Do you ever get relatives or friends who like to outstay their welcome? LDL cholesterol is a bit like that. It likes to hang around in our arteries and over time it can cause some serious damage. If we’re strong enough we can tell our relatives we have things to do and they should go. To protect our health we should be just as strict with figuring out how to lower LDL cholesterol in our bodies.

You’ve probably heard about good and bad cholesterol before. They sound a bit like a set of twins and in fact there are some similarities between them. For starters they are both forms of lipoprotein. The only difference is that one is high density (the HDL one) and the other one (LDL) is low density. That’s what the letters stand for, so you can tell them apart.

But with these particular twins you want to be sure you have plenty of the good one and not so much of the bad one. The more LDL cholesterol you have the more chance there is that it will one day clog up your arteries altogether, and if that happens you’re more likely to end up with a heart attack or a stroke. This is why we cannot underestimate the importance of knowing how to lower LDL amounts in our bloodstream.

Put simply you can reduce your chances of having a heart attack or even developing angina if you work at getting those LDL levels down as much as you can. People who consciously work at doing this usually get pretty good results. Therefore it’s something you shouldn’t be hesitant of trying this on your own.

Most people know that exercise helps to lower cholesterol. Think of it as outrunning the bad twin and trying to catch up with the good one! The more you exercise – within safe limits of course; check with your doctor if you aren’t sure – the closer you will get to the good twin (HDL) and the further away you will get from the bad one (LDL).

You can cover that distance more readily by focusing on what you eat too. Foods such as oily fish and oatmeal – albeit not at the same time – can help with lowering those levels.

But it’s not just foods like this that can help you. Foods that contain naturally high levels of plant sterols and stanols can help too. Dried peas and beans are good for this, as are lentils. But focus on your vegetables too, such as broccoli and cauliflower, even though they have lower levels of sterols on the whole. You can also buy supplements that ensure you get the best levels possible to help your overall heart health, so bear this in mind.

In short, when you know how to lower LDL cholesterol you can look forward to staying healthier for the long term. No one wants to have problems with the bad twin, and if you focus on upping your levels of good cholesterol you will beat the bad twin at the same time.