As of to-date, there really isn't a quick fix to lowering your cholesterol; you will have to do it the old fashion way and change your diet and eating habits. Having high cholesterol can put you at risk for developing serious health problems like heart disease so once you realize that you have a problem with your cholesterol, you should take steps to reduce it.

You can start by cutting back on the amount of cholesterol in your diet. You don't need to totally eliminate it from your diet but you do need to limit your intake. You should also monitor your total fat intake, especially saturated and trans fats, because these are the ones that will increase your cholesterol levels. Dairy products, red meat, and some oils will raise your cholesterol levels because these foods have saturated fats in them. Foods that are especially bad for your cholesterol levels are some margarines, store-bought bakery goods, and crackers. All of these foods have trans fats in them. Trans fats will raise your low-density lipoprotein (LDL), the "bad" cholesterol, and lower high-density lipoprotein (HDL), the "good" cholesterol.

There are some foods that you can buy or prepare yourself that will improve your cholesterol. Fatty fish, walnuts, oatmeal and oat bran can help to control your cholesterol level. Research has shown that a diet that contains these types of foods works as well as some cholesterol-lowering medications to reduce LDL cholesterol levels. Being able to avoid taking cholesterol-lowering medications has several benefits. You won't have to pay for expensive medications is one benefit. You may have a hard time handling the side effects from these types of medications. Cholesterol-lowering foods do not have adverse side effects. By themselves, eating these types of foods is not an immediate cure for high cholesterol but it will help to lower it. You will also need to eat a variety of foods. Changing your lifestyle can lead to lowering your cholesterol.

Changing your lifestyle to lower your LDL and raising your HDL can include physical activity like walking your dog for 30 minutes or doing some light jogging around your neighborhood. Plus getting enough physical activity can help you to lose weight. Excess weight gain and increased LDL levels are directly related. When one goes up so does the other. If you are overweight and have a high LDL-cholesterol level, losing weight can help you to lower it. Exercising and losing weight has multiple benefits like lowering your triglycerides and raising your HDL ("good") cholesterol levels. Plus, excess weight gain increases the likelihood that you will develop other health problems like diabetes. If you have diabetes and it is left untreated, this will also cause your cholesterol levels to increase. Surprisingly, controlling your stress is a way to take control of your cholesterol level. Some studies have shown that if you are exposed to high stress for long periods of time, this will ultimately contribute to high cholesterol levels. One way that stress may do this is because stress controls your habits. For example, when some individuals are under a lot of stress, they console themselves by eating fatty foods. The saturated fat and cholesterol in these types of fatty foods can be responsible for higher levels of blood cholesterol.