pharma’s Secret Strategy to Fool You
The pharmaceutical industry is incredibly lucrative. You know that. What you may not realize is that Big Pharma is far more profitable than other large companies that don’t sell drugs (JAMA, March 3…
Will Olive Oil Raise Your Good HDL Cholesterol?
Many medications can lower cholesterol. but not all cholesterol is the same. One type, HDL (high-density lipoprotein) carries cholesterol to the liver so it can be eliminated. Scientists think high le…
How You Should Eat to Lower Cholesterol Is Contr…
What should you eat to lower cholesterol into an acceptable range? If you have high cholesterol, your doctor has doubtless told you to avoid saturated fat. Those who have high cholesterol running in t…
Snacking on Almonds Improves Your Blood Vessels
Looking for a healthy snack? Researchers have found that snacking on almonds improves the flexibility of blood vessels and also lowers dangerous LDL cholesterol (American Journal of Clinical Nutrition…
Should You Restrict the Number of Eggs You Eat?
For decades, public health authorities have been warning Americans to restrict the number of eggs they eat. Egg yolks are rich in cholesterol, and high cholesterol levels are associated with heart dis…
Will Two Apples a Day Keep Your Heart Healthy?
You may have heard that an apple a day keeps the doctor away. Scientists at the University of Reading in England have found that you might want to eat two apples daily (American Journal of Clinical Nu…
Should You Take Your Pills at Breakfast or Bedti…
How do you take your pills? If you are like most people you barely give it a moment’s thought. After all, the instructions on your medication bottle may be vague: “Take 1 (one) tablet by mouth eve…
Could Pomegranate Juice React Badly with Crestor…
Do you know which foods might react badly with your medications? You might not, especially if your pharmacist didn't give you specific information. When you look online, you can find conflicting infor…
Can Men Get an Extra Benefit from a Statin?
Statins remain controversial for the primary prevention of heart disease. A review this week in the BMJ concludes that the benefit from a statin is small for low-risk patients (BMJ, Oct. 16, 2019). Th…
Can Blueberries Combat Metabolic Syndrome?
A cup of blueberries a day could be a tasty way to combat metabolic syndrome. In this condition, extra fat in the abdomen makes the waist larger. Elevated blood pressure, high cholesterol and insulin …
Is White Meat Better for Your Heart Than Red Mea…
For decades, Americans have been told that red meat is bad for the heart. They’ve been encouraged to substitute white meat instead. As a result, millions treat pork chops, steaks and burgers as forb…
No Need to Fast for a Cholesterol Test
If your doctor has ever ordered a cholesterol test to help determine your risk of a heart attack, you were probably warned not to eat or drink anything before the blood draw. However, perhaps you coul…
How Risky Is It to Eat an Egg?
How risky is it to eat an egg? For decades, we’ve been warned to avoid eggs, especially yolks. We should stick with egg white omelets if we persist in consuming them at all. The idea is that egg yol…
Turmeric Lowered Cholesterol Raised by Glucosami…
The cholesterol hypothesis has come under increasing scrutiny in recent years. Although most cardiologists are convinced that cholesterol is the enemy and must be aggressively controlled, there are a …
Must You Grind Flaxseed to Get Its Nutritional B…
The humble flaxseed is now being hailed as a superfood because it is a great source of fiber, healthful omega-3 fats and lignans. The fiber content is helpful against constipation. A systematic review…
How Can You Overcome the Harms of Sitting Too Mu…
How many hours a day do you sit? Be honest, please. If you work in front of a computer, we’ll bet you spend more than eight hours a day sitting. And that doesn’t count time sitting in your car, si…
Why Would Anyone Want to Raise Cholesterol Level…
Can your cholesterol go too low? That is a question that we have been asked on many occasions. It seems ludicrous. It's a bit like asking if you could be too rich or too thin? The truth is that you co…
Will Kiwifruit Raise Your Good HDL Cholesterol?
You may think that all cholesterol should be a slow as you can get it. However, doctors usually like to see HDL cholesterol higher rather than lower. This is the fraction of the cholesterol that carri…
Can You Use Cinnamon to Reduce Your Cholesterol?
Most people want to keep their cholesterol under control, but some would prefer to do so without medication. It is possible to use your diet to lower your cholesterol levels. Some people report that e…
Is It Possible to Lower Cholesterol with Margari…
For decades, doctors told their patients to eat margarine instead of butter. The idea was that people who ate cholesterol-rich butter would raise their level of blood cholesterol. Then public health e…
Can Repatha Substitute for Statins to Lower Chol…
Not everyone can tolerate statins to lower cholesterol. Some people react to drugs like atorvastatin, lovastatin, pravastatin, rosuvastatin or simvastatin with muscle pain and weakness, arthritis, mus…
Show 1147: How Do You Control Your Cholesterol?
What causes heart disease? There are a number of risk factors, including cigarette smoking, sedentary lifestyle, high blood pressure, diabetes and others. One well-known risk is high cholesterol. Has …
Will Yellow Mustard Ease Cramps from Statins?
Millions of people take statins to lower their cholesterol levels.Here are just a few examples of the numbers of prescription filled each year: atorvastatin= 97 million; simvastatin= 65 million; prava…
Will Alirocumab Save You from a Heart Attack?
Alirocumab (Praluent) is a cholesterol-lowering drug that works through a different enzyme system than statins. (Here are the technical details: alirocumab and its cousin evolocumab inhibit an enzyme …
Helping Your Heart Means Boosting Your Brain
We have long suspected that taking care of your heart health with exercise, a diet rich in vegetables, fruits and whole grains, stress management and social interaction could also benefit your brain. …
What Are the Health Benefits of Cinnamon in Coff…
Have you been hearing that cinnamon is good for you? Or maybe you're worried about the potential health hazards of cinnamon but unsure of what they could be. Perhaps you have been wondering how you mi…
Will Eating Walnuts Lower Your Cholesterol?
Could eating walnuts lower your cholesterol? A few decades ago, people were warned to avoid walnuts as well as other types of tree nuts because of their high fat content. Experts expected this to lead…
Statins and Diabetes | What Happens When Blood S…
A few years ago three pillars of modern medicine recommended that virtually all adults with diabetes should take statin-type cholesterol-lowering drugs. This is what the American Diabetes Association …
No Study Support for Fish Oil Soothing Dry Eyes
Fish oil is one of the best sources of omega-3 fatty acids. These compounds have anti-inflammatory activity, and doctors have hoped that fish oil supplements would prove useful against a wide range of…
How to Control Your Blood Sugar Without Drugs
How is your blood sugar? According to the CDC, 84 million American adults have prediabetes, a condition in which blood sugar is elevated but doesn't reach the threshold for a diagnosis of diabetes (12…
Will Garlic Really Lower Your Blood Pressure?
Humans love variety in their food, and have found numerous ways to enliven it. Spices of various sorts have been used to give food an interesting flavor. Many of these additives have also been used me…
Does the Laxative Psyllium Really Lower Choleste…
Dietary fiber is almost universally acknowledged as beneficial. Diets rich in whole grains and vegetables that supply fiber seem to be associated with better cardiovascular health, better metabolic ba…
How Can You Lower Your LDL Cholesterol with Snac…
Choose your snacks wisely, and you may lower your dangerous LDL cholesterol. That’s what researchers found when they did a small but careful study at Penn State University (Lee et al, Journal of the…
Doctors Battle Over High Cholesterol and Blood P…
Ask doctors what key measurements they rely on to assess the overall health of a patient and you are likely to hear about high cholesterol and blood pressure. Elevated blood sugar is not far behind. C…
Does Lowering Blood Pressure to 120/80 Save Live…
New guidelines from the American Heart Association (AHA) and the American College of Cardiology (ACC) state that all adults should get their systolic blood pressure to 130 or lower and their diastolic…
How Do Statins Compare to Red Yeast Rice?
Cholesterol is not the only risk factor that is important for heart health, but it remains an important indicator. People with heart disease need to take care not to let their dangerous LDL cholestero…
How Good Is the Evidence for Whole Grains?
Whole grains have a golden reputation as the mainstay of a healthy diet. The old food pyramid was built on a foundation of whole grains. But how good is the evidence that eating brown rice, steel cut …
Preventing Heart Attacks With a Unique Anti-Infl…
A new study shows that inflammation may be as important as high cholesterol when it comes to preventing heart attacks (New England Journal of Medicine, Aug. 27, 2017). Researchers have known for years…